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.
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.
A Way Forward ›
María Balanta saw her husband killed and her ranch torched. Mercy Corps is helping her find the strength to continue.
Room to Grow ›
Topics: Agriculture
"Desplazados" like Marleny Yara are regaining a sense of pride by doing what they know best: cultivating the soil.
For Leidi, a Place to Eat ›
Students in one of Barranquilla's poorest neighborhoods are eating healthier thanks to a newly outfitted school kitchen.
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