50,000 victims of violence in 160 municipalities of the country captured their memories of the conflict as part of a group emotional recovery strategy of the Victims Unit.

At 3 pm. On Monday, December 10, a sample with some of the memories that captured 50 thousand victims of 160 municipalities in Colombia where the strategy of emotional recovery arrived between 2017 and 2018 was inaugurated in the General Archive of the Nation, in Bogotá Downtown group of the Reparation Department of the Victims Unit.

They are called Traveling Journals because the purpose of these stories is to become a sort of itinerant testimony of the conflict history that Colombia lived. The experience is an effort of collective creation of communities where the strategy arrived, and the victims decided their ways of counting and prepared the journals to travel.

What do you want the rest of Colombians know about you? What would you like to share with those who have not been victims of conflict?

From those questions, and starting from the voluntariness of the participants, the stories were built, among which there are not only texts but knitted backpacks, ceramics, hats and wood  pieces, among other items through which they wanted to narrate I lived it.

In total, there are 346 logs made in 2017 in 11 departments, and around 900 made in 2018, in municipalities of 27 departments of the country. In the exhibition, which opens just on December 10 to commemorate the International Day of Human Rights, there will be a selection of 250 of them.

In 2018, some of these were exhibited at the Bogota Book Fair, where attendees were able to leave messages for the victims who told their stories. They are mostly messages of solidarity and hope. They have also been exposed in schools and entities to raise awareness among Colombians about the impact of the armed conflict in Bogotá.

The group emotional recovery strategy is a measure of psychosocial rehabilitation and at the same time a measure of satisfaction because it points to the recognition of the facts and the dignity of the good name of communities and individuals affected by armed conflict.

The strategy includes nine group meetings that foster a reflective and supportive space, in which the victims can share their feelings, beliefs and experiences, constructing a scenario where they seek to allow emotional well-being, respecting the social and cultural framework in which the The participants have built their notions of affectation, suffering, healing, recovery, balance and relief.

As a measure of satisfaction, the Travel Logs strategy includes the reception of feedback messages from those who know those stories. Therefore, in the exhibition there will be a wall ready to leave messages to the survivors, who will then travel back to the places where the logs were generated. (See here some reactions to the Traveling Journals)

The exhibition will be open from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. at 5 p.m., and will be available to the public until December 30, with free admission.

Inauguration of the exhibition Traveling Journals
General Archive of the Nation
Calle 6 Nro. 6-91
Time: 3 p.m.