If I were the world's mightiest man, I would make peace on earth

If I were the world's mightiest man, I would make peace on earth | The Mechanical Cow | Creating jobs and future: SOS Social Centre Sucre in Bolivia

One to two murders every week, August 2003 has seen five youths left dead in a single night, maybe more, nobody knows for sure. The scene of the assassination is the Cazucá slum neighbourhood located on the fringe of the capital city of Bogotá where an SOS Social Centre is committed to the fight for more education, health provision, equal opportunities, children's rights and to stand up against domestic violence. Over the sea of roofs of Cazucá - Photo: F. Espinoza These kinds of incidents are part of the everyday life of the people who have already been socially excluded. A petition, addressed among others to UNICEF, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the government and the military powers and signed by a large number of NGOs, among them SOS Children's Villages Colombia, children's rights lobby groups and social projects, calls for an investigation of the August murders, the protection of human lives and the support of children, youths and their families in the affected areas. To call a spade a spade in Colombia is dangerous, if not downright hazardous. Forty years of civil war have made it nearly impossible for the people to be on the right side without automatically being on the wrong side. Providing social help, for example, may be interpreted as politically unacceptable agitation. Society in Colombia has been infiltrated by the protagonists of the fight over drugs, weapons and power, with civil society inescapably involved in the conflict. Whether it be the leftist guerrillas or the dreaded paramilitary squadrons or the regular army - all civil war parties act in a ruthless and authoritarian way within their respective spheres of influence. Refugees in their own country However, it is not continued violence the people are facing. If there is only one party dominating one territory, everything is relatively calm there. It only means war if one, two or three warring parties lay claim to the same territory. The population gets worn down in the face of permanent fighting over distribution of wealth and influence. Life in rural areas is especially dangerous. Methodical intimidation, denunciation, kidnapping and murder drive people away from their property, their friends, their jobs and force them to move to the conurbations, with 75% of the Colombian population having resettled there in the meantime. More than two million people have become internally displaced. Cazucá is one of the neighbourhoods where the uprooted become stranded, with a share of about 45% in the neighbourhood's overall population. Due to the never ceasing influx of civil war victims, the neighbourhood is constantly expanding to cover the hills along the southern outskirts of Bogotá, with maze-like roads between simple brick houses and huts made of boards and sheet metal parts. Well-functioning water supplies and sewerage systems seem so remote; there is a lack of education and health services. There is only one hospital in the community of Soacha, which is part of Cazucá, one third of the children cannot go to school. Slum on the outskirts of Bogotá - Photo: F. Espinoza It is shaming to detect the existing antagonism when looking at the skyscrapers of Bogotá, where big business and Western lifestyle bloom. Drug addiction, disease, unemployment, violence and resignation abound in Cazucá. Especially newcomers are given a hard time. "People without any friends or relatives here wait for someone to help them kicking their heels," explains Ana, a co-worker at the SOS Social Centre. "After having arrived it usually takes people six months to find a job. During this difficult time especially children and youths are highly vulnerable and it frequently ends up with abuse of alcohol or drugs and committing crimes." After having left their villages out of pure urge for survival, they find themselves having to fight for their lives in the cities where they are not familiar with the written or unwritten laws, the culture and those who have power. Living in the new environment means a real test for families, often followed by disintegration of the family context. The older generation still cling onto their home and hope to return some day, the younger generation, despite all difficulty, prefers to stay in the urban areas instead of moving back to the rural areas where there is a more direct impact of civil war, and fleeing straitened circumstances seems nearly impossible. "Custodians of the law" Their downward slope is predetermined. Then, "custodians of the law" enter the scene (the "limpia") and engage in activities like killing youth who are found consuming drugs or alcohol on street corners or just having a chat late at night, or are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Newcomers are always met with suspicion. It sometimes also happens that parents (both fathers and mothers) who neglect their children and their households are "cautioned" three times, the fourth time they are shot ruthlessly. In Cazucá, paramilitary units are suspected of disguising themselves as armed moralists who fight each other over issues of dominance. One weapon they use is "social cleansing" as a means of subordinating the population. In other parts of the country and the city, leftist guerrillas have implemented a tough system of "law and order" - that kind of "law and order" they promote. This is why official statistics show a sharp decline in crime rates, however, statistics on crimes committed by "unofficial authorities" would speak a different language. Photo: F. Espinoza Fight against poverty Director of the SOS Social Centre Gustavo Bejarano and his team have been trying to go on with their activities unflustered in spite of the context of deterrence and despotism they have been living in for the last three years. Their activities focus on creating a future there, and a feeling of sense and respect. The centre is working at full capacity and fights poverty on a long-term basis to prevent families from disintegrating. Activities focus on health, education, providing support to families and counselling. Besides providing about 100 children with daily warm meals, the centre also runs vaccination and health advice programmes. By means of providing children between three and six years of age with pre-school education and primary school children with supplementary classes, the team at the centre tries to do away with the lack of education at least for some of the children. "We have found that the children are less aggressive and that they are more willing to participate in group work activities. First, they only came to have a meal, but now they like to play or do handicrafts or make music with us," says Karin Zúñiga who is in charge of psycho-social accompaniment of the children. Leisure activities offered include dancing, juggling, painting and a playground. Workshops with the emphasis on stabilising family systems through promoting (self-)confidence and communication are also included. The active participation of parents at the social centre is improving steadily. They help with cleaning, repairing things and with healing minds and souls - this is how they make the centre their own priority, they take on responsibility for the centre. Desire for peace Having a close look at oneself and each other is something completely new to families who almost inevitably are faced with experiences of abuse, violence and stress resulting from the pressure of poverty. This includes learning about one's own rights, wishes and longings, and to talk about it. "I want them to stop beating me and allow me to watch TV," says a nine-year-old participant at the Seminar on Children's Rights. 60 children use colours, collages or videos to express their experiences often dominated by sexual, physical or emotional abuse. They are being informed of the rights they have and the respect they deserve. Workshops are concluded by having the children sit opposite their mothers, who have also attended the seminar, and talking about their wishes and emotions. When asked how they would change the world the children provide replies that are dominated by great sympathy and readiness to help other children and people in need, by the longing for love, the wish to have their own bike or a proper soccer ball and by the desire for peace. "I would provide the homeless with a home," says Nelson. A true petition by the children addressed to the great and good in Colombia and throughout the world.