COLOMBIA

Political violence has deeply affected Colombia for over 40 years, resulting in the largest internally displaced population in the world. Though the security situation has improved, a need persists for both short-term and longer-term humanitarian and development programs for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

CHF's wide range of IDP programs have assisted over 176,000 families. CHF International began working in Colombia in 2001 to address the immediate needs of displaced families, and our programs quickly expanded to create long-term economic opportunities and community rehabilitation for IDPs and vulnerable communities.

Helping Displaced Returnees Rebuild Livelihoods

CHF International is implementing the USAID-funded Colombia: Responde Initiative in the Montes de Maria region of Colombia to re-establish the Government of Colombia’s presence in the region, with a particular focus on creating the conditions necessary to promote sustainable peace and security for displaced communities to return to their homes.

Colombia Responde is based on the following three integrated objectives:

• Improve governance and strengthen coordination mechanisms that enable ongoing civilian-led, whole-of-government interventions, with the participation of civil society.
• Enhance access to locally provided state services.
• Increase licit livelihoods and job opportunities in the short, medium and long term for conflict-affected populations.

By working with multiple GOC entities and community and private sector stakeholders, Responde will establish a sustainable state of peace and security.

Assistance to Displaced Afro-Colombians

Afro-Colombians face unique challenges after displacement. Uprooted from rural villages and torn from traditional societal and family ties, the majority flees to urban centers, where their cultural practices, community ties and basic identity suffer. Since 2002, CHF has been working with these communities in Cali, Tumaco, Buenaventura and Barranquilla to reduce conflict and maintain Afro-Colombian customs and traditions in their new context. Utilizing community participation methods, CHF brings communities together to create community councils and address the underlying causes of conflict such as poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and erosion of traditional support networks.

CHF International was recently named the principle grant recipient of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Colombia. The initial two-year program – with the possibility to extend for another three years – will build AIDS response capabilities in the country. CHF will implement a wide-ranging social mobilization campaign to combat stigma, promote human rights and universal access to treatment and antiretroviral therapy, improving the quality of life and survival of people living with HIV and AIDS in Colombia. The program will work with local organizations in 75 Colombian municipalities.

Supporting Microfinance Institutions

CHF International serves as a technical assistance provider and second-tier lender to 22 local microfinance institutions, who, in turn, lend to approximately 6,000 people. Express Microfinanzas has also branched into first-tier lending, providing direct loans to clients. The loans have a 100 percent repayment rate, and since its inception has disbursed more than $14 million to support the Colombian microfinance sector.

Integrated Assistance to Internally Displaced People

In 2004, CHF International partnered with the Government of Colombia to create a 10-step, 90-day “route of assistance” to meet the immediate needs of families displaced by violence in Colombia. This program offered support to families in the most critical first 90 days of displacement, connecting them with services and supplies in their new surroundings. By creating a national strategy for internally displaced persons (IDP) attention and covering 30 cities, CHF was able to identify and provide support to as many Colombians as possible. In 2009, the Government of Colombia adopted this strategy as official policy, and it is still being implemented across the country.

We have also implemented programs focusing on providing livelihoods and psychosocial support to disabled displaced people, survivors of gender-based violence, and families of disappeared or missing people.

For more information, please read the Colombia Fact Sheet.