You may have heard us talking about the Casa Madre (in English, The Mother House), a gathering space for collective reflection and peacebuilding in Blanquita-Murrí. You may be wondering how we got here, what we are doing in Blanquita-Murrí, and why are we here. Our...
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FORPP ACCOMPANIMENT REPORTS: ACCOMPANYING TALKS BETWEEN GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS, THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT AND THE ELN
San Juan Corridor –Calima Basin, Buenaventura September 19, 2023 From September 9th to the 18th numerous organizations gathered in assembly in the ethnic territory of the San Juan Corridor – Calima Basin, which include both rural and urban communities surrounding...
Palestina, Huila: 40 years searching for the disappeared
August 30, 2023. We find ourselves standing at the entrance to Palestina, Huila – a tiny municipality found in the south of Colombia and nestled amongst the Macizo Colombiano, an extensive geographic region from which many of Colombia’s most important rivers and...
Colombian Civic Leader Offers a Grassroots Strategy for Peace
Nine months into new efforts by Colombia’s administration to achieve “total peace” with remaining armed groups following decades of civil war, that process should make room for the nation’s thousands of grassroots and community organizations to strengthen peace...
Celebrating 26 Years of Resistance: The Peace Community’s Struggle to Protect Water and Land
On March 22, 2023, while the Peace Community of San José de Apartadó was preparing to go to the river under intense heat, a member of Community reflected: "Without water, we are nothing." He continued: "We need to plant more naceros (plants that help prevent...
Strengthening Mechanisms of Protection in Buenaventura
In February, we visited our accompanied communities in Colombia's Pacific region to start a collective process to analyze and identify vulnerabilities, capacities and strategies of resistance and defense in order to strengthen mechanisms of protection and...
2022 Year in Review
Despite escalating conflict in 2022, leading to the murders of 189 human rights defenders (registering 18 more than the year before), we can look back on a challenging but successful year for FOR Peace Presence. Do you want to know more about our work over the past...
Total Peace: A Chance to Increase Human Security in Colombia?
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), there are currently six different armed conflicts in Colombia. In addition, criminal groups are active in many regions throughout the country. Decades of war have resulted in 8.8 million victims. In the...