Family Futures

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] 85

Colombia – a country that

doesn’t forget its roots

Jose Ignacio Rojas, Director of Families and Communities and Karen Gaviria,

Communications Adviser for Family and Communities, Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar

dvancing

ocial

ntegration

and

ntergenerational

olidarity

olombia is widely-known in the world for its biodi-

versity. For hundreds of years, its environmental

conditions have also favoured the preservation of

an ethnic and cultural wealth, offering the prospects of

another, much less widely-known country.

Ethnic families today account for over 15 per cent of Colombia’s

total population. Their complicated history of settlement and

migration has today left us with 22 indigenous peoples spread

across the country, representing 4 per cent of Colombia’s total

population and speaking 64 Amerindian languages. There is

the Afro-descendent population, accounting for over 10 per

cent of the total, with 433 Community Councils and hundreds

of ethnic black organizations; there is the raizal community in

San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, with a total of over

30,000 families; and there are 11 gypsy kumpanias of Russian

origin who arrived in Barranquilla in two waves at the end of

the nineteenth century and after World War Two, and are now

settled in many parts of the country.

The ethnic peoples are generally formed by families that are

closely united to each other by history, territory, culture and

kinship. These relationships form the basis of the organization of

family and society, and help to preserve cultures and traditions.

A range of historical events has left the ethnic groups on

the sidelines of public administration and access to the social

and economic opportunities available to other Colombians,

thus making them highly vulnerable in the context of the

internal conflict. Other factors, such as difficulties of access

to their settlements and the loss of sacred ancestral territory,

all contribute to marginality and social exclusion; and this in

turn has become one of the main challenges of social policy

for the prosperity of the people of Colombia.

The Government is therefore engaged in projects for

the recognition and rescue of ethnic diversity, generating

programmes to attend to these groups and guarantee their

rights. The programmes aim to strengthen local government

and the management of national affairs within their territo-

ries. There is support for processes to secure civic coexistence

and to overcome extreme poverty through the articulation of

different levels of government, with the promotion of stronger

investment in the rural sectors of production. And there is

the defence of human rights, the implementation of social

projects addressed to the family and children, and support for

productive initiatives for self-sufficiency in food.

Colombia’s family welfare agency, Instituto Colombiano de

Bienestar Familiar (ICBF) pursues these government policies

by moving forward in the generation of initiatives designed

to strengthen care and protection for ethnic families and the

healthy coexistence of all their members, especially children and

adolescents. ICBF promotes the social and cultural strengthen-

ing of communities, stimulus for organizational capabilities, and

actions to prevent and improve local situations of nutrition risk.

Colombia’s ethnic peoples are united by history, territory, culture and kinship

Family and society are built on relationships that also help to preserve

cultures and traditions

Image: Families and Communities Direction from the ICBF