Colombia
Fighting among left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and the army has helped to create the largest population of internally displaced people outside Sudan — at least 4 million, and growing.
Colombia's displacement crisis is large and growing: 270,675 people became newly displaced in the first six months of 2008, an increase of 41 percent over the same period last year, according to the leading national displacement-monitoring group. Colombia's is the longest-running civil conflict in the Americas. And a UN report says that more than half of los desplazados are children under the age of 15. Mercy Corps is helping rural families who have been forced by violence into safer but impoverished urban neighborhoods. One project teaches displaced women to make handicrafts, then finds purchases for export — an economic leg up on a new life.
Blog Post: Kids enjoy peace for one day in Santander ›
Vivo Jugando is a new Mercy Corps sports-for-change strategy that uses soccer and yoga to give kids tools to deal with critical issues in their lives.
Shipping Clothing to Colombia's Landmine Victims ›
Topics: Conflict & War, Disability
Mercy Corps is helping landmine survivors in Colombia rehabilitate and reintegrate into their communities. As part of our effort, we recently sent donated shoes and sweaters to 240 survivors in Nariño.
Blog Post: Tools for life ›
Topics: Youth, Urban, Sports, Marginalized Groups, Displacement, Conflict & War, Children
I teach weekly yoga classes to fifth graders at a school in Bogota's Ciudad Bolivar, where many youth I teach have been forcibly displaced by Colombia's ongoing conflict.
Blog Post: Building children's confidence through sport ›
Mercy Corps Colombia manages an innovative program which aims to both eliminate and mitigate the effects of some of the worst forms of child labor through sports activities.
Colombia: Micro-Hydroelectric Energy ›
A small hydroelectric project will enhance educational opportunities, improve food security, ensure better health and help provide more economic opportunities to indigenous families in rural Colombia.
Gloria and Don Guillermo: A Way Forward ›
Topics: Economic Development
Gloria's family fled for the relative safety of Bogota — and a chance to reestablish their lives.
Ciro: Finishing Time ›
Topics: Economic Development
A diploma never meant much to rural ranchers like Ciro. But it's critical to his future in the city.
Crossing the Bridge ›
Topics: Economic Development
Counseling and trainings are helping displaced families in a marginalized Cartagena neighborhood move forward.
Photo Essay: Starting Over ›
Topics: Displacement
Uprooted from their lands, displaced families are trying to reestablish their lives in Colombia's cities.
Special Report: Los Desplazados ›
Threatened off their lands, los desplazados leave their simple life of subsistence farming for the harsh, bewildering realities of urban slums.
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