Woman undergoing reincorporation process receives international award for 'Creativity of women in rural life'.

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​The award was conferred to 10 women leaders from Colombia, Ecuador, India, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal, and Mozambique. Photo: ARN Communications.

Neiva, 22/10/2021

  • ​María Cristina Amaya, who is an outstanding leader of the reincorporation process in Huila, received from the Women's World Summit Foundation (WWSF), the international award for 'Creativity of women in rural life - 2021', as a result of her efforts to build peace and reconciliation through community work. 
  • With the support of the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN), the cooperative promotes different projects led by the cooperative 'Cooagropaz', including initiatives for coffee, cocoa and dairy by-products, handcrafted beer, and poultry production. 

Through the Cooperativa Multiactiva por la Paz (Multi-active Cooperative for Peace, Cooagropaz), a unit that associates close to 500 ex-combatants and members of the community of Huila and southern Tolima, María Cristina Amaya has been able to promote and support different associative productive projects that are committed to reconciliation in Colombia.

This leadership and commitment to peace-building earned her the international award for 'Creativity of Women in Rural Life - 2021', awarded by the Women's World Summit Foundation. Since 1994, the international organization has annually awarded leaders and groups of creative rural women who help to advance and improve the quality of life in their communities. 

“We have formed the Cooagropaz cooperative, we work with productive projects from the territory and rebuild the social fabric; we also formed the women's committee for peace and support different productive initiatives of women ex-combatants, victims of the conflict, peasants and the community in general", said the award winner, who was nominated among 40 international women leaders and selected as one of the 10 deserving candidates for the award, along with people from countries such as Ecuador, India, Honduras, Kenya, Nepal and Mozambique. 

Following her award, she also received a contribution of US$1,000 donated by WWSF, “We are happy with this award, wherewith we ratify our commitment and dedication to the construction of peace from the territory through the development of productive projects and work with the communities". 

Amaya is making progress in her transition to legality with the support of the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN) and is promoting different projects under the leadership of the 'Cooagropaz' cooperative. The initiatives include coffee, cocoa and dairy by-products, handcrafted beer, and poultry production.

This process is the result of the associative work between ex-combatants, victims of the conflict and the community. 
(Read also: Proyectos productivos de excombatientes fueron presentados a candidatas de Miss Universe Colombia 2021)(Link to Productive projects shown to candidates of Miss Universe Colombia 2021 news report).

472 awards have been given to the creativity of rural women in more than 140 countries over the past 27 years, making María Cristina Amaya an outstanding representative of peace building and reconciliation from the department of Huila in Colombia. Her nomination for the 'Creativity of women in rural life - 2021' award was made possible thanks to the support of the City Council of Neiva and the Utrahuilca Social Foundation.

 

Interesting facts: 

  • The ARN supports 515 people in the process of reincorporation in Huila, who are making their transition to legality in 31 municipalities. 
  • 267 people in the process of reincorporation benefit from productive projects carried out by ARN Huila. 
  • In the department of Huila there are 4 collective productive projects and 263 individual projects approved, financed and in the process of implementation. ​
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Created at 11/2/2021 2:56 PM by Adrian Mauricio Rojas Maldonado
Last modified at 11/2/2021 2:56 PM by Adrian Mauricio Rojas Maldonado