FOR celebrates 10 years of protective accompaniment in the Peace Community of San Jose de Apartado... TODAY! Here is a letter I received from Liza, which talks about her first trip up to La Union. I thought I should share....
The first time I visited the village of La Union in the peace community of San José de Apartadó was in November of 2002. I was working for Global Exchange at the time and had stepped in last minute to lead a joint Global Exchange-FOR delegation to Colombia. Earlier that year FOR had sent its first team of volunteers to accompany the peace community, but after completing their six month term, there were no new volunteers to replace them and the community was left without FOR's presence for a few months. During that time, there was a paramilitary incursion and the people of La Union fled for their safety to a village farther down the valley.
When we arrived the town was empty; except for Soila (the village crazy lady) and some chickens running around. There was an eerie silence, a kind of silence that comes with violence and fear and the threat of death.
Shortly after our delegation, the people of La Union returned and in 2003, the second team of FOR volunteers arrived. Both the residents of La Union and FOR volunteers have been there every day ever since.
Today marks ten years since that first FOR accompaniment team arrived in La Union. Soila is still there and so are plenty of chickens, along with houses full of people, music playing, televisions on, food being prepared, seeds being planted, corn and yucca and sugar cane being harvested and babies being born. In fact, this March it will be fifteen years since the peace community of San José de Apartadó was founded. Through organizing, speaking out, marching and connecting with national and international organizations, these brave farmers have managed to stay on their lands. This is a feat that is hard for us in the global north to imagine -- the courage it takes to face death and stay put. This anniversary is their success and comes from their incredible perseverance. But we celebrate this as a success of our own as well. With our (and others') accompaniment, the community has been able to face the constant pressures of this conflict while building their alternative vision into the future.
It's hard for me to believe that it's been ten years since that first time I walked up to La Union; and fifteen years since I first set foot in Bogota, as a wide-eyed exchange student with no idea what I was getting myself into. This thing with Colombia has been a potent love affair!
I feel blessed to be living in Bogota these days, and to be connected to this place, these people and this struggle throughout these past years. I feel humbled to be working for an organization like FOR, which has included many great activists in its ranks over its almost 100 year trajectory. I feel fortunate to be using the tool of accompaniment, one of the best ways I think us northerners can express our solidarity with the struggles of people in other places (without sticking our noses into their business and telling them how to organize their movements) while at the same time building bridges between us and them, weaving their and our worlds together.
Many of you have supported my work or FOR in general over the years... We've collaborated, thought and dreamed together.
I invite you to celebrate our ten year anniversary with us by making a donation towards our work here:www.imforfor.org
And thank you for conspiring to believe in a different world!!!
With love and in solidarity,
liza
