COLOMBIA:
Using Communication to
Build Peace
By
Helda Martínez
BOGOTÁ, (IPS) - "We
don't want to give birth
to children who go off
to war. We want our
children to be
filmmakers, painters,
dentists, whatever they
want, but not to repeat
this disgraceful war," a
Colombian woman tells
IPS.
The woman is Soraya
Bayuelo, who 14 years
ago co-founded a
communications
collective for children
and young people, which
won the National Peace
Prize in 2003 and the
AVINA Prize for
journalism in 2006. It
is located in one of the
regions of fiercest
conflict, the Montes de
María in the northern
Colombian department
(province) of Bolívar.
"Our region isn't just
the red blotch on the
map shown by our
colleagues in the
commercial media. Montes
de María is also a place
where people live, sing
and remember. We think
information should be
balanced, and we want to
show the sunny side,"
Bayuelo says.
Bayuelo was among about
100 leaders of projects
from all over the
country who gathered in
Bogotá recently for an
International Seminar on
Communication and Peace.
Indigenous
representatives came
from the department of
Cauca, in the southwest.
Young people from Belén
de los Andaquíes,
Caquetá in the south of
the country, arrived on
their radio-bicycles, or
mobile radio units
attached to bicycles.
Presenters of programmes
like TVO Bien and
Reporteritos came from
Antioquía, in the
northeast, and,
community radio stations
from 18 municipalities
in Magdalena Medio, in
the east-central region,
also contributed their
experience.
"Hundreds of young
people from all over the
country who are raising
their voices for peace
are an essential
contribution to the
Colombian peace
process," Bolivian
expert in communication
for development, Alfonso
Gumucio, one of the
foreign invited guests
at the meeting, told IPS.
Colombia has endured a
complex civil war for
nearly half a century.
Guerrilla movements in
remote rural areas took
up arms in 1964, and
rightwing paramilitary
death squads have been
active since the 1980s,
although they have been
partially demobilised
under an agreement
reached with the present
government of President
Álvaro Uribe.
The international
seminar was organised by
the Jesuit Javeriana
University, the
non-governmental
Colombia Multicolor
Foundation, the
Presidential Agency for
Social Action and
International
Cooperation, the British
Council and the European
Union.
Its goals were to revise
communication strategies
for training local
workers, to learn from
communication and peace
experiences in countries
like Tanzania, Ireland,
El Salvador and
Guatemala, and to share
works created by 28
groups, such as videos,
printed materials,
educational games,
theatre and dance.
According to estimates,
there are more than 600
communication
collectives in Colombia,
initiated by women and
young people who have
grown tired of the
ongoing armed conflict.
For instance, in San
Francisco, in the
eastern part of
Antioquía, the leftist
guerrillas imposed a
curfew and ordered
residents to shut
themselves up in their
houses from
mid-afternoon.
A group of young people
rebelled against this
imposition. "We would
stay in the park until
we heard the first
shot," Luis Arbey,
former engineering
student at Antioquía
University, who dropped
out to devote himself to
working full-time for
TVO Bien, a
communication
collective, told IPS.
After four years' work,
60 young people are now
participating in
communication activities
in San Francisco, which
include film screenings
in the public park.
"At first we had to put
up with criticism and
opposition from the
townspeople themselves.
Now we feel proud of our
work, when we see that
adults and children
alike are setting their
fears aside and coming
out to enjoy the movies,
which are selected
according to the
audience and the
requests we receive,"
Arbey said.
In Magdalena Medio,
community radio stations
sprang up a decade ago.
They have faced violence
from different fronts.
When the paramilitary
groups dominated the
region, they were
against the young people
meeting in public places
to enjoy themselves,
"like young people
everywhere," said Manfry
Gómez, a communicator
for the Peace and
Development Programme.
"So, choosing our words
carefully and avoiding
confrontation, we
explained through the
community radio stations
that the gatherings of
young people had no
other objective than fun
and entertainment. The
paramilitaries
understood, and stopped
persecuting the young
people," Gómez said.
In indigenous peoples'
territories,
communication groups
have been promoted with
success. Emilio Basto,
of the Páez indigenous
community in Santander
de Quilichao, Cauca,
said he was pleased with
the results of the radio
station there.
"We work so that people
may become aware of what
our Mother Earth
produces, so that our
children may listen and
build peace. We
broadcast in Spanish and
in our own language,
Nasa Yuwe," he told IPS.
Participants talked
about their own
experiences and learned
from others. In the end,
they agreed on a
proposal to create "a
national information
agency that will allow
us to go beyond the
barriers put up by
rigid, entrenched
institutional agendas,
and allow us to get the
sap that sustains this
country flowing," said
Mauricio Beltrán, head
of the Colombia
Multicolor Foundation at
the closing ceremony.
Bayuelo said that in the
midst of the armed
conflict, her efforts
are "a drop in the
ocean, but a clear and
shining drop. Here,
young people now
approaching the age of
17 have already chosen
their path, and the last
thing they want to do is
pick up a rifle."
Bayuelo said she is
happy that one of the
young members of her
collective is now the
head of the Audiovisual
Department at the
Universidad Jorge Tadeo
Lozano, a prestigious
institute of higher
education.
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