Action by Churches Together (ACT)
Update - Colombia 1/2003
Relief for Internally Displaced - Appeal LACO-21
Geneva, 26 March, 2003


For many years Colombia has suffered from an internal armed conflict,
involving the Colombian Army, guerrilla groups and paramilitary forces,
which has escalated steadily in recent years.  Continual threats,
kidnapping, selective murder, forced disappearances, recruitment of
children, burning and destruction of houses has caused the displacement of
hundreds of thousands of people.  The peace talks between the Government
and the largest guerrilla group in the country - FARC- were disrupted at
the beginning of 2002. This has led to intensification of the hostilities
between the various groups all over the country and particularly in the
zone controlled by the FARC (40,000 km2). With the break down of the peace
talks the army started the "recovery" of the areas resulting in the
population fleeing their homes in fear of the bombing campaign and the
arrival of the paramilitary groups.

An ACT appeal was issued on 18 March 2002 including the proposals from the
Lutheran Church of Colombia/ LWF/DWS, ACT Netherlands- Project Counselling
Service *PCS, and Diakonie, Germany.  So far the activities have been
accomplished by Diakonie and ACT Neherlands-Project Counselling Service.

The ACT member, Lutheran Church of Colombia/LWF/DWS has requested an
extension of the date of completion of the appeal from 30 April 2002 to 31
July 2003 due to the following reasons:

Late arrival of the funds
Delays from other organizations committed to providing complementary
  support to the projects.
Slowness in the participation process of the community due to security
  reasons (fear of being identified as displaced)



Attached please find a brief update of the Lutheran Church/LWF/DWS project
activities.

The ACT CO recommends the approval of the extension.

Thank you for your attention.

For further information please contact:

ACT Co-ordinator, Thor-Arne Prois (phone ++41 22 791 6033 or mobile phone
++ 41 79 203 6055)

or 

ACT Appeals Officer, Elsa Moreno (phone +41 22 791 6420 or mobile phone
++41 796088133)

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Summary Report LACO 21


1. Geographical location

Projects are being carried out in the Central Zone of Colombia, which is
one of the most important areas where Internal Displaced People (IDPS) are
received from different regions of the country: Villavicencio,
Bucaramanga- Santander, Bogotá and Ibague


2. Current overall state of the emergency.

The flow of displaced population has increased in the last year given to
the hardening of the government's actions, mainly against the guerrilla
organizations and the drug-trafficking groups.

Some new IDPs families will participate in the drinking water and
community health projects. Given the increasing number of new displaced
families, who live under high vulnerability, assisting processes already
underway have been affected by some delays, i.e., the process to select
children, who will participate in the community dinning room.


3. Goals and Accomplishment:

Provide food to 400 displaced children in high-risk situation in Bogota,
Ibagué, Bucaramanga and Villavicencio Over accomplished by 25%. Currently
500 children participate in the project.

Provide medical assistance to 1,000 displaced families in Villavicencio
and Bucaramanga 1,100 families are being attended. In addition, the
project provides an ambulance services in Bucaramanga, which will increase
the number of beneficiaries at the end of the project.

Build a water distribution system in Bucaramanga, benefiting 650 families
Two water distribution systems are under construction in Bucaramanga and
Villavicencio, as contemplated in the project, benefiting 950 families.

Provide income-generating activities through credit schemes to 65 families
in Bogota and Villavicencio Income-generating activities are underway in
the four regions attended by the project, where 150 families are
participating.

Provide psychosocial assistance to 400 families displaced by the armed
conflict in Bogota, Ibagué, Bucaramanga and Villavicencio 400 families are
participating as considered in the project.

Provide training to 200 community residents and 20 workers from IELCO on
risk management, human rights. The training will take place in the third
quarter of this year. All preparation activities are underway. Community
residents and specialized staff will participate.


4. How participating population daily life is affected?

The life of displaced people has been positively affected given their
chance to live in community and rebuild themselves within their own
identity. They also can overcome the conditions that had force them to
live as fleeing population (nomadic) for political reasons.


5. Co-ordination of activities with government and NGO's.

The project is being implemented in coordination with multilateral
organizations such as the Word Food Program, Spanish Red Cross, local ACT
members and government bodies.


6. Description of project management, administration and monitoring:

The ACT, DWS and IELCO criteria and guidelines are considered during the
administrative procedures. The Finance department of IELCO is directly
responsible to carry out this task under the supervision of the DWS
department of Finances and Administration. An external auditory will
determine if resources were managed with transparency and if procedures
were followed as contemplated.


7. Lessons learned.

The active participation of the displaced population is indispensable to
obtain sustainable results.

The accompaniment of the Lutheran Church to the displaced population has
motivated its active participation.

The coordination between institutions in Colombia are effective when
carried our under concrete projects, but not during medium-term processes.

The low visibility of the Colombian conflict at the international level
makes more difficult to gather a decisive support to the displaced
population.



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Action by Churches Together (ACT) is a worldwide alliance of churches and
their related agencies, meeting human need through co-ordinated emergency
response.  The ACT Coordinating Office is based with the World Council of 
Churches (WCC) and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) in Switzerland.
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   Ecumenical Centre                          Phone: ++41-22-791.60.33
   150, route de Ferney                         Fax: ++41-22-791.65.06
   P.O. Box 2100                             E-Mail: act@wcc-coe.org
   1211 Geneva 2                              Telex: 415 730 OIK CH
   Switzerland                                 http://www.act-intl.org


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