Bucaramanga has established itself as a territory of welcome and opportunities for people from Venezuela. This phenomenon has brought with it great challenges related to the construction of social cohesion and trust, in addition to access to all their rights in dignified conditions, through the offer of services that address their multiple needs.
Faced with this panorama, the Fe y Alegría International Movement with the support of USAID’s Integra Project, implements the ‘Community Integration’ Project, which seeks to promote integration, improve coexistence and trust among the migrant, returnee and Bumanguese population in three prioritized neighborhoods of the city such as Colorados – commune 1, Cristal Alto – commune 10 and Luz de Salvación 2 – commune 11, with the purpose of contributing and strengthening social cohesion and building trust. In the prioritized neighborhoods, an intervention process is carried out in three components: training, community project and visibility actions.
After prioritizing the neighborhoods to intervene, recognition exercises were carried out using social mapping tools, surveys and interviews with leaders of the Community Action Boards, Civil Society Organizations, Grassroots Organizations and other representative actors, activities that They allowed the identification of community dynamics and challenges in social cohesion and the building of trust between migrants, returnees and host communities in each territory.
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With the findings identified in the diagnostic phase, the contents of the training process were designed, addressing topics related to the migratory context, cultural diversity, assertive communication – voices that connect, citizen coexistence, community leadership, gender equity and prevention of gender-based violence. that allowed significant learning to improve community relations and coexistence between neighbors, leaders, civil society organizations and community action boards.
As a result of the process, 390 migrants, returnees and host communities from the Colorados, Cristal Alto and Luz de Salvación neighborhoods successfully completed the training sessions that endorse them as Agents for Community Change and New Agents of Changewho in an articulated manner will be responsible for collectively building and implementing community projects to promote social cohesion and the construction of trust in each territory.
As Nerangelys Borges, migrant leader from the Los Colorados neighborhood, expresses it, “I arrived in Colombia three years ago and until now I am seeing that concern to transform, to help and work together so that the neighborhood looks better. It is important that we have a sense of belonging to our community and it is good that our opinion is taken into account to solve the problems we have in our neighborhood.”
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As a closing activity of the “Community Integration” project, it will be carried out the festival of cohesion with joy and confidence which will allow, through cultural, artistic, sports and cultural activities, to highlight the new narratives of integration as an opportunity in Bucaramanga, a city where migrants and returnees are part of the communities that welcome them in the different neighborhoods of the city.
Since its founding in 1971, the international organization, Fe y Alegría, has been present in Colombia as a movement of popular education and social promotion. In Bucaramanga and the eastern region, they promote access to education from their educational institutions, “and now we are working in the community, which is another way to generate impact in the population, because we know that the boys, girls and adolescents who are in our classrooms are the product of a family, a territory, a community; So, we are working with adults so that with their example, we can permeate the new generations because, in addition, thanks to this project we are making a presence in neighborhoods where we do not have a school.”
