Colombia: hostel helps reduce school drop-out rate in conflict area

16-10-2012 Photo gallery

The village children of El Camuya, Caquetá, in the south of Colombia, now have a hostel beside their school where they can sleep, so they don’t have to walk for over two hours in order to study. Because of the armed conflict, the long distance between their homes and the school was exposing them to serious risks, such as weapon contamination and the possibility of ending up in the middle of a confrontation. It was also causing high drop-out rates: sometimes it was harder to get to school than to do well in maths lessons. Now, thanks to a school hostel built by the ICRC, the children from this village are sure of a place where they can sleep, wash, eat and attend school every day, strengthening them to face the risks posed by the armed conflict in their area.

- It’s early in the morning, 6 a.m., dawn has come to El Camuya and the children don’t want to get out of bed. They have slept peacefully, as for the past couple of months the rain and bats have stopped being a problem. “When it rained, we used to wake up and find ourselves waterlogged, and in the mornings the mosquito nets were full of bat poo,” says Jeison, who reports that the hostel built by the ICRC has improved their living conditions and now they can sleep soundly.
  © ICRC / S. Giraldo
- Kevin, the smallest of the children in the hostel, is the last to get up. Meanwhile Alexis, Jeison and Wilfredo, his schoolmates, are already making their beds and awaiting their turn for a shower. Washing is no longer an adventure – now they only have to face cold water. “Life is better these days. Before we used to have to go to the river to wash, there was a danger we’d get bitten by a snake, and sometimes the 'manaos' (a kind of wild boar) came charging at us. Now, thanks to the Red Cross, we wash here at the school and, best of all, we sleep more comfortably."
  © ICRC / S. Giraldo
- All the children help one another to get ready in time. Despite their young age, they’re used to living away from their parents. They do it in order to study, as there are such long distances between their farms and the school that it would be impossible to walk to class every day. Since 12 years ago, when the same community – with the help of hatchets and machetes – built the school at El Camuya, the place has been transformed into the focal point for the whole village.
  © ICRC / S. Giraldo
- Every morning, it’s the same story for the boys: get up, tidy the beds, wash. And in the girls’ room it’s the same. All these activities are carried out under the supervision of the “profe”, Beatriz. They have to be ready for breakfast by 7 a.m.
  © ICRC / S. Giraldo
- The children have their breakfast in the old school, the one built by the community. Now this is the place where Alexandra, the young mother in charge of the school restaurant, lives and has her kitchen. The classrooms are opposite the hostel. There, using the materials left over from the recent building, the inhabitants of El Camuya made a new space, which is used as a hall. The hostel built by the ICRC has turned into an incentive for this community of 44 families who feel completely forgotten by the institutions of the State.
  © ICRC / S. Giraldo
- In addition to being the teacher, the “profe”, as the children call her, sometimes plays mother. She says it’s her vocation, that since she was a child she has dreamt of being a teacher, and she knows she was right. Very often, when the person responsible for the school restaurant is away, she prepares breakfast, with help from each of the children.
  © ICRC / S. Giraldo
- Beatriz has also benefited from the ICRC’s intervention. She’s no longer worried about rainy nights, or about the children bathing in the river. “Now my work is far more pleasant, and the children are given everything they need. These kids have changed enormously: they’re lively, they want to clean and wash and keep everything organized – they’re very happy.”
  © ICRC / S. Giraldo
- The recent building of the hostel has helped reduce drop-out levels, and it enables the children to study more safely, without having to be exposed every day to the dangers of weapon contamination or other risks associated with the conflict. The community maintains that this solution is not just for the children who are in the school now: it’s in the future that its real impact will be seen.
  © ICRC / S. Giraldo
- Their parents are very pleased their children have a decent place in which to study and live, although they are aware that the area lacks a lot of things. They say the building of the hostel is a tiny drop in a very big ocean. "However, with the presence of the Red Cross we feel support from outside – you forget you’re here in this forgotten corner, when people come from somewhere else and say Hey, you exist, we’re here to give you a hand, some relief, a bit of encouragement,” says one of the parents.
  © ICRC / A. Uribe

Colombia: hostel helps reduce school drop-out rate in conflict area

16-10-2012 Photo gallery

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