Colombia

After working in Colombia for nearly 30 years, we opened our HelpAge office in Bogotá in 2009.

In Cali, with our partner Fundación Paz y Bien, we support older people displaced due to the internal armed conflict.

Many displaced people in these urban areas live in shanty towns with high levels of poverty, unemployment, over-crowding and violence.

In the region of Montes de María, in the departments of Bolívar and Sucre, we work with our partner Fundación Red Desarrollo y Paz de los Montes de Maria to support older people in communities affected by the internal armed conflict. The communities have high unemployment rates and little access to basic services.

Supporting older people in Colombia

Over the last year we have carried out work in several areas to support older people in Colombia.

Livelihood support

• With our partner Cooperativa Coomostaza, we have provided small business support and micro-finance to 88 older people and their families, as well as 37 vulnerable people in Aguablanca, Cali.
• We have helped over 500 people across five communities learn new employment skills, such as chicken and pig rearing and fish farming.
  

Legal advice and counselling

• Through our Affiliate Red Tiempos, we have provided legal support to 420 older people via community centres.
  

Emergency support

• 215 aid packages were given to 135 indigenous older people 80 Afro-Colombians in Narino and Anchicaya.
  
• With Fundacion Paz y Bien, we have referred 165 older internally displaced people to the government unit for the repatriation of victims of conflict.

Health services

• Through our work with partner, Fundacion Paz y Bien, a gerontologist and home care services now visit Aguablanca once a week. 
  

What next?

• We will work with other international humanitarian agencies to ensure they include older people in their emergency programmes and emergency medical services in conflict areas that state services can't reach.

• We will continue to strengthen older citizens' monitoring groups to ensure older people can advocate for changes in their lives.
• We will support the national representative organisation for older people in Colombia to be recognised and consulted in the development of public policy.
  

Audio slideshow: 50 years of conflict 

Our Affiliates

Provida Colombia, Fundación Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones del Trabajo (CESTRA), Red Tiempos de Colombia

Our partners

Red Tiempos de Envejecimiento Activo y Digno, Fundación Red de Desarrollo y Paz de los Montes de Maria, Fundación Paz y Bien, Asociación Cultural Casa del Niño, Cooperativa Coomostaza, Colombian Confederation of Older People (CONFECOLPEM), Asociacion Cultural Casa del Nino.

Our donors

ECHO, Age UK, AECID, Comunidad de Madrid