Colombia

WAYUU SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN

BRIDGES returned in April from a visit to the Wayuu indigenous community of La Guajira, Colombia, for the Fourth Yanama: Women and Territory. This community suffered a massacre at the hands of paramilitaries and Colombian military on April 18, 2004. For the last three years, BRIDGES has hosted North American solidarity tours by Debora Barros Fince, Founder and Director of Organizacion Wayuu Munsurat and international spokesperson for her people of Bahia Portete, who now live in exile in Venezuela.   Our little BRIDGES delegation to the Yanama was a diverse group, including three of “our girls” from various regions of Colombia along with our USA contingent and even a Yaqui woman from Sonoras, Mexico. We went to participate in a temporary re-occupation of Bahia Portete to honor the dead and assert the Wayuu people’s right to a peaceful return to their ancestral homeland. (More about Wayuu Solidarity Campaign)

EDUCATIONAL SPONSORSHIP

We first met Paula when. (More about Educational Sponsorships)

COLOMBIA REPATRIATION

Colombia Repatriation. (More about Colombia Repatriation)

LIBROS PARA SONAR (BOOKS TO DREAM)

At BRIDGES we understand the importance of access to education and books. That is why Adriana Salinas, a BRIDGES intern from Colombia, started a small library in Bogota, Colombia. The library is small, but meaningful, and gives local youth the chance to escape to another place, or learn about things they would not normally learn about. (More about Libros Para Sonar)