Part of the food to provide school meals in 43 rural schools in the department of La Guajira will now be released right from where the last container with arms of the then-FARC-EP left in its laying down of arms process.

The initiative emerged as part of the collaboration between the World Food Program (WFP), the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, the Local Coordination Team of the United Nations in La Guajira and the People’s Alternative Revolutionary Force (FARC) during the follow-up to the process of reincorporation of the ex-combatants of the Territorial Area of Training and Reintegration (TATR) in Pondores, in the municipality of Fonseca, La Guajira.

In recent days, Deborah Hines, World Food Programme (WFP) representative in Colombia, visited the Nueva Colombia farm, near Pondores TATR, where a group of 48 men and women, 24 ex-combatants and 24 small producers from the community, formed on their own initiative “Cooperativa Multiactiva para la Paz de Colombia”, in Conejo township, municipality of Fonseca. From there, they work every day at the twenty-five hectares of productive land where they have plantains, cassava, tomatoes and chili, and with which they will now be suppliers of products for the WFP within the framework of the School Meals Programme (SMP).

"This visit is very important for the Mission, for the WFP, for the ex-combatants in process of reintegration and of course for the surrounding community, because we see how a very important agricultural activity is born, where the integration with the community and the nexus between peace and development," Hines said.

"For us, it is the opportunity to work with an association that has a lot of potential to increase its production and marketing, by strengthening capacities and engaging with our activities, as well as with government programs. For us, the conversation was very solid as for the next steps to take and what we want to achieve this year in regards to peace-building and stimulating the local economy," said Ms. Hines.

WFP is working on the revision of the collection centre model, equipment for post-harvest handling and temporary storage of food. As of March, the WFP will buy part of the production with a projected monthly demand of 2 metric tons of tomatoes, 500 kilograms of bananas and later, yucca, peppers and other harvest products.

Commanders of the then-Caribbean Bloc, Juan Hermilio Cabrera (Bertulfo Álvarez), and the Southern Bloc, Milton Toncel (Joaquin Gómez), as well as personnel from the UN Verification Mission in Colombia were also at the visit.

"The WFP can be the lifesaver we need because it is useless to cultivate if there is no one to buy, and if there is a buyer, then they want products at an unreasonable price, and then intermediaries complete the picture. The situation is different with the WFP and we are very happy with the arrival of Ms. Deborah, accompanied by a group of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, "said Milton Toncel.

"We are pleasantly hopeful that this will end up consolidating the unity of our Territorial Area because we are making great efforts and not having buyers has a very negative impact on the current situation of our people, leading us to an uncertainty point” stated Toncel.

“We hope to enter partnership with the WFP so we can show the country that the hands that once made war are now willing to make peace. Thanks to the opportunity offered by the WFP we will be able to prove it not only to our department but to the whole country” highlighted Marcos Martínez (Silfredo) coordinator at the farm.

This is how the process of reintegration of ex-combatants of the FARC advances with the accompaniment of the United Nations, in an interagency effort that contributes to strengthen the peace process in Colombia.

Hector Latorre, Public Information Officer.
UN Verification Mission in Colombia