Food and Security in Colombia
Doņa Rosa stands beside a wire pen at the back of her house, looking proudly at her pigs. "If they come again, I won't let them take my pigs."
We are in San Juancito in north-eastern Colombia, a village of a few hundred people on the edge of a river surrounded by rolling green hills. It is beautiful, but also dangerous an area fought over by paramilitaries, guerrillas and the army, all attempting to control the people and the resources that reside there. The region has settled into a tense calm, but the memories of massacres and fleeing with no more than the clothes on their backs are still fresh for Doņa Rosa.
Yet Doņa Rosa's connection to her place is deep and she is resolved to stay even if the violence begins again. With the technical support of our counterpart, the Centre for Service of Cooperatives, and a small financial contribution from Inter Pares, the villagers have planted vegetable gardens and fruit trees; they are also raising chickens and, of course, the pigs. In a common area, women have planted local varieties that are high in protein and good for animal fodder. Men and women have learned to manage crops organically and to produce more by diversifying. Feeling more secure in their food supply, people are willing to invest in their land, and to plant trees and other crops that take longer to mature. San Juancito is also working with neighbouring villages to create a regional development plan that addresses long-term food security, as well as people's health and education needs, and the challenge of securing legal title for their land.
It is a slow process, and Doņa Rosa admits that they are always wary. The men with guns have not disappeared. But now people have more confidence in themselves and what they are building, and have organized to insist that the government protect them so they do not have to flee again. With a sense of solidarity and common cause they are determined to defend in peace what others try to take by force.
Inter Pares' program in Colombia receives generous support from the Canadian International Development Agency and the Wild Rose Foundation of the Government of Alberta.
| Reviewed February 13, 2006 |  |
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