Watch Alirio’s Story of Survival here

Rosalba Belebilla

Rosalba Belebilla lost each of her 5 children one by one sixteen years ago.  She’s alone now.

Rosalba participated in Santa Fe de Antioquia’s reconciliation mural on which survivors and ex-combatants worked side by side.  They designed and constructed a wall depicting the names of Santa Fe de Antioquia victims.  The names on the mural were victims of the conflicts between paramilitaries and guerrillas (and a possible social cleansing by the police).  Rosalba painted 5 names on the wall.  She is still unaware of who or which group killed her children.  The process of creating the mural was very helpful for others but may have left many questions unanswered for Rosalba.

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. The goal would be to help walkers to develop “normal” strides or learn to walk with a prosthetic with greater ease and comfort.

CIREC creates prosthesis and orthesis products on site. They also showcase a museum of old prosthesis some of which the owners rigged themselves with what materials they had. It was so interesting to see how far technology has come.

Dedicated to a healing the whole person, CIREC offers services that go beyond the physical. They have social workers and psychologists available for patients as well as a job development program.

CIREC is a International Committee of the Red Cross model organization for countries in conflict. Living up to this level of distinction, CIREC really encapsulates the psycho-social approach with its Seeds of Peace program which it co-sponsors with Survivor Corps. This program to respond to the needs of persons with disabilities and more specifically to landmine and UXO survivors. It seeks bio-psychosocial (which I’m still learning about) recovery to improve quality of life of this population and help it achieve its reintegration into society. The Seeds of Hope program is implemented in 5 provinces and 23 communities in Colombia.

Maximus Miami Quad Rugby

This promo video for quad rugby in Miami has everything…laughs…action…MY voice!  Not only was I impressed to be able to watch the creation of this video at Fundación ArcÁngeles in Bogotá, I was able to contribute.  The media team needed a panicked reporter, I walked in to take a tour of the facilities, and bingo!  A gringa to pose as a panicked reporter.  Enjoy the survivor action!

The 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 friends and family, raising children, cleaning, turning out the lights at night, dedicating countless hours to maintaining…because that was preferable to a situation; often violent and traumatic.”  Of course, the situation of displacement is different for each of Colombia’s 3.1 – over 4.6 million displaced persons (depending on the source).  Rural Colombians who have fled from their homes due to massacres or fumigation are returning at very low rates which has left many communities virtually empty.  I guess if we keep in mind the stories, for example read here (from the UNHCR site) and listen here, here, and here (from idpvoices.org), of the “displaced” and how we would feel running away from our homes, the word can mean more than just “lacking a home.”

Adam Isacson is the director of the Center for International Policy’s Colombia program.  Here’s a video of him speaking about the partial return of displaced people in rural Colombia around 10 years after massacres.  Check out his blog Plan Colombia and Beyond.

From Plan Colombia and Beyond:

“Here’s a 100-second video I recorded from the back of a pickup truck on the road between Macayepo and Chinulito, both of them sites of massacres in 2000, and both of them experiencing a partial return of displaced people.

Some of you may recognize Nancy Sánchez of the Colombian human rights group MINGA (winner of the Institute for Policy Studies’ 2003 Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award). It may appear that I have Nancy in an affectionate embrace; actually, I’m clinging desperately with my free hand to the roof of the truck in order to avoid flying out. The road is in terrible condition.”

Watch: Adam Isacson on the return of displaced Colombians

To learn more about Colombian’s who have fled their homes due to war, check out this clear and concise Reuter’s AlertNet briefer on this issue.

I was fortunate enough to watch Colombia’s only Quad Rugby team practice yesterday.  I also interviewed a soldier who through battles with guerrilla group, the FARC, was left quadriplegic and without part of his right leg.  This video is coming soon.

Quad Rugby is intense and fast.  These guys are not afraid to crash into one another at high speeds and stick their hands down by the metal wheels of their chairs to scrap for the ball.

The US, UK, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela, and Brazil faced off in a tournament last month in Rio de Janeiro.  The UK took home the trophy, but the guys were eager to inform me that the Brits had 3 former quad rugby Olympians on their team.  These teams will face off again in October in Argentina.  Having met their match with the more experienced teams, they’re ready to take them on again with a better idea of the competition.  This highly motivated team has a great time during practice; laughing, yelling, poking fun at one another.  I had a great time myself joking around with the guys after practice.  What a friendly group of guys!

Coliseo Campín: HQ of Quad Rugby practice

Quad rugby practice is fast-paced and high impact

Quad rugby scrimmage

Coach William gives some pointers

Coach gets in on the action

Photo by Lindsey Crifasi, 2009 AP Fellow. Location: Bogotá, Colombia. Partner: Survivor Corps.

Photo by Lindsey Crifasi, 2009 AP Fellow. Location: Bogotá, Colombia. Partner: Survivor Corps.

From left to right: Survivor Corps country director Jairo Arboleda, Fundación Arcángeles architect, and Fundación Arcángeles founder Juan Pablo Salazar.

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 interviews.

The Arcángeles facilities and staff were more than I expected.  The facilities were housed in an old mansion which had been updated to be completely accessible.  There were two workout areas, speech therapy and occupational therapy rooms, rooms for more advanced therapies (involving machines I am not familiar with and won’t speculate on the uses or names), and many offices; communications, accounting, etc.

The communications department was working on a promo video for the quad rugby team, working off the “quad rugby is a virus taking over people in wheelchairs all over the world…!” theme. The team needed a panicked reporter to announce the spreading of the virus as well as the winner of the recent tournament in Rio de Janeiro (out of Argentina, the US, Colombia, Venezuela, the UK, and Brazil).  The UK took home the trophy, but the communications team and Fundación Arcángeles founder Juan Pablo Salazar wanted me to present the winner with excitement.  When the video is edited, it will be put on youtube and they’ll notify me.  It was quite fun recording my voice for the video, but also embarrassing to hear my voice played back over and over.  My face was very red at the end of it all.

Juan Pablo plans to add on to this space.  He wants to create a daycare for children with disabilities and a greenhouse that people can work on in order to improve mobility and dexterity.  As he, Jairo, and Fundación Arcángeles’ architect discussed how to make a convention center in Cartagena accessible for an upcoming meeting, Juan Pablo’s enthusiasm began to emerge.  He really began to glow as he showed Juliette and I around the facilities.  But, I think I noticed the most energy and spark when he and Jairo discussed some of Survivor Corps’ main principles and programs.  Juan Pablo commented “super chevere” (super cool) to many of Jairo’s summaries of programs as well as Jerry’s 5 steps to overcoming a life crisis. Juan Pablo remembered Survivor Corps founder Jerry White from a meeting three years ago and you could see links being made in Juan Pablo’s brain.  One thing is for sure: I think from the little I know Jerry White (from the meeting with him before I left for Colombia) and the little I know Juan Pablo, that they share a certain fire and vitality.  They should meet again.

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 organization doing stem cell research in the country. Arcángeles has been dedicated to improving the rehabilitation process and making technological advances toward this end.

Due to the serious issue of social inclusion of people with disabilities in the country, the foundation extended its services to social programs and in 2006 formed an office to start income-generating programs to develop the accessibility of jobs for people with disabilities in Bogota and Cali. It also implements small business- and micro-credit projects in various departments in Colombia.

Today, Fundación Arcángeles is an entity comprised of many organizations which provide:

• -a sports club with a presence in three major cities of the country and to develop sports as a way of life and with an emphasis on the development of the 21 Paralympic disciplines in Colombia. This element of Arcángeles also adds to the Peer Support model of rehabilitation that is essential in the Survivor Corps model
• -accessible architecture, and act as a consultant in the process of changing the culture of exclusion
• -a communications arm which intends to foster positive images of people with disabilities through the use of technological tools of communication such as documentaries, short campaigns, forums, events, etc…
• -development of inclusive jobs
• -much more

I will be going to Fundación Arcángeles in a few hours and will be able to provide a visual eye into their work and the people making it happen.

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 website offers a look into the kind of organization CC is and what they are offering. 

Towards its mission of rights for all, Conciudadanía promotes the strengthening of local democracy by means of exercising full citizenship for men and women and the process of learning peaceful coexistence based on respect of human rights.  The name of the organization itself means “co-citizenship. 

Survivor Corps and CC have worked together for two years.  Since then, SC and CC have cooperated in two projects together:  one on collective action for reconciliation and the other on the integration of the methodologies of SC, CC, and Bogotá based Fundación para la Reconciliación (Foundation for Reconciliation).  

The collective action project has been implemented in three municipalities in the department of Antioquia to promote joint action for reconciliation between two survivor groups:  victims of violence and demobilized agents of violence. 

I’m excited to visit Conciudadania and find out more about the people that make this organization run!