In Eastern Antioquia, the stories of displaced families are told by the thousands. In the last three decades, this scourge generated by violent actors has been present in the 23 municipalities of the subregion.
Through productive programs and stimulus plans from the Victims Unit, the return of displaced families to their places of origin is promoted.
Dolly Hernández Naranjo and her children grew up. 22 years ago, she and her husband had to abandon their house and their plot in the Manzanares Arriba village of Sonsón. One night, without thinking twice, they took their little ones in their arms and fled to the Llanadas sector, also in that same municipality.
“We left the same day they blew up the bridge over the Tasajo River. The night before they had detained my husband and a 10-year-old son to help them take the cattle from the farm to Río Verde. The next day they returned and told us that we had to leave,” he describes.
After much thought, and after verifying the conditions of integrity, 25 families, including Dolly’s, decided to return to the path and recover the land where they once harvested dreams.
“When my family had to flee I was five years old. Despite my young age, I remember that some armed men came to the house and asked mom and dad for things. They also passed in front of the school and we hid. We return to be reborn,” says Erika Ospina, a returnee from Sonsón.
As part of this process, each family group received 80 laying hens, care to feed them, and mesh for the pens. Likewise, the Victims Unit gave them tools, seeds, concentrates and other implements for field work.
Similar actions were carried out with another hundred families from the Mesopotamia district, municipality of La Unión and the La Meseta village, in El Peñol, where a track plate-type road was built.
“We receive this aid in memory of the 14 people from our community who died at the hands of the self-defense groups on January 5, 2001, the saddest memory we can have,” details Jaime Absalón Giraldo, president of the Community Action Board of that path
The investment in favor of these returned populations amounts to more than $2,000 million in agricultural projects and works such as the construction of community booths, sports plaques and road improvements.
“In more than 30 Antioquia municipalities we have identified families with return and relocation plans, which have been equipped with nearly 2,500 productive units (family businesses) and around 300 community projects,” stressed Claudia Patricia Vallejo Avendaño, director of the Unit for the Victims in Antioquia.
More than 52,770 economic compensations have been awarded for victims of violence in Eastern Antioquia for a total amount of $392,000 million.
These plans also have a positive impact on the community development and mobility of thousands of inhabitants of these territories in Eastern Antioquia where return processes are underway.
“With agricultural cultivation and poultry production, the aim is for returning families to improve their quality of life. In addition, they receive provisions in agricultural inputs, tools and clothing for field work”:
Claudia Patricia Vallejo Avendaño, director of the Victims Unit in Antioquia.
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