Healing Colombia - Santa fe de Bogota, Colombia

Youth at Risk Recovery Program

Project Manager, Mario Torres, with participants of the Healing Colombia's Drug Prevention Program. After the first series of workshops, these are the teens who have committed themselves to forming a club that will help to reach their peers and initiate pro-active activities within the community.

Colombia is the center of a long-standing conflict surrounding drug traffic and terrorist movements. There is a war going on with the highest kidnapping rate in the world (85% of all kidnappings world-wide), a violent death every 15 minutes (compare this to the US with a violent death every 30 minutes and with three times the population), and hundreds of homeless due to the war between the guerillas and the paramilitary.

For two years now, Healing Colombia has concentrated on a neighborhood where violence reigns. Sixty kids from seven to seventeen are a part of the weekly program they conduct in this neighborhood.

Two years ago, 14 teenagers were killed in gang wars between the three main gangs. This year, one of the gangs has disappeared. Why? After a year of intense group therapy and personalized attention, the leaders of the gang decided it's not worth it to throw their lives away in this senseless manner! This has caused a chain reaction and impacts the whole community. The pattern of violence, vengeance and criminal behavior can be changed.

Healing Colombia has been asked to carry out a series of workshops in local schools.