​Bogotá, 12/10/2021

• The national Government, through the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN), is investing 5.4 billion Colombian Pesos to strengthen protective environments, promote and protect the rights of children, adolescents, and young people, and strengthen local initiatives, with emphasis on community infrastructure for the benefit of minors. 
• More than 8 thousand children and young people from different departments of Colombia have benefited from this strategy since 2010. 

1,200 children and young people join in writing the story of 'Mambrú', a story of learning, rights, and prevention, in this sixth edition of the strategy wherewith the ARN commemorates more than 10 years of uninterrupted work for children in Colombia. 

Since September and for one year, 'Mambrú' reached 27 municipalities in Colombia in order to strengthen protective environments and prevent risk factors such as the presence of armed actors and common criminal gangs, drug trafficking and consumption, and situations of domestic violence, inter alia, creating alternatives for the use of children's free time. 

The ARN has implemented this prevention and non-repetition strategy with the purpose of contributing to reconciliation from a prevention perspective within the reintegration and reincorporation processes since 2010. In the development of this strategy, participants are engaged in participatory scenarios; they learn about their rights and duties, leadership, and healthy coexistence; they enhance their knowledge and identify the risks and threats they face and their possible solutions, while strengthening local artistic, communication, sports, or social entrepreneurship initiatives.

“We completed a decade of work with 'Mambrú', a national Government strategy that has allowed us to assist children and adolescents and protect them from situations that drag them into violence or illegality. We completed its fifth edition in 2020, with 1,260 participants who found a future in legality with opportunities to make their dreams come true", said Andrés Stapper Segrera, ARN's Director General.

This issue, the sixth edition of 'Mambrú', also seeks to contribute to the national government's purpose of promoting community infrastructure works for peace, such as community huts, concrete tertiary roads, adaptation of care facilities for children, houses of memory, adjustments, and supplies, inter alia, so that communities can strengthen initiatives in this direction.

Interesting facts:

• With 171 interventions of this strategy, benefiting 8,141 children and young people in 74 municipalities in Colombia, ARN has contributed to prevent their involvement in different forms of violence and has strengthened transformational leadership in the communities.

• In the 2021-2022 edition, 'Mambrú' will be implemented in the departments of Antioquia, Arauca, Caquetá, Casanare, Cauca, Córdoba, Chocó, Cundinamarca, Guainía, Guaviare, Huila, Meta, Nariño, Norte de Santander, Risaralda, Santander, Putumayo, Tolima, and Valle del Cauca: and in the city of Bogotá.