In the center of Colombia is the department of Meta, there armed groups have been present for so long that their inhabitants do not remember peace. Elisa (figurative name) was born in the municipality of Granta, and from her homeland she remembers how in the neighborhood everyone carried weapons.
Although violence was part of everyday life, her family could not imagine how the events would change everyone's life when after the murder of her father, a girl turned into a teenager join an illegal armed group. This was his response to the pain and anger at the loss of his father: he left leaving his mother and his older brother.
Now she is 19 years old and lives with a host family in the Colombian capital, studies nursing and is fond of literature in her spare time, especially the work of Gabriel García Márquez. While facing physical, emotional and social difficulties, Elisa has discovered that there is life beyond the jungle and that her disability will not prevent her from achieving her dreams. During the years he lived with members of the armed group he spent most of his time cleaning, cooking or transporting weapons and coca leaves, which are used to produce cocaine. Elisa said she saw many other young people of her age in the field and that she was only punished once, for refusing to carry a stove. He had to take more turns and cook for a month.
Once you're there, you don't see another future and you just move on, Elisa said, adding that she only thought of escaping once: she thought she was pregnant and realized that she would be forced to abort. But everything was in a false alarm. Many child soldiers in Colombia have ended up becoming tanned veterans in combat or dead, Elisa only stayed 14 months, although they were enough to see hell up close
Again fate crossed his life and was seriously injured in the spine, before doctors told him that he could never walk again, he feared that his companions wanted to end his life. In a hospital in Bogotá, another new vital experience began by changing the Meta forests for the “asphalt jungle”, with the security of those who know that there is always someone who can help us rewrite the lines of our existence.
In Bogotá, the Colombian Family Welfare Institute (ICBF) of the government sought a new home with a family that was already taking care of two other girls who had lived with illegal armed groups. The organization gave the family, which already had four other children, the equivalent of $ 300 per month for maintenance and to cover the costs of their education. The ICBF says that more than 4,800 demobilized child soldiers have benefited from its programs since 1999.
Meanwhile, Elisa faces new challenges, but she does not regret her past and does not want to go back. “The city is like a dream, but it is difficult to integrate and I still have to make friends,” the young woman confesses. Now he sees himself helping others in the future: he is studying his first year of nursing at the University of Bogotá. He also visits his biological mother sometimes
This girl is one of many children who have been rehabilitated by a non-governmental welfare organization after spending time with illegal armed groups. A recent report submitted by the International Court of War-Affected Children, based in London, estimates that some 14,000 children are actively participating in the long internal armed conflict in Colombia. They are used as informants, in the cleaning of antipersonnel mines, as sex slaves and workers in coca plantations.
UNHCR promotes the creation of community networks in Colombia to offer a healthy environment of protection for children and adolescents living in conflict-affected areas. In the department of Putumayo, in the southwest of the country, UNHCR supports youth centers and protection projects, including those aimed at improving school infrastructure. In this regard, the UN Refugee Agency has helped more than 350 children of indigenous groups in Putumayo.
