In Cauca
Information on initiatives in Cauca provided by el Banco de Buenas Prácticas para Superar el Conflicto (BPSC) as part of their collaboration with Insight on Conflict.
Peace Negotiations
In La María, a reserve for Gambiano natives of Piendamó (Cauca), a wide area for encounters between the organisations and movements of the society has been set up. Through dialogue and negotiation these organisations have been looking for a negotiated outcome to the conflict. Since 1999, promoted by the Consejo Regional Indigena (Regional Council of Natives), this area has also generated the development of new organisations that contribute to the peace.
Education for Peace and Coexistence
Since 1993 the strategy used by this organisation has been to teach in a fun way so that the boys and girls of El Tambo (Cauca) put what they learned at school into practice in their daily life. Their families have become qualified in agro-ecological production and healthy diet. The aim is to develop individuals who are conscious of their surroundings and able to transform their reality.
Since 2005 the work carried out by this School has been to show to the young people vulnerable to the conflict of Comuna 7 of Popayán (Cauca) the existence of other alternatives to build their life. Impelled by the Fundación Infantil and Juvenil Tehillim (Infant and Youthful Tehillim Foundation), the school has created areas of coexistence through sport, dance, art, the radio and a cinema club.
Since 1996 this initiative, impelled by two leaders from Cauca, has contributed to the emotional recovery of displaced boys, girls and young people who are in the zones north and west of Popayán (Cauca). With the support of the local educational community the quality of the schools has improved, the cultural youth groups have got stronger and coexistence has been widely promoted.
In 2000, Amalaka opened its doors to children displaced in Cauca to offer them an integral education based on their own experiences, their relation with the environment, their families and the society. With psychosocial support this project enables them to reconstruct their social being by developing their potentialities.
Directly joined to the communal orchard, this initiative started in Corinto (Cauca) in 2003 as a project to renovate the pedagogy. It is a methodology of open and active education that stimulates in the children their sense of belonging to the land and the area in order to avoid their desertion and possible involvement with the illegal armed groups.
Since 2004, the Cultural Association Casa del Nino (House of the Young) has trained leaders from the North region of Cauca in human rights and international humanitarian rights. The subsequent replication of this learning in the communities has generated strategies for facing the armed conflict by developing in the Afro population greater confidence in themselves and value for their history.
Through training in music, theatre and dance, the Asamblea Cultural de los Pueblos del Macizo (Cultural Assembly of the Towns of the Massif), organised in 1993 by the Comité de Integración del Macizo Colombiano (Committee of Integration of the Colombian Massif), has tried to build networks between the local population in order to strengthen peaceful coexistence and culture. This initiative seeks to protect the community from the conflict and thus contribute to new alternatives of life.
The work of this foundation, made up of art, culture, PE and games teachers, is to bring out and promote initiatives of peace in the north of the Cauca. Since its beginning in 2000, it has generated spaces for dialogue and encounter based on recreational strategies to protect primarily children and young people from the conflict.
Communication for Peace and Coexistence
This initiative was created in 2004 by a group of organisations linked to the educational project Escuela Popular del Cauca (School for the People of Cauca). “Mundo Posible” re-uses the activities of this radial school to support the call for respect for human rights developed by local organisations, and socialises them with a language familiar to the local population.
Through coverage in 13 municipalities in the Cauca and with the help of the young people of the town of Totoró, this station provides teachings about the armed conflict and the threats to which young people are exposed since 1994. Through its programmes it strengthens the identity of the native peoples whilst preserving their culture, myths, language, traditions and values.
As part of the communications network of the Asociación de las Comunidades Indígenas del Norte del Cauca (Association of the Communities of Natives in the North of Cauca), this radio station was born in 2002. Its material, also promoted by Radio Nasa and Voices of Our Earth, sees to the fortification of the identity, culture and organisational processes of the native peoples in the midst of the impact of the armed conflict in their territory.
