Escudo de Colombia y texto de la Unidad para las Víctimas

Edwin Ramos, a dream pedaling life

Rolling and rolling through hard experiences, like the most demanding race of cycling, has been life of Edwin Alexander Ramos Barragán, a young man who has been a victim and who today fights from his own business in La Estrada neighborhood, to the west of Bogotá. Edwin wants to replicate his successful experience with cycling, for the thousands of Colombians who have been affected at some point in their lives by the Colombian conflict.

Paradoxically, being born on Christmas Day has been the good star for Edwin Ramos, who saw the light of the world on December 24, 1979 in the municipality of Garzón, Huila. That Christmas Eve was all joy and fun for this home made by Mrs. Virginia Barragán and Mr. Arcadio Ramos.

A childhood in the midst of daily affray and bustle never allowed Edwin to think or feel what he experienced that bitter day of 1987, when his father, the family cane, would leave forever on his side and that of his mother, victim of forced disappearance.

Mr. Arcadio Ramos, father of Edwin, was engaged in trade by the municipalities that communicate Huila with Caquetá and traveled quite often to Cartagena del Chairá, throughout the center of the department and mostly jungle geography.

One day we said goodbye, my father managed a farm in that municipality, because of conflict they disappeared him and never again, until today, we heard from him, remember 32 years later this cyclist lover who still keeps the hope of to know what happened to the man who gave him life along with Mrs  Virginia.

Edwin’s mother, for years silenced her pain, tried to rebuild his life and as product of a relationship had two children, Edwin brothers “my mother made a second home and we lived together for long years as a family until the first forced displacement took us out of Tres Esquinas in the east of Tolima, that was in 1993” recalls Edwin.

For the third time Mrs Virginia and Edwin, accompanied by the family, faced a harsh reality when, after being victims of having suffered the disappearance of Mr Arcadio and being displaced, they arrived in Bogotá at the beginning of the 1990s without having the certainty of to be able to face life in a strange and difficult environment for all.

“We went ahead, with all kinds of situations, experiences and sacrifices, in Bogota we started again and when the Victims Law was enacted, we were included in the list,” said Edwin after indicating that their case was recognized in 2017 with compensation that did not manage  Mrs Virginia, who died victim of breast cancer in 2012.

Project and profit, a reality

Despite the circumstances in which Edwin grew up, the unexpected absence of his father, his mother’s illness and his plans to fulfill, he managed to use the parenting base to stay firm, strong and with hope of moving forward “I always had convictions, of being independent and having my business. I had very good administrative jobs and the goal when I received the compensation was to put it to work” says Edwin, as presenting his vital chronicle before an audience full of listening to him, while he tells him what his present means.

As a result of Mrs Virginia’s second relationship, Edwin has a brother and a sister, who today follow his example and work out their life project for themselves. They have him and he is proud to be the oldest of this family “I helped raise my brother, who now he is in Argentina, my mom got divorced before dying. My sister is doing very well, we helped her to study and today she manages in a recognized company so it is a success storie that I also want to highlight”.

Edwin feels that the compensation received by the Victims Unit was the last push he needed to become independent. A kind of moment that took advantage without losing heart, as when a cyclist is about to achieve the hardest slope of the stage and feel the tail wind that helps to crown the top “I invite you not to improvise, advise well. The approach must be sought, a productive project also has to do with knowing what is wanted and what we like, to do things as they should. In this, everyone can be the best”, Edwin recommends to victims to have financial education in one of the programs offered by the Unit.

Today Edwin is recognized by the bike users of the sector, and also by those who travel to and from their destinations. Their services are provided quickly, seriously and with a firm purpose; open a second store to follow his passion and increase his prestige as one of the best bike´s shops in the capital of the country.

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