Informe de Investigación: Proyecto ‘Historias de Paz’

Founded in 1998, the organization is based in the municipality of Turbaco, Bolívar, and has provided a safe space for women to rebuild their lives after experiencing violence. The organization's members live in various locations, including Cartagena, El Carmen de Bolívar, San Jacinto, and Turbaco, where they have also constructed a neighborhood called La Ciudad de Las Mujeres. The Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas has implemented various initiatives to address the needs of its members, including providing psychological assistance, emotional support, and stress measurement. The organization has also established support groups where women can share their stories of victimization in a safe environment. Additionally, they have conducted workshops, integrations, and talks on topics related to sexual violence and gender-based violence. The organization has also focused on providing training on sexual and reproductive rights, as well as promoting the creation of bonds of trust and sisterhood among its members. These bonds have enabled the women to construct and navigate a path to mitigate the pain of their victimization, representing a form of collective repair in the face of individual victimization. The Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas has also received training in legal terms to claim their rights as victims of the conflict. Some of the legal actions they have undertaken include the construction of their Integral Plan of Reparation, the filing of tutelas, and the technical approach. As a result, they have achieved several goals, including participating actively in the Unique Plan for the Displaced Population of the Municipality of Turbaco, contributing to the gender agenda of the "Justice and Peace" processes and dialogues with the FARC-EP in Havana, and being recognized as subjects of collective reparations in September 2018 by the Unit for Attention and Integral Reparation for Victims. The organization has also identified new risks and aggressions to which their daughters and sons are exposed, such as conflicts related to drug trafficking, lack of opportunities for accessing quality education, and discrimination faced by young people who are daughters or sons of women displaced by the conflict. In response, the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas has begun to form a Liga de Jóvenes, in which their daughters and sons participate, to educate and prepare them to face and address the sexual and gender-based violence specific to the urban context and current times. The Liga de Jóvenes engages in activities such as political and social formation, the generation of artistic strategies, and productive projects. The Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas teaches its members the knowledge they have acquired so that the new generations can apply and put it into practice. This represents a case of intergenerational transfer of knowledge, in which mothers pass on their agency and organizational knowledge to their daughters, so that they can face gender-based violence and continue community processes to maintain resistance against victimization that does not cease. One of the most interesting aspects of the Liga de Mujeres Desplazadas' actions is the self-management that characterizes all their processes. They have advised themselves legally and undertaken legal actions to achieve social justice. They have built the neighborhood with their own hands, mitigated the psychological and social impacts generated by the sexual violence they experienced, and created safe spaces among themselves to dialogue. They also transmit their knowledge to the new generations so that cases of violence do not repeat themselves. Currently, they plan to set up a restaurant-gallery of traditional food from the coast, built and managed by themselves, with the support of the SENA and the United Nations Development Programme. The idea is that this will be a space where women can express themselves and showcase their skills, while also generating income and promoting their well-being.