Hope and Development to Ex-combatants in Colombia

This week we lowered by 50% our fundraising goal for this project on GlobalGiving, because we earned the  Davis Projects for Peace award through the International House of New York, which chose 10 projects for their outstanding work in peacebuilding! During the summer of 2019, with the resources we will further develop the capacities of excombatants and their families to host people in their houses for meals and rural tourism. We will also produce short clips and take professional pictures that can improve the marketting strategy for the project internationally. This award has strongly motivated our team and we will work hard to show the results to you!

• Letter of acceptance (PDF)
  

In these last days of 2018, it is normal to review the achievements made with the work and effort of each of the people involved in this project and we have a great smile of satisfaction knowing that small development projects are becoming more stable. The people who believed in caring and protecting that seed of work, now see how it is germinating!

The peace that many territories fought for is getting closer and closer and that is why we are constantly strengthening the members of this project to improve their capacities to show their development projects through tourism.

We dream of a 2019 in which this project can be the basis of the economy of many families and not a secondary activity, we believe in an opportunity that increasingly affects the regions and we hope that the continued support will continue helping to convert this joint objective . . in the reality

We will continue to look for new sources of support and we are counting on you for a hopeful 2019.

This has been a work season in which we have been looking for opportunities to take this project to a broader scope with different private companies and independent collaborators who want to contribute their time and knowledge training the actors or any other resource that may be favorable in the development of this project. All these opportunities will further support the reconciliation and reintegration of people who have suffered during the war.

We continue to believe that working together to create tourism products in demobilized areas will serve as a tool for the economic development of actors emerging from conflict, including ex-combatants, victims and forgotten indigenous communities, and for that reason, with contributions received, we have the following work actions:

• Validation of all the actors that will be involved in the 100% route
• Identification of destinations, the specific needs of operators, basic and specialized services to offer travelers, logistics, schedules, travel and all the experiences and activities that will enrich the route.
• Creation of a base itinerary for review and advice of government entities
• Definition of the final tourism product with a view to negotiating with the international market
• Definition of the main target audience according to market studies
• Creation of scripts managed by local actors
• Complete the adaptation to the actors according to the needs previously encountered.

We hope to achieve each of the proposed goals above all to continue maintaining the commitment of the stakeholders involved who believe in the project and each time they take more steps to achieve the proposed objectives.

Colombia is now better ranked on the international scene and this, has increased the arrival of travelers looking for enriching experiences based on community development projects in the territories :)

This is a very important factor that motivated us to start with the donations a complete exploration of territories with very satisfactory results: we have found greater tourist attractions, explored biodiversity, and we have also found a greater number of productive projects that we can include within tourism products that are they are being developed with the objective of involving more people and having a greater impact.

In addition to this, there have been important achievements such as signing agreements for the management of destinations in 2 cities: Carmen de Bolívar and Arjona, in order to make two community stops on the route and formulate projects to request international funding in alliance with cameras of commerce and government.

The dream of having an integral tourist route that generates local development and a real transformation in the traveler, is getting closer and closer!

The help of more funding of all donors who believe in the possibility of generating a change from what is within our reach is vital now more than never.

Peace has opened new roads and these are full of people looking for development opportunities.

They all have many needs, beginning with the need to forgive and heal the scars of war. therefore, they must be recognized as productive people with the necessary skills to be part of important project that support and incentive the work as a team withe the rest of the comunity.

We have been working on the creation of databases in the territories, identifying the local interested parties, what they have, what they know how to do and understanding their possible contribution, gain signing agreements with them to create startup projects that complement the needs that travelers will have along the route.

This is the case of the participants in the picture who appreciate the opportunity to be part of this project and express their interest because these tourist routes begin to work soon.

Also, when making the recognition of the territory, the team of volunteers of FEM has been collecting experiences that deserve to be told, and that are being adapted to convert them into the contents of the tourist guide of the route and that will also be shown through different artistic and cultural expressions that will be developed for visitors.

This step of recognition that takes place in different regions of Colombia, has been possible with the help received, and has a great importance because it has allowed us to make the population understand that no matter how far one region from another, or what situations have He had to suffer in the past, everyone shares the interest of doing something for the development of their territories and motivates them to show the best of them by involving more and more people in the community.