South America

Colombia

Helping displaced families gain access to healthcare and education

Active in Colombia since 1979, Terre des hommes (Tdh) runs projects for community empowerment, providing food and psychosocial support and is fighting against sexual exploitation. In 2011, almost 7,500 people benefited from the activities.

Context

Colombia is the country with the third largest population in Latin America, after Brazil and Mexico. Since the 1960s, the country has been living in a state of continuous armed conflict involving government troops, left-wing insurgents and right-wing paramilitaries that are nowadays reorganised in criminal gangs. The conflict escalated in the 1990s, fuelled by the cocaine trade. Today Colombia is still the world’s largest producer of coca and coca derivatives. Violence has lead millions of Colombians to flee to neighbouring countries or to safer places within the country.
Although Colombia is the fourth largest economy in Latin America, wealth is distributed very unevenly. There is a rich elite on the one side, and the majority of the population living in abject poverty on the other. This leads to a situation where children are particularly vulnerable to child labour and sexual exploitation. In Cartagena, a hot-spot for tourist, an estimated 1,500 children work in the sex industry.

Our intervention

Aid for internally displaced persons – In the Bolivar department, Tdh supports by the armed conflict displaced communities so as to guarantee the most basic rights of the children who remain the worst affected by armed conflicts: the right to health, education and protection. By training community workers and giving advice to local authorities, Tdh improves the situation of children and their families by offering access to health and education, by preventing domestic violence and by helping communities to defend their rights that were previously denied.

Protection against the risks of sexual exploitation of minors – In Cartagena, since 2005, Tdh is fighting sexual exploitation of children by promoting denunciation of the offenders, by offering legal assistance to the victims and by defending children in legal proceedings. By making a plea to local and national authorities, Tdh is reducing significantly impunity for these crimes.

Centered at -74.297333 4.570868 5

Places of intervention : Cartagena , Bolívar

Projects : Aid for internally displaced persons ● Community Empowerment and Psychosocial Support ● Combating Sexual Exploitation

In joint cooperation with : Colombian Red Cross, Foundation TEFA

Delegate : Antoine Lissorgues

Expatriate staff : 1

National staff : 21

Budget : 793'900 CHF

Gallery

Latest News

5 Jan 2012 • Child protection systems Colombia
Colombia: Terre des hommes restructures public policies

In a context marked by years of violence, Terre des hommes and the University of Cartagena have presented a survey analysing in depth the strengths and difficulties encountered by four municipalities when facing problems that touch childhood. Recently elected mayors have under... Read more
1 Nov 2011 • Various Colombia
Colombia: "Les Montes de Maria cast their votes for the children"

On the occasion of municipal and regional elections, Terre des hommes launched a campaign aimed at convincing the candidates to include the subject of childhood in their political programmes. Thanks to this campaign, people were also kept informed about the proposals of the ca... Read more

Side Notes

What Tdh can do in Colombia with:

• CHF 80.-: Health care, education and protection for a year of a displaced child
• CHF 200.-: Legal representation of a child victim of sexual exploitation

Children’s situation

• 23% of the children marry before 18
• 11’000 child soldiers are involved in the armed conflict

Achievements 2011

Tdh is continuing its efforts against the sexual exploitation of children in Colombia. The second phase of the project succeeded in having 26 sexual exploiters convicted thanks to effective legal representation of the victims. One of the most significant sentences was undoubtedly the sentencing of a British citizen to 20 years in prison for child pornography offences. The legal process, which only took three months, was a welcome recompense for the years of advocacy work by Tdh for more rapid action in this area on the part of the justice system.
After three years of intervention, Tdh completed a support project for displaced people in the Bolivar region. The health conditions and access to education of more than 4,000 children have been improved thanks to the education and involvement of the community. This project worked with social players to enable a network for the prevention of abuse against children to be put into place.

Testimonial

The culture of silence in Cartagena was shaken severely with the condemnation of an Italian tourist. The silence covering sexual exploiters is broken.

- Raffaele Salinari, Chair of Terre des Hommes International Federation