PROJECT
Return to the village EL CONGAL
A LA VEREDA
EL CONGAL
Return to the village EL CONGAL
A LA VEREDA
EL CONGAL
On the eastern limits of Caldas with Antioquia is the village; El Congal, in the district of Florencia, municipality of Samaná. 90 percent of the population of this municipality was displaced by the armed conflict and it can be said that all were victims. In 2002, when the paramilitaries burned El Congal, Samaná generated 12,853 displaced people, according to the Victims Unit of the Department of Caldas.
Before the upsurge in violence in the region, El Congal was a good place to live. Green, lush, mountainous landscape, temperate climate, fertile and generous land, crystal clear water sources, simple infrastructure: everything for a prosperous and peaceful life.
Some time later, once the road had been cleared of mines by the Colombian National Army, the former residents of El Congal met at a religious event, attended by about a hundred people who recalled, some crying, their happy days in the village. This day was the starting point for those who decided to return to El Congal. Returning would not be an easy task, but they were willing to take on the challenge.
Several institutions came together to help them in this purpose: Government of Caldas, Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS), Corpocaldas, the National Agency for Overcoming Extreme Poverty (Anspe), the National Learning Service (SENA), and the Magdalena Centro Peace Development Program and Fundación Apoyar. The purpose of all is to facilitate families' return under certain quality of life conditions: an improved access road, drinking water, housing, school, productive projects, health, land restitution, presence of State forces and institutions. , among other. To do this, we worked on the road from a place called: 'La Quiebra del Abejorro' to El Congal; We manage before the Department of Social Prosperity, the linking of families to the different return programs; We promote institutional dynamics around the restoration of social and productive life, and we foresee the construction of 27 houses and the implementation of productive projects that guarantee the economic sustainability of returned families. Currently more than 15 people have returned to the village.
Several institutions came together to help them in this purpose: Government of Caldas, Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), the Department of Social Prosperity (DPS), Corpocaldas, the National Agency for Overcoming Extreme Poverty (Anspe), the National Learning Service (SENA), and the Magdalena Centro Peace Development Program and Fundación Apoyar. The purpose of all is to facilitate families' return under certain quality of life conditions: an improved access road, drinking water, housing, school, productive projects, health, land restitution, presence of State forces and institutions. , among other.
To do this, we worked on the road from a place called: 'La Quiebra del Abejorro' to El Congal; We manage before the Department of Social Prosperity, the linking of families to the different return programs; We promote institutional dynamics around the restoration of social and productive life, and we foresee the construction of 27 houses and the implementation of productive projects that guarantee the economic sustainability of returned families. Currently more than 15 people have returned to the village.
The Apoyar Foundation implements strategies to facilitate the return of Congaleña families to their plots, the reconstruction of their social fabric and productive life. We support the organization of the community and its psychosocial recovery, we donate agricultural inputs, we advise on productive projects, and we make an audiovisual record of this entire process. We have already delivered avocado, soursop, papaya, mango, lemon and tangerine fruit trees; coffee walnut timber trees; coffee seeds, grass, corn, beans, vegetables; Organic fertilizers. In addition, we recondition the community house and other houses and every month we hold planning and coordination meetings with the residents of productive and community activities.
With this project, Fundación Apoyar, together with other institutions, contributes to peace and reconciliation in a country that is only now beginning to recover from the ravages of war.
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