Author: María Elisa Pinto García – Executive Director of Fundación Prolongar
We started 2020 by launching the Kaleidoscope blog, a space for reflection on our work through artistic and communication languages to achieve sustainable and integral transformations at the individual, interpersonal and group level. The Kaleidoscope will feed on stories of transformation that strengthen our vocation of service and dedication day by day; of learnings, challenges, dilemmas and satisfactions that germinate in our work; and reflections that the national and international situation raises where we seek to contribute and share.
We wanted to begin this process of reflection by taking stock of 2019, a year of achievements, important changes within our organization and great alliances. During 2019, within the framework of the "Art to Rebuild" project funded by USAID, and other initiatives developed in partnership with Tell, the Ministry of National Education and the High Council for Victims of Bogotá, we managed to reach 736 people, including 120 children and adolescents, 31 adult victims of the armed conflict, 23 retired veterans of the Public Force and 6 people in the process of reintegration, and 556 visitors to the exhibition "Improbable Encounters". We work in different cities of the country such as Bogotá, Medellín, Popayán, Quibdó, Santa Marta and Tuluá.
On the other hand, we launch our new website in English and Spanish, as well as the Amalgam line that collects the technique and metaphor of Kintsugi and brings it to Colombian culture to promote transformation and repair fractures in various populations and contexts. Instead of trying to hide the flaws and cracks, or staying anchored in what doesn't work or is needed, we conceive that the fracture has a perspective of opportunity and learning. Like an amalgam, we seek the connection of elements that at first may be of a contrary or different nature.
Within the framework of the Amalgam for Work Teams line , we had the opportunity to work with the teams of IDARTES, Museo Casa de la Memoria de Medellín, COMFAMA, Parque Jaime Duque and leaders of some Caribbean organizations, in alliance with Azaí Consultores. In the Amalgama para la Vida line, where we carry out workshops open to the public for personal development, we were participating in the seminars "Culture & Art for Social Transformation" in Bogotá and "For a Reconciled Country" in Medellín, in addition to carrying out a Kintsugi workshop with our ally Casa Let. In this sense, the Amalgama line has sought to contribute from different edges, sectors and populations to the construction of peace and transformation.
"One of the central objectives of the Foundation is to create bridges between art and public policy, as well as to participate in the central discussions that Colombia is having in the post-agreement"
Photographer: Federico Mejía
On the other hand, one of the central objectives of the Foundation is to create bridges between art and public policy, as well as to participate in the central discussions that Colombia is having in the post-agreement. Therefore, we have been linked since 2018 to the Technical Table on Disability of the Truth Commission, where we seek to contribute to the construction of the final report from our work with victims of antipersonnel mines and art as a vehicle of resistance, truth and memory. Additionally, through the article "21N: Essential Readings" we suggest some authors who can shed light on the framework of the national strike that the country has been experiencing since last November.
I would like to conclude by naming two international scenarios in which we participate, and with which we manage to expand our horizon of work in the future. The first of these was an exchange of experiences that took place in Northern Ireland, a region that experienced an armed conflict of almost 30 years that ended with the signing of the "Good Friday Agreement" in 1998. The exchange brought together initiatives from three resilient cities (Medellín, Cali and Belfast) and allowed us to understand from the experience of Northern Ireland the enormous relevance of psychosocial accompaniment processes and the transformation of cultural violence after the signing of a peace agreement. 20 years later, the region has one of the highest suicide rates in Europe and other serious mental health problems. We strengthened our conviction to continue working in this area not only in Colombia, but in other parts of the world.
"A millenary practice and metaphor has been adapted to the Colombian context to connect and reconcile a society as fragmented as ours"
The second space was the "Peace Boat ", one of the most important NGOs in Japan whose team invited us to give two lectures on the Jamaica – Colombia route on the armed conflict, the Colombian peace process and the contributions of our Foundation during these years. We also advanced a Kintsugi workshop that was very successful and that for the first time allowed us to show the Japanese how an ancient practice and metaphor has been adapted to the Colombian context to connect and reconcile a society as fragmented as ours.
We hope that this kaleidoscope will be nourished not only by our articles and reflections, but also by your comments, suggestions and contributions. Your reading and feedback will be very valuable for our team but especially, for those people who star in our work.
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