Sembrandopaz is an MCC partner located in the Caribbean region in the north of Colombia, working in the 15 municipalities of the sub-region of Montes de Maria. In programming designed to cultivate and consolidate peace and to silence the guns in Colombia, Sembradopaz has found it necessary to satisfy the fundamental needs of citizens. Talking about peace when people are hungry is difficult. As the popular saying goes, “Peace with hunger does not last.”
Weapons can be silenced, and agreements can be reached between the state and non-state combatants, but if the conditions that generated violent conflicts are not transformed, the goal of lasting peace will not be possible. Poverty, injustice and hunger pose significant challenges to peacebuilding efforts. In 2016, Colombia’s national government signed an agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia FARC-EP, entitled “Final Agreement for the Termination of the Conflict and the Construction of a Stable and Lasting Peace.” This agreement represented a major achievement, winning President Juan Manuel Santos the Nobel Peace Prize. However, as the improvements to Colombia’s socio-economic conditions specified in the agreement, such as the right and access to food, health, work and security, have not been realized, the root causes of conflict remain present, jeopardizing stability.
Addressing the basic shelter, food and protection needs of people is essential in transforming armed conflict. Humanitarian assistance is required to meet basic needs. However, for conflict-affected communities to heal and to reestablish themselves psychosocially and economically, we need to help these communities to cultivate strategies and tools that help them survive without depending on humanitarian assistance. Longer-term development focused programming, or what Sembrandopaz terms economy for good living, fosters that independence. In cooperation with the state, civil society organizations such as Sembrandopaz can influence the creation of new production, housing and security projects that help citizens improve their economic situation. The movement from vulnerability to sustainability is the transformation of a survivor who has suffered the ravages of armed and structural violence into one who is liberated to become an informed, empowered citizen.
Sembrandopaz works with communities in Montes de María which have been affected by the social, political and armed conflict to restore individual and community lives. To illustrate the work Sembrandopaz does in communities, one may think of the flight of a bird. The bird has two wings, which must be equal and move together harmoniously. One of these wings is political culture, where communities must learn to organise, dialogue, transform local conflicts, learn about the state and how it works and develop initiatives for the betterment of the community. Sembrandopaz’s model of citizen empowerment employs the Citizens’ Agoras method, which consists of organising the different sectors that exist in a particular municipality, such as community action councils or neighbourhood councils, the education sector, young people, women, ethnic groups, LGTBQIA+ people and churches, in such a way that they are integrated in order to be able to present proposals and be “watchdogs” of local administrations, monitoring progress toward sustainable peace and development.
The other wing is economics for the good life. We start from the principle that money is not wealth alone—it is a tool used to buy goods, ideas and services that are necessary to live well. Therefore, if money is not wealth, the lack of money is not poverty. Communities must understand that they have a piggy bank made up of social capital, such as the trust that allows them to cooperate, solidarity, skills and individual and communal experiences that give them the opportunity to produce without damaging nature. The promotion of agroecology, which supports environmentally friendly family production, reinforces these understandings. A small farm called Villa Barbara showcases this community work that contributes to food security and at the same time restores the forest ecosystem. The care for and conservation of the tropical dry forest ecosystem is crucial to long-term community well being. With Sembrandopaz’s accompaniment, the community Saldo, a village in the Carmen de Bolivar municipality, is restoring the nature reserve of 410 H through these agroecology methods.
In this metaphor for holistic community well-being, the bird cannot stay in the air, but must eventually land on the earth. For this it has two legs, one of which is ethics and spirituality. Ethics is here understood as respect, a commitment to truth, nonviolence and care for the environment. Spirituality, meanwhile, is more than religiosity—it names an understanding that individually and communally we are part of the context of the human race and that in any person we can see the reflection of God and of our shared humanity. The other leg represents aesthetics and art. As humans, we need and long to understand beauty, be it reflected in a sunset, a human face or the symbolic language of art, such as music, painting, dance and theater. Beauty in these many forms is key to consolidating peace. Art can bring tranquility and serenity of spirit—it can also help transform the pain of trauma through acts of historical memory can be part of restoring relationships and fostering community well-being.
For more than 20 years, Sembrandopaz has sought to foster holistic well-being for Colombian communities, through work that embraces the interconnectedness of humanitarian assistance, community development and peacebuilding. This work requires faith and hope, the faith reflected as one looks at the seed of a tree that one will one day taste its sweet fruit. We extend the invitation for future generations to sit under the shade of the tree that has been planted but has not yet grown.
Ricardo Esquivia Ballestas is the director of Sembrandopaz, a MCC Colombia partner. Etel Salas, now the Capacity Building Coordinator / PMER for MCC Colombia, used to be the project coordinator with Sembrandopaz. Esquivia continues to live and work in Sincelejo, Sucre, Colombia and Salas now lives in Bogota, Colombia.
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