Cúcuta, 08/24/2020

• Through the Community Strengthening Model (MFC – Modelo de Fortalecimiento Comunitario -for its acronym in Spanish) led by the Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN – Agencia para la Reincorporación y la Normalización - for acronym in Spanish), Farc – Ep ex - combatants and communities of the municipalities of Teorama, Tibú and El Tarra in Norte de Santander, will carry out projects such as the adaptation of a community library, the strengthening of productive capacities, the construction of roads, among others.
  
  
•  The Community Strengthening Model has been implemented since September 2019 in the Catatumbo region, which for more than two decades suffered from the presence of armed groups outside the Law, and today, it is committed to social and productive development, thanks to the entrepreneurial will of the communities and the ex - combatants. 

Jaime*, who since 2017 has been carrying out his reincorporation process, is part of the group of people who lead, together with other peace signatories and community residents, the Community Strengthening Model in the Corregimiento de San Pablo in Teorama, Norte de Santander. As part of this process and in the light of the needs of the territory, they joined forces to carry out the adequacy and endowment of the community library that will be administered by the Community Action Board (Junta de Acción Comunal - in Spanish).

"We want this space to be consolidated as a training place for boys, girls, young people and adults. It has been a genuinely nice experience because we also chose to create a football school looking for new opportunities for the use of leisure time. We are encouraged and look forward to further progress on the purposes", Jaime says*.

As part of this model, a job training process will also be carried out, to strengthen the productive capacities of women members of different organizations in the municipality of Teorama.

Luis Armando Carreño Oñate, ARN coordinator in Norte de Santander, explains that work with the communities continues even within the framework of the health emergency, complying with the biosecurity measures and the local authorities' regulations. "We make progress in the community processes focused on each municipality, with the installation of the promotion committee and the citizen training session, which rights, duties, and structure and functioning of the Colombian State issues are addressed".

In Tibú, El Tarra and Teorama, it has sought to promote the active participation and empowerment of communities since 2019, so that the same participants are the ones who lead both the implementation and the sustainability of their projects.

In the former ETCR in Caño Indio, for example, located in Tibú, they are working in the "Forging bonds of reconciliation and peace towards the progress of the Veredal Core Caño Indio" project, for the construction of community roads – through the use of a footprint plate – which favour access to the territory and the marketing of products. This project will benefit more than 2,078 people.

Finally, in El Tarra, the community project focuses on the strengthening of the House of Culture, and the development of an audiovisual project that allows progress towards the transformation of the imaginaries that have historically associated the municipality with the conflict and the violence.

These spaces have allowed the interaction of ex - combatants and community, through training and education in peace - building issues, taken cultural identity as a reference.

Interesting Data

• Since 2007, the ARN has led the implementation of community strengthening models, carrying out 161 interventions, in 122 municipalities of the country.
   
• Upon requirement of the source, the name of the person in the reincorporation process was changed.