Latin America

RIOS VIVOS PNG-EN

Social organization for Defending the territory, the human rights and the environment

RIOS VIVOS is a movement that brings together social organizations from the sub-regions of western, northern and lower Cauca to Antioquia, a department of northwestern Colombia. This initiative was created to deal with the fear generated by so much violence in the region and to spread hope among the people.

They are families of fishermen, muleteers, farmers, cooks, housewives, shopkeepers, women and young people from other sectors of rural life, organized in associations called, in most cases, Association of victims and people affected by megaprojects.

RIOS VIVOS pursues a twofold objective: to preserve the right to inhabit a territory, and defend the territory as living space and civil, political, economic, social, cultural and environmental rights. They are also seeking to transform Colombia’s mining and energy policy, which has been seen as one of the causes of population displacement in recent decades.

RIOS VIVOS thus has a tradition of fighting against hydroelectric and mining megaprojects that cause human rights violations as well as serious and irreparable damage to the environment. Their actions and resistance, despite constant threats and attacks aimed at annihilating the population, have not only made possible their survival, but also the rebuilding the social fabric and consolidating peace. The fight against Hidroituango, the largest hydroelectric megaproject in Colombia, is considered emblematic because of the seriousness of the consequences it produces.

These eleven years of history have been times of resistance, resilience, and social fabric. RIOS VIVOS is constantly on the lookout for solutions, particularly peace in its region, beyond the harsh realities faced by communities: “At first we thought the idea of protesting in front of the ‘monster’ was crazy that they would kill us on the first attempt or they would make us disappear, or throw us in jail, even some people continue to think and with reason, because all this was true, all this happened to us and continues to happen. First, large and small meetings, almost clandestine meetings, because the army and the police have made every effort from the beginning to avoid our meetings; a lot of coffee and one meeting after another in the cafeterias, in every park of the affected municipalities, we were talking in a low voice what to do, some said that anyway, if we stayed silent, they could also kill us, that doing nothing was no guarantee of being alive, but doing it either, that life on these lands has always been worth very little.”

RIOS VIVOS, like hundreds of organizations, is committed to peace in Colombia. In various ways, they call for peace with social justice, to guarantee human rights and to end foreign or domestic megaprojects that seek only to satisfy the economic interests of large corporations over life and culture of whole populations.

RIOS VIVOS expresses the feelings of many people and entire countries who are victims of the extractive industry around the world. Their voices and actions defy a monster. This process has a long trajectory, where it faces death, enforced disappearance, perpetual killings and environmental damage.

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More on (In Spanish) https://riosvivoscolombia.org/

HECHO LIBER-EN-FINAL-

Youth Reintegration Initiative in the Context of Crime, Prison and Violence

HECHO EN LIBERTAD (Made in Freedom) was born in Mexico and seeks to strengthen the economic power of youth in the context of prison, crime and violence to provide an economic alternative to social reintegration through participatory methodologies.

This intervention model, HECHO EN LIBERTAD, is an initiative of INSADE AC Interculturalidad Salud y Derechos, a non-profit civil organization that works continuously with people living in contexts of poverty, violence and marginalization for more than 10 years. These include children, adolescents and young people in conflict with the law, in conditional release, in situations of risk and social vulnerability in Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Tlaxcala and Nuevo León.

HECHO IN LIBERTAD was born to answer the concerns of teenagers and their desire to progress. Adolescents entering detention centers are stigmatized as “juvenile offenders” and in most cases they are forced to participate in programs where nothing is done because “they will not change”. When young people leave these centers, reintegration opportunities are minimal. Many of them are inclined to choose an easy path, to return to crime and, consequently, to increase the probability of being in a prison.

In this context, HECHO EN LIBERTAD has begun the phase of entrepreneurial skills and access to financial resources. First, teens propose a possible business model to realize from their reality, and then, they are linked to partners who can grant them credit. Some companies have been interested in contributing to the cause of this association and providing funding.

HECHO IN LIBERTAD has helped more than 2,300 young people and granted about 50 credits. Although this is a relatively new association, it has had a 100% success rate in its 11 years of existence, and none of the youth it has worked with has reoffended. These young people are only looking for opportunities for reintegration into working life and not being stigmatized. This is where the success of this model lies.

HECHO EN LIBERTAD has its own brand, with its own website and Facebook where it sells products that young entrepreneurs do inside and outside these centers. Thanks to the work of the project HECHO IN LIBERTAD, thousands of young people have found a second chance to change their future and build a better country.

Offer your support! Each Like, Comment, Share is giving more visibility to this initiative and makes it better known as justice and peace builder.

Leave a reply at the bottom of this page or on our Facebook page at https://facebook.com/publicpeaceprize.prixpublicpaix/

More on: http://hechoenlibertad.org.mx/

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