Edgar Cantor was not aware of the need to go through a psychosocial process until he received the one that the Victims Unit offered. Now he recommends it.

"When you're told you have to leave with what you're wearing, if you do not do it in 48 hours you do not respond for your life, you leave your homeland humiliated, with a wounded heart, that's very hard!”.

This is how Edgar Cantor, from El Zulia (Norte de Santander), remembers the forced displacement he suffered in 2005. His narration is part of the catharsis he made during the Emotional Recovery Strategy (ERE) that the Victims Unit offered for a group of those affected by armed conflict resident in the municipality of Los Patios.

"In these encounters one learns to leave the past behind, to stand and begin again. I tried not to give importance to what happened, I lived in the present, but the problem was there, "he adds.

He, and another 19 victims, participated in the nine meetings coordinated by the psychologist of the Unit in Norte de Santander, Bosco Guerrero Salas, in the public library of the municipality. The days were held on Fridays between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., so that it does not interfere with the work activities of assistants.

"I lost my home, I got sick, I got to convulse up to 25 times a day and I did not know it was because of what happened. Now I can say that this therapy helps a lot, which is fundamental to overcome what happened to us, "says Cantor, who lost even the old dream of being a town councilor.

Like him, other participants have managed to open their hearts in emotional recovery meetings. Ana Ilse is one of them. She was a rural teacher when she was displaced, fleeing from the cylinder tanks that the guerrillas left in the corregimiento park where she worked.

"When I lived those events I stayed locked in my house several days, I did not sleep, I was scared ... These workshops are very good, you know you will not forget that past, but learn to live with that, to leave it behind", says now conscious of the strengths you have to move forward.

In the remainder of 2018, the Victims Unit will offer nine psychosocial workshops for 20 victims in Cúcuta and its metropolitan area. They will be headed by Bosco Guerrero, a psychosocial professional from the territorial North of Santander and Arauca.