Colombia Solidarity Campaign

The attack on Villa Rica police station on 2 Feb 2012 left eight dead, 32 wounded and 48 people whose homes were damaged by the explosion. Two members of the community – Deinar Mancilla and Jota Ramos – decided to make house-by-house visits in the area of the bomb, known as “ La 20” Neighbourhood, calling people to a meeting to discuss matters related to the help that we might offer as a group to families affected by the explosion.

A working Party

60 people attended the first meeting: adults, young people, children and older people, all agreed on carrying out a series of activities, to collect money and non-perishable foods for the affected families. Thanks to the collective work and the community’s undertaking to look after the common good, these actions achieved what they set out to do, even going beyond expectations.

Motivated by this major achievement, the group decided to embark on a new path towards working collectively.  The new objective would be to find a way of providing some necessary foodstuffs by taking advantage of the spaces in the courtyards of people’s homes, re-using them as places for cultivation.

As a way of organising, it was decided that in this work team, there would be no hierarchies, as absolutely all the decisions would be taken by consensus: ”All take part in order to reach a shared agreement”.

Discussion in situ

With respect to the work in the spaces for cultivation (ie the patios and collective plots of land), everyone involved now takes part in an egalitarian way in the activities relating to sowing seeds, and tending and gathering crops. The produce is fairly shared out to each family,  according to the needs of each - bearing in mind that some families are much more numerous than others.

Through this communitarian process, which is now four months old, benefiting 30 families, we are currently awaiting the second harvest of food crops. We are starting to form a self-sustainable community, which will look to provide for some of its members’ needs.

Statistics from the project

• 35% boys and girls
• 30% young adults
• 25% adults
• 10% older people

Future projects

• to establish a cinema forum once a week
• music workshops for children and young people
• educational trips once a month
• exchanges with other communities

Digging

Digging a furrow

Cooking together

Fried Plantain

Younger generation