2007 COL-01 $10,000
Donor: Proceeds from a number of activities supported by the newspaper Correo Canadiense including the Juanes concert in February 2006 together with funds raised by Lawyers Against Landmines and N1KD participation by Kiwanis Clubs. The balance of the project cost was provided by UNA-USA.
Regional Situation:
In Cauca, there is a heavy presence of armed groups. This presence has enhanced the number of internally displaced people and made their situation more dire. In 1991, Colombia passed a political constitution that gave recognition to indigenous communities. This constitution has made it possible for the Colombian Campaign to Ban Landmines to give local communities the legal tools to secure and strengthen territorial control over their own land and indigenous people. The presence of armed groups and the growth of illicit drugs have had a negative impact on these communities and put into danger the autonomy, authority, and territory that these local communities achieved under the constitutional reform of 1991. Local community leaders have become determined to eradicate the growth of drugs and to expel armed forces. The question has become how and when to do so.

Need for Project:
According to CCCM they are the only organization working in this area. This project is needed to continue the dynamic of local, political participation that the governments have established and to continue the socio-cultural process of discovery that has begun among ancestral towns and villages. These two important developments have begun to occur in response to the situations described above. This project will help communities to fight these threats through mobilization of people around the issue of land mines; the project will promote prevention techniques and gives communities the tools they need to focus their work on the general protection of their human rights.

Interim Report:
It is estimated that approx. 3,000 have been reached by the 2007 workshops, plus significant training-of-trainers (including "teachers, leaders from the Indian communities, and countryside people, as well as governors, priests and Christian communities").