Calm down!, calm down! Calm, or you will have a nervous breakdown.
– Miss …you are telling me that I am about to see the pope! I’m gonna die!
Last week, Nubia was in the middle of her Meat Handling class in Sena institute when her cell phone rang. The news came: she had to pack because at noon on Thursday, in September, she was scheduled along with a group of victims to meet Pope francis in Villavicencio, Meta.
She does not know why but affirmed the following when she realized that pope Francis would visit Colombia, “I had the certainty that I was going to see him”. she stated to some of her friends, who laughed tenderly and said: “Yes, of courseeeee”.
Yesterday she visited downtown Cali to look for the scapulars and the little pictures that she will carry for the Pope´s blessings and also to come up with an unforgettable memory for her unbelieving friends during of the most special days of her life.
In the location known as “The miraculous”, officials from the Unit for Victims assistance told her to dress in white as much as possible and also indicated to carry as few things as possible to make her comfortable.
They will pick her up at Bogota airport and travel by land to the Plains, where she will attend a meeting of more than four thousand survivors of the Colombian armed conflict with the ‘affectionate pope’, as she calls it. This long-awaited meeting will be a reality on Friday in a place called La Maloca, where stories of victims of war from all regions of the country will converge.
There will be two moments: in the first one, in which the assistants will put on a message card advocating for reconciliation. And in the second, each one will be able to weave a bracelet with three threads of different colors, which will be given to another person, in an act that symbolizes the collective construction of peace.
This energetic and 42-year-old women from Buga wondered -with anxiety and a little fear- that “lately such beautiful things are happening to me, like this invitation to meet the Pope… I wonder if i´ll die soon”… Why does this woman who smiles effortlessly throw such a conjecture?
“My life has not always been like this. There are very deep pains that I have kept in my soul, “Nubia says. She talks about what happened to her after escaping with her great love, having a starting a family. This household moved on to work in a town located in Choco Region called Viro Viro, “over there in the jungle”, which was soon damaged by all the violence.
“Those men (from whom she does not even mention a name, were part of paramilitary groups), charged for everything and planted fear for everything. When they arrived at the town I would run out to look for the boat to flee to another village. I was afraid that they would rape me; and, the same people of the town warned me: you are white, it shows a lot and they will want to take you”, she added
That, fortunately (she says while blessing herself), did not happen. But the family did not escape the cruelty of the conflict. Her husband never wanted to submit to extortion and decided not to pay, nor to give the ‘paracos’ the fruit of his labour which he always said with conviction, was only for his son.
The fact is that one day the man went out to work, as always in mining and wood, and never returned. That was eight years ago and there are only versions that affirm he was chopped and thrown into the river or buried in another town.
With the terror and pain printed in her skin, Nubia escaped to Cali with her son a few days after her husband disappeared, leaving all her belongings behind. “‘Keep asking and the same will happen to you, was what they told me,” she says.
Nubia took her eleven year old son in tears, to eat pizza in order to tell him as calmly as possible (and she tried with all her will) that he did not know where his father was,and maybe something bad had happened to him . That, she confessed, will never cease to be a thorn that burns in his heart, even if her boy today is a 21 years old adult.
“He still expects him, he says that his father is alive, they adored each other and he is convinced that they will meet again.” when you close your eyes a bitter silence arrives when you remember.
According to the National Government, in the Valle del Cauca region 8,542 declarations have been registered due to forced disappearances in the middle of the conflict. Nubia’s husband is just one of them and is also one of the many that still awaits the long expected truth that will allow them to rest a bit.
“Tell us what happened, where is he?, having a worthy farewell… we want that. “Well… they say that each one owns their fears, and this woman, who had to start life from scratch again in Cali, prefers not to show her face when she tells her story.
Dwelling in the tears that bring the memories connected with the present and now cries with pride when she says that his son is a dancer, “one of the best” and that he is on tour with a company in Turkey. He is a good boy despite the tough environment which he endured, which tought him to never portray himself as a poor victim of circumstance.
When they asked her if she forgave “those men” who hurt her so much, she states that she does not even know who to feel resentment for given the confusion surrounding her husband´s dissapereance. “I was forced to heal, for myself… to help my son heal”.
Her decision, in textual words, “see life through rose colored glasses and be the best mom I could be”. For that reason I have been working really hard, studied the aesthetics at night while taking care of her family which was now made up of only two members.
That’s why today, she laughs generously, and says that maybe someday “with God´s good will“, she will be ready to love again. Despite all this pain, Nubia jumps with joy when she receives calls like when they invited her to see the Pope
“Who can be able to say something to the Holy Father? Ha! And you have words? I think the only thing you can do is smile”…
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Carrera 85D No. 46A – 65
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Unit for Victims
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We strongly believe that the Internet should be available and accessible to all, and we are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.
To accomplish this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at level AA. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide range of disabilities. Adhering to those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: people who are blind, people with motor disabilities, visually impaired, cognitively disabled, and more.
This website uses various technologies aimed at making it as accessible as possible at all times. We use an accessibility interface that allows people with specific disabilities to adjust the user interface (user interface) of the website and design it according to their personal needs.
In addition, the website uses an AI-based application that runs in the background and constantly optimizes its accessibility level. This application repairs the HTML of the website, adapts its functionality and behavior for screen readers used by blind users and for keyboard functions used by people with motor disabilities.
If you have found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we would be happy to hear from you. You can communicate with the operators of the website using the following email servicioalciudadano@unidadvictimas.gov.co
Screen reader and keyboard navigation
Our website implements the ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) attribute technique, along with several different behavior changes, to ensure that blind users who visit with screen readers can read, understand, and enjoy the features of the website. As soon as a user with a screen reader enters your site, they are immediately prompted to enter the screen reader profile so they can effectively navigate and operate your site. Here's how our website covers some of the most important screen reader requirements, along with console screenshots of code examples:
Screen Reader Optimization: We run a background process that learns website components from top to bottom, to ensure continued compliance even when the website is updated. In this process, we provide screen readers with meaningful data using the ARIA attribute set. For example, we provide accurate form tags; actionable icon descriptions (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guide for form inputs; roles of elements such as buttons, menus, modal dialogs (popups), and others. In addition, the background process scans all images on the website and provides an accurate and meaningful description based on Image Object Recognition as an ALT (alternative text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology. To activate screen reader settings at any time, users just need to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen reader users also receive automated prompts to activate screen reader mode as soon as they enter the website.
These settings are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.
Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the HTML of the website and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website work with the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdown menus with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, activate buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio items and checkboxes using the arrow keys and complete them with the space bar or the Enter key. In addition, keyboard users will find quick navigation and content skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first site elements while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving keyboard focus to them as soon as they appear, and not allowing focus to drift away from it.
Users can also use shortcuts such as "M" (menus), "H" (headers), "F" (forms), "B" (buttons), and "G" (graphics) to jump to specific items.
Disability profiles accepted on our website
Epilepsy Safe Mode: This profile allows people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures resulting from flashing or flickering animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode: This mode adjusts the website for the comfort of visually impaired users such as impaired vision, tunnel vision, cataracts, glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Impairment Mode – This mode provides different support options to help users with cognitive impairments such as dyslexia, autism, AVC, and others to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode – This mode helps users with ADHD and neurodevelopmental disorders to read, navigate, and focus on the main elements of the website more easily, while significantly reducing distractions.
Blind Mode – This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor Disability): This profile allows people with motor disabilities to operate the website using the Tab, Shift+Tab, and Enter keys on the keyboard. Users can also use shortcuts such as "M" (menus), "H" (headers), "F" (forms), "B" (buttons), and "G" (graphics) to jump to specific items.
Additional UI, layout, and readability tweaks
Font Settings: Users can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
Color Settings: Users can select various color contrast profiles, such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap title, text, and background color combinations, with more than 7 different color options.
Animations: Epileptic users can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Interface-driven animations include videos, GIFs, and flashing CSS transitions.
Content Highlighting – Users can choose to emphasize important elements like links and titles. They can also choose to highlight only focused or suspended items.
Audio Mute: Users with hearing aids may experience headaches or other issues due to autoplay of audio. This option allows users to mute the entire website instantly.
Cognitive disorders: We use a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
Additional features: We provide users with the option to change the color and size of the cursor, use a print mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other features.
Browser and assistive technology support
Our goal is to support the widest possible range of browsers and assistive technologies, so our users can choose the tools that work best for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all the major systems that comprise more than 95 % of the user market share, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (readers). screen), for both Windows and MAC users.
Notes, comments and feedback
Despite our best efforts to allow anyone to adjust the website to their needs, there may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of being made accessible, or lack an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we're continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating, and improving its features and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this to achieve the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advances. For assistance, please contact servicioalciudadano@unidadvictimas.gov.co