In developing the psychosocial strategy "Tejiendonos", the Victims Unit promotes the recovery of the social network and incorporates coexistence practices in the community of Santa Teresa (Tolima) district.

Motivated by the process of emotional reparation carried out with the Unit, women and men who suffered the rigors of armed conflict in the village of Santa Teresa, municipality of Libano, are working on the incorporation of restorative social practices, based on agreement and dialogue to solve community problems.

In the most recent meeting of the group of weavers, an autonomous action was developed as an activity inherent to the psychosocial strategy, recreating a conflictive situation through a dramatization, in which the problem and the solution to the conflict of boundaries between farms were raised.

For Julio César Valencia, who was part of the acting group, this activity, in addition to being a novel experience, had a successful theme "and it is that we were able to show that tolerance is very important in a community as the main value to live in peace", he said.

During the five months that the implementation of “Tejiendonos” strategy has taken, this community in the North of Tolima has also managed to strengthen ties of friendship, regain self-esteem and leave dignifying actions such as the mural against gender violence, the adaptation and painting of the cemetery chapel and memorial mural in memory of one of its members murdered. "But the most important thing is that a sense of belonging has been created in the community, thanks to the integration that we have achieved during the time that the strategy has taken", said Marco Aurelio Pineda, leader and weaver of Santa Teresa.

Inés Valenzuela Rojas highlighted the participation of women and pointed out that many of them have found comforting actions in these activities. "And they feel very happy and motivated because after the violence had driven us away, we are now more united", she said.

On December 12, the sixth and last face-to-face meeting of the reparative strategy is scheduled to close a cycle of actions that began in June of this year.  

(End/WPG/LMY)