September 2009
2 posts
August 2009
14 posts
Last day in Bogotá
A week full of interviews and packing in the last of the Bogotá sites has left quite a bit of work for me upon return. I’ve learned so much. I really want to thank Jairo Arboleda for his patience in explaining and sometimes reexplaining what the context of Colombia means for INGO intervention and partnership, the end of the war, and so much more. Jairo was a personal professor for me...
Confrontation with a Colombian paramilitary...
When Ana Carolina* began participating in San Francisco’s reconciliation forums, space where participants can speak freely about the conflict between the Colombian military, right wing paramilitaries, and left wing guerrillas, she did not have in mind the 4 elements of reconciliation: truth, mercy, peace, and justice. She had in mind her son who had been disappeared several years prior.
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A demobilized paramilitary wants the best for his...
Don Diego feels remorse for his time as a paramilitary. He was in the autodefensas (self-defense forces) for almost four years, only a few months of which entailed an actual combat position. Don Diego was (and still is) close with a paramilitary commander named MacGiver (pronounced, mock-gee-bear), whose autodefensas career began in 1988 after the murder of his brother by the ELN guerrilla...
Well, turned out I needed to extend my visa,...
Which included a $34 fee and running all over town getting receipts from banks, photos, photocopies, etc. All because I will be going a week over the 60 day limit! Blast it all.
Only 1 week left...
…and so much to do. After my interviews in San Francisco this week and from a conference a few weeks ago, I’m trying to get everything done while soaking in Bogotá as much as possible. Stay tuned for the Reconciliation Project Fair video which I will finish today. I wish I had gotten about a million more pictures from that event, but so it goes. Ok, I’m going to get to work...
1 plane + 2 taxis + 3 busetas + 9 hours = Arrival...
I’m here in a small town only reachable by gravel roads after winding and winding around the Colombia mountainside to meet and collect the stories of the people who are making reconciliation happen. This town, people tell me, was unwalkable at night just 5 years ago and has been transformed. Heavy military operations in 2003 cleared guerrilla forces from the area, leaving this municipio to...
July 2009
14 posts
Update on Lindsey...¿Qué estoy haciendo?
Hello All,
I’m on a quick hiatus…I was at a conference in Antioquia department last week and this week I’m travelling around Colombia. I’ll have lots to report on once I’m back settled in Bogotá!
Hasta pronto,
Lindsey
Partner in the survivor movement: Centro Integral...
CIREC is one of the leading organizations working with Colombians with disabilities in the country and even Latin America. Their facilities are state of the art and innovative. I was very impressed by the “Walking Room” where the floor was wired to tell where pressure and tension is being put in walkers’ legs. There are also lasers which track the walker’s steps to measure stress. ...
Interactive Map: Intl Disability Rights Monitor →
Click on a region for a close-up view of reporting countries
International Disability Rights Monitor Colombia... →
Very interesting review of the state of disability rights in Colombia. There are reports available for many regions and countries. Check it out.
IDEAnet is a global network of individual whose mission is “fostering collaborative efforts to assist people with disabilities worldwide in achieving their full potential.”
Hunter kills 1 of Pablo Escobar's 3 hippos that... →
I couldn’t help but post this. Poor Pepe.
5 FARC hostages to be released...Uribe, mediator... →
Click the link to read more…
WatchThe term “displaced” has always seemed very callous to me as if a group of people just got lost one day and displaced themselves in another city or village. To me it would be more appropriate to say “people who have fled from their homes…the place where they were waking up in the morning, making breakfast, returning after work, at times crying or laughing, talking with...
A visit to Fundación Arcángeles: business and...
On Friday Jairo, my friend Juliette, and I made a trip to Fundación Arcángeles. The trip had two purposes. Survivor Corps had just secured some funding for Arcángeles’ quad rugby program and Jairo wanted to check in and see how this project was going. Another reason for the trip was for the Arcángeles people and I to get to know one another. I hope to make a trip back soon to begin...
Partner in the survivor movement: Fundación...
Fundación Arcángeles was created in early 2005 in Colombia as a model of social responsibility and family from the experience of disability by Juan Pablo Salazar who was in an accident and fractured his fifth vertebra, leading to quadriplegia. The mission of Arcángeles at its establishment was to provide medical rehabilitation processes of care for people with spinal trauma and became the only...
Tomorrow to Survivor Corps partner organization...
…and a friend has come to visit. Juliette and I interned together at Amnesty International. She’s still interning there as the Advocacy for Africa intern. She’ll be accompanying Jairo and me to Fundación Arcángeles tomorrow.
More on Fundación Arcángeles tomorrow. I’m going to prepare for my interviews.
Side note, I’ve been asked by Riley, the Survivor Corps desk...
June 2009
10 posts
The Obama-Uribe meeting →
Insight into Obama’s meeting with Colombian President Uribe…from the Center for International Policy’s Colombia program
7 tags
“What was positive from the experience of the encounter between victims,...”
– Interview with Benjamín Cardona, Territorial Director for Conciudadania on what resulted from the Collective Action for Reconciliation project in Santa Fe de Antioquia on May 8, 2009.
9 tags
Partner in the survivor movement: Conciudadania
Survivor Corps in Colombia really exists through partnerships with local organizations. Three of the organizations are based in Bogotá and one is in Medellín, about 9 hours away by bus. The organization in Medellín is called Conciudadanía (CC). Jairo and I will visit Conciudadanía in a few weeks and soon I will be able to expand on their work from a first hand approach. For now, their...
7 tags
First days at work: Survivor Corps Colombia
After a long weekend due to Sacred Heart day (observed ten weeks and a day after Easter Sunday) made even longer by Survivor Corps country director Jairo and I feeling under the weather, I have arrived at my first day working at the Survivor Corps Office. Though not much to do yet because Jairo is still sick, I’m getting to know the partner organizations through their websites and working on the...
Bogotá, meet Lindsey. Lindsey, Bogotá.
Arrival in Bogota
Two flights and 4 “This American Life’s” later (I really need to donate to them) I have arrived in Bogotá safely. The flight was pretty uneventful as I kept mostly to myself and tried to sleep here and there. When we were descending into Bogotá, the lady next to me, who had slept most of the way, started getting worked up once turbulence hit (eyes wide, smile on her...
Maiming the People: Guerrilla Use of Antipersonnel... →
This comprehensive report gives a complete summary and direct recommendations for the problem of landmines in Colombia.
May 2009
1 post
