News







 

ACT Feature

Colombia 01/06

Geneva, May 3, 2006

Nunca dejaré de jugar: I will never stop playing

Cover of Nunca dejare de jugar
Download the booklet
(in Spanish)
PDF file I 1.4 MB

NUNCA DEJARE DE JUGAR: “I will never stop playing” is a booklet in Spanish that lifts up the voices of young people from Colombia, who live in the municipality of Soacha in the sector of Ciudadela Sucre on the southern edge of Bogota, and in El Portal del Oasis, a neighbourhood of Ibague. The children have all lived through forced displacement, and this small publication is a recognition of their stories and experiences and part of the psychosocial recovery activities implemented under the ACT appeal LACO51 (Assistance to those Displaced by Armed Conflict) last year.

Forty years of conflict and a recent economic downturn have led to the deterioration in basic living conditions for many Colombians. A study conducted by the World Food Program between December 2002 and April 2003 concluded that 80 percent of Colombians displaced by violence live in extreme poverty and lack access to sufficient food.

The ACT members in Colombia responding to the crisis are Diakonie Emergency Aid (DEA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Colombia (IELCO)/Lutheran World Federation and ACT Netherlands/Project Counselling Service (PCS).

The young people who have taken part in the psychosocial services initiated by ACT in Colombia have not only had to deal with the impact of being forcibly displaced, but also the many consequences of displacement, which affected their social and psychological development, given the levels of violence often starting at home, but also endemic in the broader communities.

This booklet of short stories is a powerful witness to the voices of the young people and an opportunity to learn more about their daily reality, their own and unique ways of expressing their thoughts, feelings and experiences and the fact that, in spite of having endured much, so many of them are adamant that they will never stop playing.

The children's experiences
Excerpts from Nunca dejaré de jugar

Child's drawing from Nunca dejare de jugar
"Night and day"
Drawing by Daniel Alfonso Sánchez, 10 years old

El Desplazamiento – The Displacement

A very happy family was living in a neighbourhood of Tolima. There, they had their farming and their animals. But one day armed men came to their house and took the oldest son and said to the rest of the family that they had to go otherwise they would killed them. They left quickly and they had no time to take anything from their house, they left for the city where they had nothing.

- Liceth Viviana Rojas, 7 years old
(Translated from Spanish)

Un Milagro de Dios – God’s Miracle

A long time ago a family was living in a village and because of the violence, the people of the village had to leave all their belongings and came to the city and arrived as displaced persons and nobody wanted to help them or to give them food. Weeks and months went by and they had to sleep and live on the street, when from the sky God sent them a good person who wanted to help them even without knowing them so that they would be given what they had to be given as displaced persons. Now they have a little house, a school, health and a business and they live happily, but with the trauma of the past.

- Luz Enith Devia, 16 years old
(Translated from Spanish)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home I News I Situation Reports I Photos I Appeals I Resources I Finance