Through an inter-institutional articulation between the Unit for Comprehensive Care and Reparation for Victims and the High Council for the Rights of Victims, Peace and Reconciliation of the District, the Afro-Women for Peace Association (Afromupaz) already has its own headquarters.
With the songs around the “Parsley Garden”, the attendees who attended the delivery of the venue were welcomed. During the activity, a cultural festival was developed that had gastronomic and artistic exhibitions organized by Afromupaz women.
“We want to thank the Victims Unit and High Counseling for Victims for the work they have done with us and for accompanying us to make this dream come true,” said María Eugenia Urrutia, Afromupaz’s legal representative.
The headquarters that will debut the women and members of Afromupaz has five floors, an area of more than 530 square meters and had an investment of more than 400 million pesos, from the Victims’ Unit and the High Counseling for the Victims of the District.
For Ramón Rodríguez Andrade, Victims Unit general director, “This is an initiative that has a lot of meaning for the women of Afromupaz and that as a Unit for Victims, we are proud to be the one to accompany them to see this dream fulfilled.”
This group began its reparation process in 2014 when it was recognized and included in the Unified Victim Registry as a subject of collective reparation with an impact on the city of Bogotá. The pain produced by the violence united them and led them to generate productive projects for social development and differential psychosocial strategies.
“Your organization is an example for other groups in the country, you have managed to influence the neighborhood and even in other parts of the city. Their work has gradually become visible and has positioned itself as an experience of learning and resistance, “said Rodríguez, director of the Unit.
The technical director of Reparation for the Victims Unit, Juliana Melo, highlighted the important contribution that Afromupaz women have made to the collective reparation process implemented by the Unit. “It is impressive what you have taught us and given in terms of how it is repaired, advanced and can be resilient despite the adversities.”
Afromupaz has developed projects for the production of clothing, candy, gastronomy and footwear in the town of Usme, as well as differential psychosocial initiatives such as the ‘Huerta del Perejil’. This strategy of collective psychosocial rehabilitation created by them and that has received the accompaniment of the Victims Unit, provides support to women victims of armed conflict, but has also been adjusted to be carried out with children, young people and men of the organization. .
