In photos: Helena Christensen meets Maribeth

Maribeth Palacios 41 works and lives in the barrio of Altos de La Florida, Soacha as a cook and a traditional dance teacher. She has four children 19, 8, 8 and 6. She cooks incredible tasting dishes made with rice, meat and lots of spices and wrapped and steamed in banana leaves which she sells around the streets. She loves to dance traditional choco dance and she teaches it in the barrios. She says it makes her happy 'my spirit is free when I dance and am in another world'. Maribeth was displaced from the department of Choco, on the pacific coast, when she was 7 years old when armed guards shot and killed her mother and sister. She fled and has never returned to her home town - 'I am too afraid and it has been too long'. Altos de La Florida is an illegal settlement which means there is no access to running water, schools or healthcare. UNHCR is working to have the settlements legalised which will mean the municipality will have to provide services to the community. Maribeth dreams of opening her own traditional choco restaurant in Bogota and running more dance classes for children.

Helena photographs Maribeth dancing outside her house.

Maribeth and her children at home.

Maribeth's eight-year-old daughter Marilyn studies in the local school. She also helps her mum cook traditional Choco food.

"Maribeth sells incredible tasting dishes made with rice, meat and lots of spices, wrapped and steamed in banana leaves," says Helena.

Maribeth and the family look at Marilyn's homework with Helena.

Helena has travelled out to Colombia to document and photograph internally displaced women in both a rural and an urban environment. She photographed Maribeth in Altos de La Florida, Soacha which is an illegal settlement just outside of Bogota. Maribeth is a single mum and she says her children 'are the most important thing in my life. Until I had the children I was not happy - now they give me a reason to work and live'. Maribeth was displaced from the department of Choco, on the pacific coast when she was 7 years old when armed guards shot and killed her mother and sister. She fled and has never returned to her home town - 'I am too afraid and it has been too long'. UNHCR is working to have the settlements legalised which will mean the municipality will have to provide services to the community including water, education and health services.