Agricultural training, emotional support, as well as human rights support inspired Richard, a young conflict victim peasant, to return home and develop his life project in the rural area.

When Richard Nixon Martinez Gerardino arrived in Bogota, he remembered the hardships he lived in his childhood in Cesar. In a cold room in the hills, he devised a plan to be able to survive: a diet of cheap cereal and milk, an improvised refrigerator to avoid food expiration during the month, and the exact money for the bus he had to take for a new job as an appliance salesman, a job he arrived at every day after two hours of crossing the city, a job that barely paid half the minimum wage.

Ten years ago, in the adobe kitchen of a village in Tamalameque, in his native Cesar, Richard took turns with his older sister to cook arepas for breakfast before leaving to study. His routine started at 4:00 in the morning. Before going to work, their mother, Mrs. Mariana Gerardino, would ask them to milk the cow, boil the milk and mix it with the chopped arepa, which would be their breakfast for many mornings; sometimes it changes for a combination of egg, yucca, lard, and lemon. All of this had to be done before 5:15 a.m., when they had to wait on the road for the informal transport that took them from the settlement to the municipality in a 20-minute journey through 18 kilometers.

“Obstacles help us serve society. Barriers make us stronger and teach us to value life,” says Richard, recalling a conviction that held him up and help circumstances not to overwhelm his character.

Life wasn’t always so hard. It was different when the family had the father figure of Nixon Martinez, who stood out as a leader and politician in Tamalameque until 2000, when he was disappeared in strange events. “The part that frustrates me the most in life, being a victim of conflict, is not a source of pride, it's something that shouldn’t have happened,” says Richard because they never heard from his father again.

He remembers fondly that his parents fell in love in Pailitas (Cesar) when they were children, and how the promised each other a life together and to run away as soon as they reached 18.

He had a regular life until the day Mr. Nixon disappeared. In addition to pain and impotence, this produced a series of victimizing events such as threats, and later the forced displacement promoted by those who sought to silence Mrs. Mariana due to her determined search regarding her life-partner’s whereabouts.

At the time of his father's disappearance, Richard was nine years old, so he experienced a lot of confusion, and many of his dreams were diluted. In a village near Pailitas, Mr. “Chepe” de la Rosa gave them a hand by letting them stay in a humble farm in Hacaritama. Thus, from the settlement to the town, he spent his childhood and teenage years.

A leader

"I am spiritual, I have a special connection with people who are gone, I do not close the chapter, I make it part of my book and I appreciate what I have today," he says. In this way, Richard claims to have said goodbye to his father through a dream that lessened his sadness and gave him the strength to continue.

At school, he experienced an awakening towards leadership: he became a youth representative, he ventured into the performing arts, and earned his bachelor's degree in sales, products, and services. "I made my mom proud in everything," he adds.

Later, Richard traveled to Aguachica to carry out technological studies in sustainable biotrade, which he rotated working in a foundation that had an agreement with SENA. Then he traveled to Medellin and Bogota, pursuing better life opportunities encouraged by his mother and his own will.

A life’s subpoena

In 2014 in Bogota, Richard was admitted to a hospital’s intensive care unit. The cheap cereal and the conditions he subjected himself to fit in in the big city had some consequences: a gastroenteritis, added to ingesting expired medicine, caused severe headaches.

After a hard recovery process and other attempts at job stability in the capital, Richard decided to return to the town with everything it implies for a person who has suffered violence. In other words, remembering, giving meaning to everything again, unlearning, accepting that everything has been tried out or, perhaps, learning to "lose."

He got a new chance with Tomas Santiago Dueri, Niños de la Esperanza foundation’s Director and Granja Los Pinos’ Project Coordinator, wich works in Albania, Santander, municipality. Tomas considers the migration of young people from the countryside to the city is a recurring problem enhanced by the conflict. In his words, “there is a high dropout rate due to the long distances that must be traveled, as well as the financial means to enter and/or remain in the educational system. For this reason, many young people rather look for work in their region or outside to have an income contribution for their families.”

By 2021, Granja Los Pinos project included three groups of conflict young victims who planned to develop their dreams in the countryside to improve their living conditions and promote generational transition, which sometimes is called generational renewal in rural areas.

Richard applied to the open call and reached Tomas by phone. That is where their bond began before arriving at La Granja. Different entities participated in the process, like the Unit for Victims through the psychosocial support methodology “Hilando”, which is made to counteract the war effects.

For three months and through the internship modality, the training process in agricultural production for food security, agroecology and rural development was carried out, taught, and certified by SENA.

The Unit’s “Hilando” strategy had nine sessions that provided reflection spaces to contribute to dignity, to change the way the war is perceived and to strengthen the participants network support, contributing to their life course, avoiding re-victimization and the emergence of new violence: all the above with a transversal focus on human rights and rural citizenship.

The dream of sowing in the field

The experience at Granja Los Pinos gave Richard a project idea to ​work for: “This great opportunity we had, not only to satisfy the desire to get ahead, but to be able to heal wounds, encouraged us to grow and be able to love the countryside, not to migrate to the cities, not to leave our families, our parents, our brothers, but rather to realize we can work together with what we have, what we have left.”

His project deals with implementing an integral farm with coverage in his native land, his municipality, and his village, with the aim of gathering more young people who are thinking of going to the cities, as well as neighbors who have always been supportive.

"I also want to help the communities, so they don’t have to buy their products far away, so they don’t have to be risking their lives on a motorcycle, in a car, and paying much more."

This young and proud farmer from Cesar seeks to be inspiration. "I am looking for help in knowledge, with some kind of contact that tells us: ‘Pay attention, this is how it’s done’. More than a monetary support, which still is fundamental, that they believe like I do, that they see what I see as the future, stability for me, my family, and for all the young people waiting for a chance like this.”

Richard es hoy un joven exitoso. Lo demuestra su agenda llena de invitaciones en las que cuenta su historia de vida y sus proyectos, por lo que hoy toca puertas en busca de un respaldo que materialice sus aspiraciones.

Today, Richard is a successful young man. This is backed by his agenda, full of invitations for him to tell his life story and his projects, and this is why he is knocking on doors searching for support to make his aspirations come true.

(End/YUM/COG/RAM)