Resilience, resistance, love and forgiveness

November 2016 – June 2017 / Of-line social listening – Human Centered designer -Photographer –  Researcher- Workshop Facilitator

 

In the pasts years, Colombia has been in the international spotlight due to the peace process. However, lost in the publicity of this process is the fact that many armed groups still exist in the countryside and the armed conflict is far from over for many rural communities.  I traveled for two months in a typical bus called a “chiva”. On this trip, we traversed the areas most affected by the war; that very few people go because there are no roads and it takes hours to get there. We listened to survivors of the Colombian armed conflict who were developing peace processes. I thought I was going to help by creating projects, but I learned that they just need to be heard. it was also a deeply personal trip for me in which I learned about the true meaning of resilience, resistance, love and forgiveness in the purest sense. These lessons were not always easy to digest, as they came from the mouths of people who lost everything, but maintained a strength and smile.

 

PAZabordo- La Chiva de la Paz seeks to promote spaces for meeting, dialogue, reflection and action between the countryside and the city in order to weave community networks of peace, elaborate peace narratives, and that as a country we assume ourselves as peace buildersWe did it through artistic and cultural actions that make visible the histories of the territories affected by violence, construction of a support network for the post-conflict scenario, recognition of local capacities for peace, mapping of peace initiatives and projects that have arisen in these territories In each place we arrived, we applyed the methodology Building Communities of Coexistence and Peace, which articulates the different projects on board, generates dialogues of knowledge, constructive reflections and commitments.

 

LINK Photographic documentation of the process

We want to address a past issue: in 2018, both our Facebook page and website were hacked. Some of the posts made during that time were not from us, most of the information was deleted.

We visited the municipalities most affected by violence to collectively build a message of peace, forgiveness, and reconciliation.

We aimed to raise awareness nationwide about the urgency of fostering a culture of peace, bridging the urban-rural gap, and promoting a collective consciousness that enables us to recognize that peace depends on each individual. We aspire to see ourselves as resilient beings, in order to prevent future instances of social violence, inspire new peace initiatives, and reinforce guarantees of non-repetition

We mapped existing peace initiatives in those areas to create a network that will serve us in a post-conflict scenario. 

Road trip map from November 7 to December 23 of 2016.
58 municipalities.