GlobalGiving.org: Colombia: No Child Should be a Soldier

The Usme Youth Center

Erica Hellerstein — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:01:38 GMT

MADRE's sister organization, Taller de Vida, works tirelessly to provide safe spaces for young people who have been former child soldiers or are at risk for being recruited. MADRE is supporting Taller de Vida to re-open a Youth Center in Usme. The Usme Youth Center will have youth programs which will allow young people to share their experiences and speak openly against violence through art, music and performance. These forms of art therapy, guided by professional art therapists and counselors, allow youth to heal from the traumas they've faced and rebuild their lives in a culture of peace.

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Taller de Vida Update: The Transformative Power of Art

Erica Hellerstein — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 20:47:39 GMT

Taller de Vida, or “Workshop of Life,” was founded by two sisters who believed in harnessing art and self-expression as a means to combat psychological and physical trauma.

Taller de Vida provides youth affected by Colombia’s decades-long war with trauma counseling, education and a variety of after-school arts enrichment programs. From sculpting intricate bowls to engaging in spoken-word performances, child victims of the war are given platforms to express themselves creatively. They use art as a way to confront and overcome painful memories.

*Miguel is a young man from Altos de Cazuca, Colombia, who narrowly escaped forced recruitment with a group of paramilitaries. Miguel, impoverished and living on the streets, was on the verge of joining the paramilitaries when one of his friends intervened and sent him to Taller de Vida. Taller provided Miguel with a sanctuary and haven of self-expression. It changed his life. Miguel now has the opportunity to explore his identity outside the oppressive parameters of war and violence:

“I’ve been here a year and for me it’s been like salvation. First of all, because it’s a place where you feel like you are worth something to someone. They listen and respect you for who you are. They help you to be a better person and to love and take care of yourself. Thanks to your help, I am studying and playing in a capoeira group. This has helped me so much. I have learned to control myself. I have learned things about myself I never knew. You have helped me to see that there are other options for me besides war. Going to Taller de Vida means getting a chance to LIVE, to know ourselves, to realize that it doesn’t stop with us not going to war but that we must do something for our country. We have shown the adults of our neighborhood that we are capable of doing productive things. We are beginning to gain their respect. The armed groups have not gotten to us because we are no longer going to them desperate.”

*Miguel’s name has been changed to protect his identity

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Escaping the Life of a Child Soldier in Colombia

Maria Trimble — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:12:00 GMT

The following story is from a young woman named Marta, who was forced to join a paramilitary group in Colombia when she was only 11 years old. MADRE's partner organization in Colombia, Taller de Vida, has aided her in escaping a life of violence.

“We never experienced a childhood,” said Marta, who was kidnapped and trained to fight for a paramilitary group in Colombia when she was 11. “We exchanged our dolls for rifles, our games for combat.” Marta was eventually released onto the streets of Bogotá but she could barely read and was haunted by the killings she had been forced to commit.

Marta found MADRE’s partner organization, Taller de Vida. Today she helps other young people heal from the wounds of war and build real alternatives to lives of violence. “Taller de Vida gave me una nueva vida (a new life),” said Marta. The organization provides trauma counseling and remedial education to help children who have been displaced catch up on their schooling, adjust to life in the city, and defend their human rights.

Taller de Vida also offers after-school sports, art, and theater programs to help young people develop their artistic talents and learn to express themselves through acting, dance, writing and painting. These programs help young people who have experienced enduring trauma from the armed conflict envision—and work to create—a more peaceful world. Through art, the youth at Taller de Vida are able to share past experiences and build a network of support for their future.

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Update from Taller de Vida

Maria Trimble — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:04:16 GMT

December 16, 2010

Hello Friends,

Below is a profile of Stella Duque, the head of Taller de Vida, our sister organization in Colombia. I'm so pleased that we've been able to show you what our sister organizations do, and how you help them do it. In case you missed our previous profiles, see how you've made a difference in Iraq and Peru!

Thank you so very much,

Vivian Stromberg
Executive Director

Stella Duque, Taller de Vida, Colombia

In 2010, you made it possible for Stella and Taller de Vida to give women and children in war-torn Colombia an alternative to violence.

Through Taller de Vida, you supported art therapy programs for war-displaced women. With these programs, women can create crafts that earn them income at the same time as they receive group counseling and training on human rights issues.

You also made it possible for children to break the cycle of violence. Taller de Vida offers artistic and educational activities to help rehabilitate children exploited as soldiers--and children who are at risk of being recruited by armed groups. By focusing on art and community, the children learn to envision a culture of peace.

In 2010, MADRE was also able to brief the UN Human Rights Committee on the toll the Colombian conflict has taken on the women and children of Taller de Vida. Together, we won recommendations from the Committee that MADRE is going to use to push for better laws and policies in Colombia.

Because you stood with us this year, MADRE and Taller de Vida were able to stand for peace in Colombia. We couldn't do it without you!

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Born Into War

Vivian Stromberg — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 17:30:10 GMT

MADRE recently completed a shadow report of human rights abuses in Colombia, which was presented to the United Nations Human Rights Committee in July 2010 in conjunction with their review of Colombia’s human rights record. Researchers from MADRE conducted over 30 interviews with former child solders from the capital city of Bogotá and the city of Pereira. The age of recruitment ranged from 10 to 17 years of age and participation varied through most of the identified armed groups in Colombia.

Recruitment stories ranged from joining armed groups voluntarily due to abandonment, being orphaned, or fleeing domestic or sexual violence or other issues at home. Some children were lured into joining armed groups with promises of a better life only to find the promises were false and that they faced the punishment of death if they tried to escape.

Since 2006, the Attorney-General’s Office has found 109 bodies of childrenmainly victims of armed groupsin clandestine graves. According to testimonies of former child soldiers, children recruited by armed groups were frequently killed for “insubordination” ranging from stealing food from the group’s reserves to trying to escape. Here is the story of one Colombian child soldier and the trauma she endured:

“My mother was 15 when she first fell in love. She had me when she turned 16 but only took care of me for four months before leaving me with my father and my grandmother. My dad left me a month later. I lived with my grandmother and studied and worked. I spent almost all of my childhood working. I sold things like food and toilet paper in the street. We lived in a neighborhood called La Esperanza, in the southern part of Bogotá.

I was seven when my grandmother fell ill. I was already in the 5th grade but I had to work in a bakery to earn money while my grandmother was in the hospital. Later, I started begging for money because I couldn’t make ends meet.

A week after I turned eight, my grandmother died. I became homeless but I still worked and went to school. When I turned 11, I decided that I could either go on living in the street, or I could join the guerrillas. I went to where they were and did basic training for five days.

They gave me a gun and taught me how to use it. They told me that life would be hard with them and that they don’t get paid anything for what they do. I told myself, “Life here is easier than in the street. Stay.” After basic training, the big guys from the army came to the camp. My first order was to pick up a little dog and hold it. They shot at me and killed the dog. After that, I became tougher.

When it was my turn to kill someone, I always hid my face because I was afraid. I went to bed dreaming of the people I had killed.

War is something terrible you do to people who don’t want to be guerrillas. These people are stuck in the middle and they are killed by the soldiers for saying things like, “You are guerrillas, you are assholes,” or whatever.

One day they made me kill an old man but I couldn’t do it. They sentenced me to death so I had to run away.

The guerrillas were my family but because I betrayed them, they wanted to kill me. They were a family that didn’t forgive.”

Mobilizing Art for Social Justice

Vivian Stromberg — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 14:42:28 GMT

Decades of internal conflict in Colombia have resulted in the recruitment of thousands of children as soldiers. MADRE’s sister organization, Taller de Vida, continues to work with former child soldiers, as well as children who are at risk of being recruited. Taller de Vida provides these youth with art, theater and dance programs to support recuperation and prevent recruitment.

Using new multimedia tools from workshops that MADRE volunteer Miguel Macias conducted, former child soldiers have been able to heal and voice their experiences through the arts.

Jorge, one former child soldier, expressed how Taller de Vida provided him with alternatives when economic hardships were pushing him towards rejoining an armed group:

“I found the organization Taller de Vida, which supports me through the arts. I participated in a project called Bambu, where they taught me to believe in myself as a person, they gave me a job, and helped me live a life with dignity and not hurting anyone.”

Transitioning back into civil society can be even more difficult for girls and young women. Some young women have recorded their stories in audio clips, while Carolyn Flores and Yovani Mora produced a video entitled “What does it mean to be a woman in Colombia?”

The arts programs facilitated by Taller de Vida go beyond just serving as an outlet for expressing personal memories. One group of young men in Bogota were able to apply the tools and experience from the work with Taller de Vida to achieve their goal of starting an Atlantic folk music group called Kayeke. The members of Kayeke were able to actively use art to oppose violence, and have since performed at various art shows around Bogota.

Full web posts of these stories and Taller de Vida’s work with other young people overcoming the trauma of war-torn childhoods can be accessed at MADRE’s blog: http://madreblogs.typepad.com/mymadre/colombia-child-soldiers/

Documenting Memories

Vivian Stromberg — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:15:08 GMT

Copyright Miguel Macias

In July 2009, Miguel Macias, a MADRE volunteer and youth media producer, returned to Bogota to conduct workshops with the youth of Taller de Vida. For two weeks, Miguel worked with 15 students on writing for the web, photography, journalism, video, radio and Drupal (an internet content management system). The first week was mainly instructional, while the second focused on the writing and shooting/recording of the students’ stories. All of the content produced will be posted on Youth Radio, a youth media organization with bureaus across the US and internationally.

Many of the workshop participants were former child soldiers who had escaped from paramilitary groups and found Taller de Vida. Now, as teens and young adults, many are reluctant to discuss their ordeals. Through the workshops, they wrote stories exploring their pasts, often as portraits of themselves or someone they know. Yina, a young woman, wrote of the experiences of women and girls recruited into the male-dominated FARC guerilla army. Yvonne wrote of the importance of theater in her life.

Miguel left Bogota with plenty of finished and raw materials (writing, audio, video, and pictures). He plans to produce several of the stories into full web posts for Youth Radio. Telling and sharing their stories enables the youth of Taller de Vida to heal from the traumas of life as a child soldier.

Here is an excerpt from Miguel’s blog entry for MADRE on his experience working with the youth of Taller de Vida:

“Teaching these young students from Bogota I wonder about their memories. And I wonder about how those memories shape who they are…I still feel there is a story that needs to be told. There is a messy body of memories, history, experiences, opinions, years, interpretations, conflicts. And I want to deconstruct it. Understand how the consciousness of this conflict is built. And maybe then I'll feel that I gave something significant back to those Colombians who gave me their trust.”

To read more about Miguel’s experience, and to see a video that one of the students produced, please visit: http://madreblogs.typepad.com/mymadre/2009/10/storytelling-and-youth-media-in-colombia.html

Copyright Miguel Macias

Copyright Maya Bogdanow

Protecting Children of War in Colombia

Vivian Stromberg — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:33:26 GMT

Taller de Vida 1

MADRE’s local partner, Taller de Vida, works in Usme, an urban district of Bogotá, Colombia that has been particularly affected by displacement caused by the ongoing armed conflict. The population of Usme is primarily composed of low-income families, with 80 percent of families working in the “informal economy.” There are three armed actors active in the area, putting children at a high risk of recruitment into a life of combat. Taller de Vida is currently working with 250 children and young people in the center in Usme in order to rehabilitate former child soldiers and to prevent the recruitment of others through awareness-raising activities.

Taller de Vida continues to offer alternatives to violence to young people in Bogotá who have been uprooted from their homes and are at high-risk for being recruited as child-soldiers. Some of their activities include trauma counseling, art therapy, and recreational programs such as dance and theatre. They are also very active in informing Colombian youth of their human rights. One of Taller de Vida’s most successful endeavors included former child-soldiers learning videography through a project entitled Reinventing Life through Art, which allowed them to document and heal from their traumatic experiences. In 2007, MADRE volunteer Miguel Macias traveled to Colombia to train 16 young people to use professional digital cameras and video editing systems as part of this program; Miguel is planning to return to the country to continue his work with youth.

The Bambu Project is a psychosocial intervention program that works with young ex-combatants in offering them basic tools for successful reinsertion into society. For five years it has facilitated, in the population they serve, skills to enhance dialogue, negotiation, mediation and ultimately overcome violent scenarios through workshops on theater, video, photography and dance. The project also provides a variety of activities to local primary and secondary schools to prevent and raise awareness in the community of the issue of child soldiers. Right now, Taller de Vida is working with Colegio Monteblanco in Usme, serving 3,000 kids, 140 teachers, 120 people from the community and 150 parents. Finally, the project entitled Proyecto Corazon de Cebolla is aimed at encouraging children to view education as an important asset to be valued, therefore motivating them to stay out of armed conflict.

Taller de Vida 2

Taller de Vida 3

Protecting Children of Conflict in Usme, Colombia

Vivian Stromberg — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:31:59 GMT

Taller de Vida works in Usme, an urban district of Bogota, Colombia, with a relatively high population of internally displaced refugees and former soldiers of Colombia’s ongoing paramilitary conflicts. 80% of families in Usme earn income in the “informal economy,” without benefits or adequate health care; children in this area are not exactly inundated with economic opportunities.

MADRE and Taller De Vida are working to change this. The project is now in its fifth year, and we couldn’t be more thrilled with the success embodied by its young participants.

At a learning center in Usme, 15 specially-trained teachers, most of whom are young people themselves, work with 250 former child combatants, using art as a methodology for trauma counseling to encourage healthy reinsertion into civilian society.

Project operations also include visits to local elementary and middle schools, where 3,000 kids participate in programs led by 140 teachers, 120 volunteers, and 150 parents. This aspect of the project focuses on prevention and awareness.

Graduates of Taller de Vida’s programs often stay connected with the organization. Take Gina: recruited by the army at 11, she was eventually “demobilized,” and returned to Usme without useful employment skills, plagued by the post-traumatic stress of exposure to violent conflict at a young age. Gina found Taller de Vida, and today she helps other young people heal from the wounds of war by teaching workshops at the learning center.

In the future, MADRE and Taller de Vida are looking to expand the project to Pereira, a city in Southern Colombia, where recent economic depression and an influx of migrant workers doing cheap labor in the area’s coffee industry have created pockets of poverty where recruitment officers scout for young people whose limited resources make them easy targets.

Give Hope to Former Child Soldiers

Vivian Stromberg — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:45:48 GMT

Update on MADRE’s Work in Colombia November 2007

Project Successes Taller de Vida began Year Three of Reinventing Life Through Art in 2006-07, and used the generous contributions from Global Giving members to complete Stage Four of the project. Activities included:

Trainings MADRE provided technical assistance and funding to facilitate a series of trainings on filming and editing videos. The young people working with Taller de Vida have already created several videos and requested technical assistance on editing them. In response, MADRE arranged a one-week visit to Taller de Vida for a volunteer active in our Sisters Without Borders (SWB) program.

This partner, who previously trained members of our sister organization CHIRAPAQ in Peru, conducted trainings that focused specifically on films that document the situation of young people in armed conflict, their experiences of displacement, and their hopes and dreams. He worked with 23 young people in the Taller de Vida center in Usme (a district near Bogotá that, as a consequence of the ongoing war, consistently receives the second-highest number of displaced persons in the country). Trainings took place in the morning and afternoon; morning sessions served teens ages 17-20 years old, and the afternoon sessions were for participants ages 11-20.

Purchase of Equipment for the Videography Program MADRE provided new equipment for the innovative videography program being carried out by Taller de Vida. The equipment and software for video editing were brought to Colombia by our SWB volunteer, an expert in film recording and editing, who taught Taller de Vida staff and participants to use it. Equipment included: • (1) Apple Computer - 15” screen – with Final Cut Pro for editing videos • (1) External Hard drive LACIE 250gb • (1) Camcorder SONY HVR-A1U • (1) Camcorder Panasonic PV-GS300 • (2) Batteries • (2) UV Protector filter • (20) Cassettes DVM – 60 minutes • (1) Tripod Velbon Sherpa

Additional Support MADRE has also provided support for the purchase of two computers for the Taller de Vida children’s library, and helped strengthen the activities implemented in the Youth Center in Usme (including theatre, dance, music, and photography workshops).

Impact and Beneficiaries Reinventing Life Through Art continues to serve Afro-Colombian, Indigenous, and mestizo (Spanish-descent) youth between the ages of 13 and 19 who live in the poorest neighborhoods of Bogotá and are at high risk for aggressive (often forced) recruitment by Colombian military and paramilitary forces. Direct beneficiaries number about 1,500 and indirect beneficiaries total approximately 4,000. In the past three years, hundreds of children (including many former child soldiers and many children who narrowly escaped forced recruitment) have participated in Reinventing Life Through Art, where they have developed new skills, worked with Taller de Vida’s psychologists and social workers to heal from the trauma they have endured, and found new hope for themselves and their families.

One of the most inspiring aspects of the project involves alumni returning to Taller de Vida to mentor newcomers. A source of hope for both new and former students, Reinventing Life Through Art helps vulnerable young people create life-sustaining relationships, develop concrete skills, count on safe outlets for their frustration, improve their ability to generate income, heal from trauma, and support others in those processes. The project creates a cycle of positive reinforcement, as new members of the group see the successes of former students, and graduates see new young people entering the project and turning their lives around with Taller de Vida’s support. We thank Global Giving members for your important support for this necessary project and hope that you will continue your support.

Attachments:

Give Hope to Former Child Soldiers Update (DOC)