During this Day, organized by the Victims Unit in Colombia, almost 500 enterprises from the financial, administrative, commerce and manufacturing sector, opened 7.869 job vacancies for the survivors of the armed conflict.

During the National Employment Day for Victims, 47 small roundtables took place in the same number of municipalities in Colombia. In those activities, more than 3.000 people were preselected.

“There are more than 7.000 opportunities for formal jobs”, said Alan Jara, director of the Victims’ Unit, about the results of this day, organized by the Employment Public Agency of Sena, the Victims Unit and its Offer Group.

“I thank the Sena director for this effort to generate opportunities for victims. They need to get not only the administrative compensation for what they have suffered or the emergency aid but also to have a wide State offer”, added Mr. Jara.

From 8 am until 4pm, more than 8.500 victims participated, in order to get a job. From this number, more than 6.000 were guided, more than 3.000 were preselected and more than 2.600 were enrolled. Four people got out from the event with a real job contract.

Yorleidis Bitar, a forced displacement victim who has no job since seven months now, hopes to perform on marketing because she has an education in this area. “The Day has been a very good initiative because they give us opportunities to move forward, get a job and continue studying”, she stated, Mrs. Bitar hopes to sustain her family through this activity.

For Alberto Enriquez, from Aracataca (north of Colombia), it is good because he could see the wide offer. Victim of forced displacement and unemployed at this moment, he said: “I am good at any job. I have different abilities and I know they have vacancies for messengers, coaches and others. If the government gives us a job, we are going to take it”.

If the offer is directed to the unemployed people affected by violence, all victims should participate in this Day.

Alfonso Prada, director of Sena, highlighted that the support to the victims during this initiative included doing or updating their Curriculum Vitae and applying for them for different vacancies. “A large number of people that came here had already registered the CV in the Agency. We teach them how it works and the dynamics”, he assured, and added: “with formal jobs we also build peace”.

Since 2014 until now, the Public Agency for Employment, from Sena, has mediated to get 64.000 jobs for victims of the armed conflict. During 2016, more than 25.000 victims have found formal jobs, according to the Agency’s data.

The Agency program opened today a big opportunity for the victims of the armed conflict. “There are more than 7.000 job opportunities, and we have 8 million reasons to continue working”, concluded Mr. Jara.