Many survivors of the conflict in Colombia have fled to Venezuela to take refuge where they face problems like unemployment and poverty. However, a workshop has given some refugee children the opportunity to express themselves through photography.

Counting the consequences for the victims of the armed conflict in Colombia can be extremely difficult. Survivors and refugees have had to run from their own land and cross the Venezuelan border in order to guarantee security for their families. However, even then, the situation often does not get much better. Immigration problems, unemployment, poverty and other forms of insecurity have hurt the quality of life for these families.

Focusing on children

Within these communities, children can often be the most vulnerable, yet they have immense potential to grow. The group Ancla2, which has been featured on Global Voices last year, recognized this opportunity and gave a workshop to a group of refugee children in a town called El Nula located along the Venezuelan-Colombian border. The beautiful landscapes of the region were the backdrop for the workshop, which taught the children how to approach and appreciate the details of daily live and to have a sense a community. They communicated this through the use of photography and creative writing.

An ignored community expresses itself

Thus, the blog El Nula por la Paz [es] shows the experience and the results of these workshops telling the story of a community often ignored by the mainstream media. As the site’s description reads:

Some of the workshop’s participants are featured on the blog. Cleida, 13, chooses to photograph and to write about the cows she sees around her community [in Spanish]:

Photo by Cleida and used with permission

I’m going to write about the cows. Cows give milk, and I saw this cow that I am writing about when we were on our way to La Playita. The cow had a newborn baby and a dog was eating the cow’s placenta. I took a picture and then we went to the place where this cow was, and I loved seeing its beautiful little calf.

Fourteen-year-old Álvaro took a picture of his mom and titled the post “my mom is like a rose [in Spanish]”:

Photo by Álvaro and used with permission

I took this picture because she’s my mom and I love her very much. The other picture I took was of our neighbour because she’s very kind to all people and she teaches senior citizens and children. I like to take pictures of my mom, the neighbours, the animals and other things, and also of people that went to the workshops. I took pictures of our teacher, Álvaro, of people in the street, people I know. The picture I liked the most was that of my mom and Ingrid.

Photo by Ancla2 and used with permission.

The project also attracted admiration from others in the citizen media community. David Sasaki, published a post about this project that adds more context about the ongoing conflict and the refugees:

What I love about this project is that it doesn’t just represent El Nula as a war zone like every other reference to the community that you’ll find online. No, it shows El Nula through the eyes of those who live there. When tragedy hits next then the young people of El Nula will know how to use online tools to spread awareness and seek help. But until then, they also know how to spread awareness about all the good in their lives as well.

This blog post was originally published on Global Voices on .