Healing for Sexual Violence Survivors in Colombia

With ongoing support from MADRE, Taller de Vida (TdV) continues to leverage the power of psychosocial support and human rights education to foster healing for former child soldiers and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Colombia. This work is more important than ever as Afro-descendant and Indigenous youth and their communities continue to face the devastating impacts of ongoing violence, as well as economic precarity and the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Your support enables TdV to provide critical safe spaces and services needed to create dialogue that helps young people and their families develop joint actions to build more resilient communities. This past year, for example, TdV used Zoom and other technology resourced by MADRE to create more than thirty “Life Stories,” wherein children used audio messages with pictures to share how they have been impacted by conflict, displacement, and the pandemic. Through this work, Afro-descendant and Indigenous youth processed trauma and channeled their experiences to fuel their activism, preserving historical memory and working to raise awareness of and prevent further violence in their communities. These efforts created much-needed, open and safe spaces for youth and their families to contend and heal from the converging challenges they have experienced.

Together, we enabled TdV to advance vital support services amidst crisis. We’re grateful to you for making this life-saving work possible!