Arenillo, Palmira, is a village hit by the armed conflict that worked hard to get back into their feet. Today, with its Integral Collective Repair Plan completed, they have much to show: a united community and productive projects.

To start over is perhaps one of the hardest decisions to make. It involves believing again and looking forward despite the pain. It applies to life, and it also applies to cases such as the beautifully green town in Palmira’s mountains, where the weather is cold, something never linked with this municipality’s name.

Arenillo is a small village, with a single street, and houses built within the mountain, where around 700 people live.

Many cycling lovers know this route, which is taken through the Versalles road in La Buitrera village. Today, it is common to find cycling fans, birdwatchers and explorers who enjoy charming natural places with pools and trails included.

But this wasn’t always the case. When the armed conflict was at its peak in western Colombia, it was tragic for Arenillo because the town is in a strategic viewpoint of the mountain range. For about five years, members of the self-defense groups, Calima Block, were stationed there. They managed to take the territory as their home through fear, compromising the town’s soul: Their festivities and holydays, mourning rituals, the transit through its roads, its production processes, and its own freedom; all of this changed. Furthermore, there were numerous violent acts and attacks committed by the guerrillas.

Experts call this "confinement." And people who suffered it say it is like being imprisoned in the town itself.

With the self-defense groups demobilization in December 2004, the end of this dark arrived, but it also came with something challenging, the fight to get back on their feet.

Last Friday was a holiday in Arenillo, a day when everyone remembered the transition from intense violence to deep loneliness and desolation that war left behind. Around the same time, their Integral Collective Reparation Plan closure was official; it lasted eight years. They recalled how much it took them to believe again, even to believe in themselves.

“Distrust started in the neighbors because there was a lot of pain. If we didn’t trust them, much less the institutions. But today we all know we can count on each other, the community believes, and we are united despite what we suffered," says Humberto Prieto, Arenillo leader.

The Unit for the Victims’ Territorial Director in Valle del Cauca, Luz Toro, reflects on Mr. Prieto’s words and explains that, although an Integral Collective Reparation Plan contains material measures (in this case a truck, agricultural supplies, dehydrator plants management, among others), the fundamental repair actions begin on another level.

She means psychosocial processes that involve many tears, hugs, drawings, silences, outbursts, collective griefs elaboration, places redefining and the attempt to heal that which has hurt for so long. Even though this task may be supported by professionals, it is the community that does the work. There are two groups of the townspeople who become the resilience engine: The Impulse Committee and The Weavers, who, as their name dictates, patiently weave deteriorated threads of a community broken by war.

Lucero Villalba (who is part of this Committee) is herself a burst of energy made woman. Today she works in the ADA venture with herbal hot drinks (moringa, manzanilla, cidron and others), as well as in the ecotourism trail project, which she promotes inviting tourists to enjoy its natural wonders.

"We didn’t choose war, but we choose how to move forward," she stated in the closing ceremony with a handful of seeds in her hand. Her words may be the motto of Arenillo’s decision: To start again.

Within the package of the reparation pending tasks, there was a long-awaited one that finally materialized this month, the solar panels installation. This means energy supply for the houses in the path’s upper area, which became a reality through an agreement with UNDP and an exchange with the Norwegian Government.

Esteban Guefia is one of those who could change by placing a tv in his house: "Now my grandchildren can come more often without getting bored." Even in the middle of 2021, everyday things such as having a refrigerator or being able to read at night were not possible at his house.

To get back on one’s feet is perhaps one of the hardest decisions to make. It involves believing again and looking forward despite the pain. It applies to life, and it also applies to cases such as Arenillo, a town that used its own hands to create the miracle of a second chance.

Volver a empezar es quizá una de las decisiones más difíciles de tomar. Implica volver a creer y mirar para adelante, pese a los dolores. Aplica para la vida, aplica para casos como el Arenillo, que con sus propias manos fabricó el milagro de la segunda oportunidad.

(End/LJA/COG/RAM)