Rosa Helena, a member of the Peace Weavers Foundation, announced her repair process, in development with the Victims Unit.

Rosa Helena Hoyos, a victim of conflict and a weaver of peace, presented the productive project of 135 women of the municipality of La Cruz, Nariño, before more than 31 members of the UN Peacebuilding Commission, which met in Cartagena.

This is Tejedoras de Paz Foundation, of which Rosa Helena Hoyos is a legal representative, and is made up of female heads of household, trained and organized for the production of iraca hats, the flagship product of this area of ​​the department.

During her speech, Hoyos told how the group of women victims of La Cruz have taken forward, with the help of government institutions such as the Victims Unit, a product that today is in the national market for its quality standard and that seeks, in the future, to reach international markets through strategic alliances.

Hoyos told representatives of the UN Peacebuilding Commission: “I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this stage to tell you about our collective reparation process. We are a foundation of women from La Cruz, Nariño who produce fabrics with iraca palm, a product with which we support our families”.

She added that "the Victims Unit has helped us in the consolidation process as a foundation and we have strengthened ourselves with the empowerment of women in our community".

She asked the UN ambassadors for support for the sustainability of the project and for opening new markets internationally.

For Rosa Helena, “the biggest challenge is to overcome difficulties such as the geographical location of the place of entrepreneurship and to achieve the credibility of administrative entities, that it is possible to develop entrepreneurship projects that favor the development of community”.

She pointed out that, "behind every hat, every fabric we sell, there is a story of a woman who wants to get ahead and overcome the adverse circumstances of conflict".

She concluded her intervention remembering that in Tejedoras de Paz Foundation "there is a unique purpose: to move forward the homes, overcome difficulties and continue."

“For our foundation, it is very important to achieve cooperation and the conviction of society in terms of accepting the management of peace processes by demobilized forces or factions. Accept that they are subjects worthy of resocialization”, she concluded.

(End/MPA/LMY)