"Foundation for a Better Tomorrow" (PUMM)
The organization’s institutional mission is to strengthen the traditional cultural practices of Afro-Colombians and other ethnic groups in the San Francisco community and other communities in the Naya River basin.
The project is oriented toward creating an arena for dialogue for young men and women from the San Francisco community, on the Naya River in the municipality of Buenaventura. Based on an understanding of their reality, these young people will be able to obtain constitutional tools that allow them to effectively exercise their citizenship in community concertation settings. This participation will allow them to become active decision-making actors in community processes, in the context of the armed conflict taking place in the area.
The communities located in the Naya River basin have been greatly weakened in their organizations and their community work, as a consequence of the presence of legal and illegal armed groups. As a result, from 2000 to the present there have been multiple cases of massacres, harassment, disappearances, murders, bombings and forced recruitment. Young people are the most affected, since they are targeted by the various groups and become a military target for them. In this context, a training process is necessary to strengthen young peoples’ organizations and prepare them to defend their rights and their territory, through active participation in the settings that affect them.
“Barranca-style” film series
The "Sandra Rondón Pinto Popular Training School Corporation" aims to recover neighbourhood spaces for young people in Barrancabermeja through the “Barranca-style film series.” The project screens non-commercial films dealing with different problems related to the environment, the role of young people in a context of globalization, art, conflict and peace. The project also aims to strengthen the community’s historical memory and identity by promoting youth initiatives that acknowledge the framework of the conflict taking place in the region.
The project consists of training a core team of young people who are critical of the life projects promoted in mass media outlets such as television, internet and film. At the same time, this team is capable of promoting initiatives to recover neighbourhood spaces (football pitches, parks, community meeting halls, etc). The community’s memory is reconstructed in these spaces through presentations of alternative Latin American and Colombian films, the preparation of a traditional Barrancabermeja meal, and a discussion on historical memory, regional identity, the armed conflict and its political solution. The neighbourhoods where these occupations of public spaces take place are:
State Crimes
Magdalena Medio Regional Association of Victims of State Crimes (ASORVIMM) works for the rights of victims, promoting and strengthening a local and regional movement of victims of state crimes to guarantee rights to truth, justice, comprehensive reparations and guarantees of non-repetition.
The project aims to strengthen the ASORVIMM youth group through activities that are being carried out with young victims from nearby villages. The project brings the message of a culture of peace and historical memory, promotes the rights of young people, strengthens demands for comprehensive reparations of victims of violence, and works for the defence of life in this territory.
The project will carry out a series of recreational activities with the purpose of raising awareness about taking care of the environment. Fun training workshops will help young people develop a life project and raise awareness about sexual reproductive health, based on an understanding of the need to take care of life itself.
Through these fun training activities it is hoped that young people impacted by violence be able to generate an initiative for the defence of their rights as young people and social beings. This initiative, developed based on young peoples’ personal and social characteristics, will impact the problems that they suffer as a result of the conflict.
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