Last week I went to Socota in the mountainous region of Boyaca. Socota is actually where
the Lutheran church in Colombia started over 80 years ago. It is a rural
farming area.
About 15-20 years ago a large amount of
coal mines began to be developed in the region, and many people abandoned their
farming practices to pursue the promises of riches from working in the mines. Many
in the community have realized that those riches are not to be found, and in
the process the land is being damaged.
About two years ago a food security project in the community came to a close. The project helped families develop large gardens in an effort to recuperate the traditions of growing food. After two years, we looked into the effects
of that food security project and found that almost all of the families
involved have enlarged their gardens and/or helped neighbors develop their own.
With this positive outcome the Human Rights program decided to continue to
accompany the community. Through conversations with leaders in the
community we decided the best way to accompany them is through ‘community
organizing’: Helping build more solidarity between the families and other
actors in the community; looking for the assets in the community and how to put
them to use; and building a vision for the future.
On October 27th we held our
first meeting to get the process started, we talked about what is ‘community organizing’,
what are the hopes and dreams of the community, and planned out a process that
will begin more strongly at the beginning of 2019.
 |
| The group from the community that came to the initial meeting. Photo by Fabian Bello. |
 |
| Miguel sharing a map he drew of the community and where some of the different community assets are. Photo by Fabian Bello. |
 |
| In small groups discussing what assets already exist in the community that could help strengthen community processes. Photo by Fabian Bello. |
 |
| Beginning the meeting by discussing different methods for making change in the community, and what community organizing is. Photo by Fabian Bello. |