In Valle del Cauca
Information on initiatives in Valle del Cauca provided by el Banco de Buenas Prácticas para Superar el Conflicto (BPSC) as part of their collaboration with Insight on Conflict.
Education for Peace and Coexistence
Since 1995, at the College of San Antonio María Claret in Cali (Valle), this initiative has focused on building a school environment that contributes to the construction of a culture of peace, allowing teachers, students and parents to respect human rights, democracy and justice. The initiative also promotes those activities that strengthen these principles and values.
This initiative, led by teachers at the College Antonio Holguín Garcés de Cartago (Valle) since 2003, promotes moral education, and creates space for coexistence and reinforcing self-confidence. In this way, students of the institution affected by the region’s high rates of violence can come to terms with conflict in a peaceful and constructive way.
The human rights crisis present in the Valle in 2004 due to the presence of illegal armed groups drove the Archdiocese of Cali to train community leaders in five municipalities of the region in peaceful conflict resolution.
Drawing on peaceful folklore, the founder and teachers of this school have worked since 1995 in re-establishing recreational areas, so that the children of the Lleras district in Buenaventura can develop and avoid getting implicated in the mechanics of armed conflict. The project promotes values such as solidarity and respect, expanding a basic education by adding cultural activities.
The University of Valle offers this programme to the former members of disarmed combat groups, qualifying their political position and permitting them to contribute legitimately to the peace process and to participate in public administration. The programme, which has been underway since 1997, offers concrete studies in theory, politics, law, humanities and research methodology.
Communication for Peace and Coexistence
The Life, Justice and Peace Commission of Cali’s Archdiocese promotes peacebuilding and peaceful coexistence by means of facilitating dialogue through written expression. It promotes this practice as a way of ending conflict and violence. Since 1993, the Peace Post journal has been distributed among schools, universities and community groups.
Within the framework of a nationwide initiative, the Forum Foundation fought a campaign between 2004 and 2005 in Cali that sought to raise awareness amongst government entities, NGOs and citizen groups about the living conditions of displaced people, and to recommend solutions using solidarity and state responsibility as starting points.
Since 2004, this televised journalism programme has analysed the social, political and economic reality of southwest Colombia through debates with academics, members of NGOs and government representatives. The programme seeks to create a setting for reflecting on displacement and the structural problems of conflict, and to be a space where displaced and missing persons can find their families.
