Not the knights of King Arthur at a round table. However the displaced people in today’s Camelot, located 30 minutes outside the major Colombian city of Barranquilla, do sit together and imagine a different world. They strategize. Then they take action.
Their children lack access to public education. So families of 50 elementary age children are paying a Colombian bank rent for one tiny house which they use for their education efforts.
There are no textbooks for the 50 children who crowd into the space from 7 a.m. to noon each day. The tiny space becomes a kindergarten in the afternoon; on the weekend it’s an adult education classroom. The adults are continuously in contact with the Education Ministry to make Renacer a public school with textbooks and teachers.
There’s no fancy castle in today’s Camelot. People live in very close quarters, tiny one-room dwellings in some stage of construction on sun-baked, eroded soil.
“You can meet people from all parts of Colombia with a visit to Camelot” according to Luisa, a community leader, who with her husband and children fled home and land in the mountains of a distant Province. People who did not know each other until their common fate brought them together share common dreams:
Adequate food
Education
Employment
A health clinic
Community kitchen
Space for children to play.
Community leaders are planning a workshop to help neighbors understand a law passed by the Colombian Congress in April 2008 granting land and reparations to displaced people.
Raising pet iguana
No comments:
Post a Comment