Building peace, one project at a time in Colombia — Global Issues

A pot boils on a wooden fireplace within the open air at a relaxation spot within the Serranía del Perijá, within the mountainous rural north of Colombia. Greater than 100 folks, together with former combatants from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia insurgent group generally known as FARC, their households, and native folks in addition to troopers of the Colombian Nationwide Military, work collectively on the sting of a precipice.

They’re carrying three-inch-diameter hoses over practically 9 kilometers of steep terrain as a part of a UN Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO)-supported challenge to enhance water provides.

It took months of arduous work to raise the hose, set it in place, bury it and join it to an area river which gives a dependable provide of water.

“Probably the most stunning factor I bear in mind was the best way the military, our former adversary, neighborhood, former rebels and native authorities labored collectively, whatever the previous that separated us,” says Yarledys Olaya, an indigenous Barí lady, who spent 20 years combating for the now disbanded FARC insurgent group.

FARC guerillas waged  a half century-long civil battle towards the Colombian authorities, which formally ended with the signing of a historic Closing Peace Settlement in 2016. 

A brand new life in a nice land

Yarledys Olaya is one in every of some 13,000 ex-combatants who dedicated to peace in Colombia and who started new lives in locations like Tierra Grata.

“I image my future right here; I image myself rising previous,” she says. “This course of has not been simple. Up to now we noticed our comrades get killed. However personally, it has allowed me to begin my household, to have the ability to spend time with them, and to open my house to my daughters.

“That’s the reason we wish to proceed constructing and betting on peace. Not just for the rebels who’ve been reintegrated into society however for a collective peace for the nation.”

Within the close by city of San José de Oriente, native folks have been afraid that when the ex-combatants got here to the area, violence would begin once more, however minds have been modified once they introduced simply peace and a willingness to work on neighborhood initiatives.

Yarledys Olaya arrived in Tierra Grata in November 2016 aboard a truck along with 120 different guerrillas, most of them armed. She was carrying a camouflage uniform, boots, a black T-shirt, and carried a backpack and a rifle on her shoulder; she lined her face with a inexperienced scarf not eager to be recognized.

“There was quite a lot of distrust. I felt that we have been reserved, surly, and that native folks checked out us in a different way.” It was two months earlier than, the Peace Settlement between the federal government and the FARC had been signed.

“This was not a private resolution, it was a collective resolution,” she says. “I assumed, let’s proceed however stay life in one other method. The nice factor is that I had now not needed to see my comrades fall, which is regular throughout a battle.”

Monitoring the ceasefire

It was an remoted location; an previous farmhouse stood beside dense vegetation, together with the native frailejones plant. A bit of land had been cleared to make room to construct a reintegration camp; throughout, there have been Military and Colombian police personnel.

In a close-by space, the United Nations had erected tents the place consultants who had monitored the ceasefire would confirm the laying down of arms. Between March and September 2017, the UN mission in Colombia acquired 8,994 weapons from FARC all through the nation together with Tierra Grata.

Six months have been spent constructing the camp which supplied 158 dwelling quarters. The ex-combatants have been alleged to bear a reintegration course of there after which depart for a extra everlasting location, however most of them had nowhere to go and so stayed.

Daughters from battle, and peace

At the moment, Tierra Grata is a formalized village inhabited by some 300 folks, each ex-combatants and members of the family. Some have been born there, and others joined their households.

Yarledys Olaya left her new child, Yacana, with a relative when she joined FARC and was reunited two months after arriving in Tierra Grata. Two years later she gave delivery to a different daughter, Yaquelín, one in every of 65 youngsters, born within the new settlement.

“Yacana is my daughter from the battle, and Yaquelín my daughter from peace,” she says.

Yarledys Olaya continues to work on neighborhood initiatives, constructing everlasting constructions and bringing water and electrical energy to the village. “As ladies in the course of the battle, we performed a basic position,” she says, “and now on this new second, we’re serving to to construct peace, as a result of we really feel that this course of is ours; that’s the reason we’re keen to contribute our final drop of sweat to this future.”