From Guatemala to Colombia
Following our program in Guatemala, I set sail for Colombia. Of course by “set sail” I really mean that boarded a United Airlines flight to Bogota; “set flight” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it though.
So far my work in Colombia has been wonderful. Moreover, the work that I have been doing here is largely been a continuation of the work that my group did in Guatemala. Like in Guatemala, my focus area in Colombia is economic development. Unlike traditional economic development plans that have been implemented in Colombia, however, my goal is to continue incorporating the community approach to development that we used in Guatemala.
One example of this community-centered approach is the work that my organization has been doing in Ambalema, Colombia. Ambalema is a small, colonial community with an agricultural economy. In recent years, lack of economic opportunities has led to the decline of this town and many young adults have left the area in search of work. For this reason, my organization is looking to intervene in this town by creating a technical school and creating new businesses. As I learned in Guatemala though, our efforts will only be successful if we incorporate residents into the planning and implementation process.
In order to do this, we have created a series of workshops composed of members from the Colombian Ministry of Culture, an organization from Ambalema called Ambaviva, an elementary school in Ambalema and a local university. In each workshop, participants are divided into groups and assigned a topic to investigate and evaluate in Amablema. The idea is that town residents should take the lead in identifying and promoting development strategies for their community. Furthermore, we recognize that it is these residents, not external actors, which have the best understanding of local capacities and opportunities.
As I continue with this work, my goal is to continuously integrate what I learned from our experiences in Guatemala. I want to help create self-reliant communities that not only influence the projects being implemented in their towns, but that ultimately have the controlling stake in these projects.