Millions of Venezuelans have fled their country's economic crisis in recent years, with many seeking refuges right next door in Colombia. 

There are an estimated 1.4 million Venezuelans there now with a sharp increase in new arrivals predicted next year. Colombia says it needs help attending to them all. 

Yanitza Ortega worked as a house cleaner for most of her life in Venezuela. But as the situation in her home country continued to deteriorate, it was impossible, she says, on her salary- to help her children get a proper education. So two months ago she packed her bags and traveled to Peru with her 18-year-old daughter.

"We enrolled her, but we couldn't pay for things like transport, food. Over there if you pay for food you don't have money for anything else, " said Ortega.

Their journey took them through Colombia, to Ecuador, Peru and then back to Colombia after being deported from Peru for lack of visas. Here, they can more easily begin the process to request a visa.

Ortega says she faced many difficulties along the way, but reached her low point begging for food on the streets of Ecuador.

"I would ask for rice, or beans, and then I would come back, and we would cook on a bonfire. That was something I had never lived through," said Ortega.

Over the past two years Venezuelan migrants have poured into neighboring Colombia. Some are looking to call this country their new home, others are simply passing through, looking to move on to other South American nations.

The Bogota shelter for migrants, takes in up to 70 people a day for a maximum of four nights. The staff here help them with food, a place to sleep and a boost to get to their next destination.

"They are seeing their sons, dying of hunger, their father or grandparents dying because of a lack of medicine. If I put myself in their shoes, I will see things differently, I will see them as a brother," said Sister Teresinha Monteiro, the director of the shelter.

The United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, says some US$1.35 billion in funding is needed to provide basic food and services to Venezuelan migrants across Latin America and the Caribbean next year. And no country hosts more Venezuelan migrants than Colombia, with their numbers projected to hit 2.4 million in 2020.

Recent arrival Krisberth Ibarra says many friends from her old high school have either left for different countries or are thinking of building their lives somewhere other than in Venezuela. But she hasn't lost hope of returning.

"I would prefer to make money and go back to my University in Venezuela because I have my friends and family there," said Ibarra.