There are 180 women victims, mostly of forced disappearance of relatives in commune 13 of the city of Medellín, who make up the organization ‘Women walking for the Truth’, subject of collective reparation that accompanies the Victims Unit in the different phases of collective reparation.
In Casa de la Memoria Museum facilities, the face-to-face meeting was held in which the psychosocial professionals and the collective repair team gave shape through the workshop-type methodology so that they can understand and arrange actions that materialize the violent events to which they were subjected by actors of armed conflict in the past.
Maria Elena Galeano one of the representatives said that “our journey is constant, because we will not rest in the search for each one of our missing loved ones and the dignity of all the victims of the relatives who are part of our organization.
She also assured that “as an organization we are convinced that peace cannot be built without the victims and that in this organization there is the willingness to help rebuild the truth and make what has been lived visible so that this never happens again in a community, we hope from you the institutions of the State that justice is done, impunity ceases and give us guarantees so that what we experienced does not happen again”.
For his part, Wilson Córdoba, territorial director of the Victims Unit in Antioquia, assured that this “is a process in which the communities and organizations affected by the conflict initiate the comprehensive route of Collective Reparation to agree with the national Government the measures and compensate the damages suffered”.
The official added that “the incidence of‘ Women walking for the Truth ’has contributed to the creation of the plan to search for the disappeared in Medellín by the Medellín Mayor’s Office and the Prosecutor’s Office, with the support of the Victims Unit”.
Gloria Amparo Urrego, another of the representatives of this group, stated that “we are happy that we can carry out the activities and meetings to advance in being fully repaired for all the victimizing acts and that we have a restoration of rights for all”.
According to Urrego, this organization was born more than 15 years ago. “Despite so much pain towards the families and the 13th commune of Medellín, we continue to resist waiting for us to have the truth and justice about our disappeared”, he emphasized.
The Victims Unit accompanies and supports the different activities that groups, such as Women Walking for Truth, demand their rights and the memory of their disappeared during the conflict. It also makes progress with the individual repair of its members.
In September 2015, this association of victims received the National Award for the Defense of Human Rights Colombia, in the category “Collective experience of the year.”
In Antioquia, the Victims Unit has 65 recognized subjects of collective reparation, 22 of them with implementation plans with measures such as rehabilitation of roads, schools, bridges, parks, endowments to medical centers, educational institutions, rural health posts, houses of culture, collection centers and support for productive projects.
(End/SMC/DFM/LMY)
