Following the signing of the Colombian Peace Agreement in 2016, the deep impact of the armed conflict on Colombian society has become more evident. This conflict has touched, in particular, the communities which have lived in the territories that have been disputed historically. Indigenous communities have been one of the most affected not only in a physical, economic and social level, but also in terms of their cultural identity. Memory has been a fundamental tool for the construction of historical processes and, as we know, this is not only an individual process, it also has a collective...

I am a member of the "Tibi Rident Foundation" where we seek to train young people in the city of Pereira in an environment of altruistic service, carrying out training in five areas which are the fundamental pillars, which are "Family, Social, Spiritual, Personal and Educational". For society in recent years, indifference towards social or economic classes has increased exponentially, where the neglect of vulnerable communities has been the main reason for the lack of support for them, from the departmental to the national government. For this reason, young people from the city of Pereira...

In 2017, I worked with the Colombian Government on policy research at the Department of Education in a municipality called Sabaneta. I went to Colombia with a lot of apprehensions. I was worried about cultural differences, communication problems and missing home. After taking four flights and flying nearly 47 hours from India (my home country), I arrived at Medellín International only to realise that no one really spoke English. I was jet-lagged and hungry. Yet, I couldn’t even buy a bar of chocolate because I was too nervous to try out whatever little Spanish that I knew. Looking back, this...