Schoolchildren from Meta talked about truth and peacebuilding
Captura/Screenshot Colombia2020
The German-Colombian Peace Institute – CAPAZ supported the second meeting of the project entitled: “Let’s talk about truth in schools”, organised by El Espectador’s Colombia2020 and supported by the German Embassy in Colombia.
In the debate, which took place on March 25, 2021, students from grades 10 and 11 at the Puente Amarillo Francisco Torres León School in Restrepo and the Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento School in Acacías, both in the department of Meta, spoke with Pastor Alape, a member of the secretariat of the demobilised FARC-EP guerrilla group; Óscar Montealegre, former paramilitary commander of the Central Bolívar Bloc (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia-AUC); and Esther Polo Zabala, social leader and defender of women’s restorative processes in Córdoba.
Find out more (in Spanish): “Hablemos de verdad en los colegios” llega al departamento del Meta
What do the meetings entail?
“Let’s talk about truth in schools” is an initiative that promotes open dialogue and reflection among secondary school students in public and private schools in Colombia with people who can teach them about discourses from which, as stated by Esther Polo, they have been “historically marginalised”. Before the debates, students attend workshops coordinated and guided by their social science teachers in the educational institutions and schools, where they can think about the episodes of the conflict in Colombia and the importance of this reflection in their lives.
The meetings with the panellists are private and it is the students who ask the questions. The conclusions drawn from these dialogues feed into future workshops with other students. Together with CAPAZ, the second meeting of this pilot project launched in 2020 was supported by the Bachelor’s Degree in Community Education at Universidad Pedagógica.
Colombia en Transición. “Let’s talk about truth in schools” reaches Meta. In: El Espectador, published March 24, 2021. Retrieved 26.3.2021 from: [https://www.elespectador.com/colombia2020/justicia/verdad/hablemos-de-verdad-en-los-colegios-llegara-al-departamento-del-meta/]
(NW: Claudia Maya. English: Tiziana Laudato)