Colombia
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Photo: Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps
Our strategy
Help displaced families, landmine victims, former child soldiers and other victims of Colombia’s armed conflict get the assistance and skills they need to rebuild their lives.
The context
Fighting among left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and the army has created the largest population of internally displaced people outside Sudan — at least four million and growing.
Our work
- Children & Youth: Helping newly demobilized child soldiers reintegrate into society and preventing at-risk children from being recruited into armed groups
- Emergency response: Providing families displaced by conflict and flooding with emergency assistance and income-generation skills
- Conflict & Governance: Helping communities peacefully resolve existing land conflicts and formalize land ownership
All stories about Colombia
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Colombia: Video: Conserving the mangroves in Bocas Del Atrato May 14, 2010
See how we're helping an Afro-Colombian fishing community along Colombia's northern coast conserve mangrove forests that protect their homes, secure their livelihoods and sustain the region's biodiversity.
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Colombia: Video: Protecting indigenous lands in Colombia May 11, 2010
Start with a nationwide war fought largely to acquire land. Then add overlapping titles, valuable natural resources, a sparsely populated region and an inefficient government, and you've got all the ingredients for boundary disputes.
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Colombia: Video: 'We've relied on each other to survive' May 5, 2010
The youngest, 40-year-old Nancy, was first to arrive in 2007. She was squeezed out by intensifying fighting between guerrillas and paramilitaries and a death threat she couldn't ignore.
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Colombia: Video: Reintegrating land mine survivors May 5, 2010
Mercy Corps outfitted a rehabilitation center in southern Colombia with the latest technology as part of a holistic program to reintegrate land mine survivors back into their communities.
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Colombia: Graduation day in Mocoa May 3, 2010
At the end of our day in Putumayo's capital, we stopped by a graduation celebration of sorts. More than 30 people displaced by the armed conflict were marking the end of an 80-hour course in gastronomy with food, music and a dip in the river.
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Colombia: Video: Gender-based violence workshop, Colombia May 1, 2010
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Colombia: Video: Asana Ipiales April 30, 2010
In Colombia, Mercy Corps uses sports as a way to teach youth values such as teamwork and respect. At the beginning and end of each session, the youth do yoga poses to help them relax and concentrate.
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Colombia: Video: ¡Vivo Jugando! April 30, 2010
Young people in the southern Colombian city of Ipiales are learning respect for each other through Mercy Corps' sports for change program, "Vivo Jugando." It's part of our effort to prevent gender-based violence, a growing concern in a region severely affected by the country's armed conflict.
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Colombia: Displaced but not disempowered April 28, 2010
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Colombia: Raising the visibility of the 'invisibles' April 26, 2010
I'm on my way to Bogotá today to begin a two-week tour of Mercy Corps programs in Colombia.