TRAVELLING THROUGHTOUT CAUCA Y NARIÑO

During the last 12 days I have been traveling to Cauca and Nariño to know the APS´s projects in those areas and to carry out interviews to beneficiaries, local authorities, leaders and institutions in order to undertake a systematization of experiences in two communities of El Tambo (La Paz y Chúcaras).
At El Tambo we visited productive projects in the Cerrito (pigs breeding) and San Pedro Community (fish and hens breeding). We also attended an atelier with boys and girls at their school on healthy housing. At La Paz we carried out a group interview with all the beneficiaries that participated in the project of aqueduct construction and that attended the capacity building activities of the project. The conclusion reached is the there was a high level of participation of all the different collectives of the community.
In Nariño we visited Chontal, a community displaces by river floods that had to start from scratch cht their life at the other side of the river located higher. Currently, APS is working with productive projects of cocoa beans. Capacity building activities are also carried out.
In Nariño we also visited the 11th November neighborhood that is inhabited by vulnerable population and where APS built up a bridge that has improve the living conditions of the community as before their mobility was very limited as they had to move by canoe. En that neighborhood APS undertook infrastructure and productive projects and capacity building activities on women´s rights.
At the end of our journey we travelled to Ricaurte where we visited the Resguardo Indígena AWA El Edén. In that community APS has just built up a communitary store. Besides it has given support to the population with several productive projects (fish and ships breeding and pineapple and lulo farming).
These journeys, along with the one done at the beginning of my stay in Colombia to Buenaventura, let me get a first hand knowledge of the APS´s work in Colombia and that helped me to have an overview of its work here.
Written by Carmen Miguel