"And we thank you, Mercy Corps. You're changing lives."

- OPRAH WINFREY, DECEMBER 2005

[ MARLENY'S STORY]

Marleny Yara is among the survivors of Colombia's ongoing violence, and among the three million displaced from their homes. She moved to the capital, Bogotá, six years ago from a small town where her family grew sugarcane and raised honeybees.

"We're from the countryside, and we always grew things," she said. "But there's no space here."

Last year, however, Marleny found space to grow. Mercy Corps and its local partner, Minuto de Dios, erected six greenhouses and launched a program to help vulnerable and displaced families cultivate land in the city. With two dozen of her neighbors, Marleny tends a greenhouse that is abundant with tomato, broccoli, green peas, strawberries, chard, and other crops. "In seven months, I've learned all of this," she says, beaming and gesturing to the beds of vegetables beside her. "How to prepare the soil, how to sow the seeds, how to use natural fertilizers, and how to harvest."

Every 15 days, she and the other participants take home a portion of the greenhouse harvest. That's meant that for the last seven months Marleny hasn't had to buy vegetables for herself or her sons, only one of whom is employed. In addition, each participant is getting somewhere around 400,000 pesos, or $180, to use towards an individual or cooperative business. Despite all she's lost, her spirits are high. "All of us," she says, "have to continue forward."