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PLEASE HELP! ANY NGO's, HUMAN RIGHTS ORGS IN CARTAGENA?

Hi all,

I was recently awarded by my law school a grant to do human rights work in latin america for the summer. i am extremely interested in all things colombian and there are some placements there, but all are in bogota and cali and my school will not let me go there because of the safety issue (i know, i know). anyway, to appease my advisor, the only i way i can get to colombia is by finding something tangentially related to human rights in cartagena, whether it be working at an NGO, for a professor in a university, whatever. does anyone know of where i can begin to find something like this? the orginazation does not necessarily have to fit in your usual definition of human rights, just "public interest" would be sufficent. i speak and write fluent spanish and my summer is fully funded by my school, so neither of those things are problems. i basically just need someone to give me any kind of "good" work. does anyone know where i could even start looking for this?

thank you thank you thank you

By DeDerechosHumanos on Nov 20, 2004, 18:24 in Friendly Talkzone.

treeshark2 says on Nov 21, 2004, 17:10:

Children International go to
http://www.children.org/factSheet.asp?sid=319011E8-EF93-4528-9B06-0CCF3A7AB911&country=Colombia

they have some sort of projects in CTG. I will be in CTg next week. maybe i can find something.

The dentist I use in CTG is also a professor at the dental school there.

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Chuck says on Nov 21, 2004, 20:31:

Human Rights.... so beautiful but... so biased!

99% of colombians after 30 years of guerillas that turned to terrorist after communism fell, want to live in PEACE!!!!

Yes!!, the Colombian Army ocassionaly violates human rights... but our guerrillas have been doing the same 100 times worse for 30 plus years. And where are the NGO'S? When the violation is made by our Army, every newspaper from Paris to Beigin prints the terrible news. But when it id done by the FARC.. NGO'S are too busy conducting some kid of research and no one mentions it.

Is that fairness? Most NGO'S are managed by communist europeans that want to bully the US trying to proove PLAN COLOMBIA is wrong. Is it wrong?

Keepig the country poor was what the FARC was acomplishing. It's a simple communist strategy, keep everyone poor and maybe there's a revolution. But now thanks to SEGURIDAD DEMOCRATICA, every colombian is seeing a light at the end of this terrible tunel we are trying to escape.

Without FARC maybe our tourist industry would be as huge as Mexico's.
Without FARC the construction bussines booms!
Without FARC we would be proud to show our passaport.
Without FARC we weren't required a VISA to every single country on earth.
Without FARC Colombia wouldn't be considered a third world country!

So please, if you ever come to colombia to work at a NGO, be FAIR!

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Sam Salmon says on Nov 21, 2004, 21:02:

Step Lightly 'Chuck' is a bit bombastic but he has a point-some of the Euro NGOs have rubbed people the wrong way by appearing to support known criminals in FARC against the interests of innocent people.
So you'll need to 'step lightly' and be careful about your political opinions.
Uribe himself has ripped NGOs a few times in the news so the political ground is shaky.
Working with street kids might suit better than directly interacting with IDPs .
The ground could become quite hot right under your feet if you attract the attention of the wrong people.
Understand there's no criticism of you/your goals contained in my post just a heads up-Colombia ain't like any other place sometimes.

' a la orden!'

' a la orden!'

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suzannyo says on Nov 21, 2004, 21:56:

Another possibility... I've been on two trips with a CHRISTIAN Colombian organization called Corporacion Dios es Amor which has projects in Cartagena and Bogota. They have a website where you can look for more info and see what their projects are about-social welfare, health care, education, etc.

Check them out at: www.cdacolombia.org or www.saludcda.org

Also, there is a CHRISITAN organization called ASJ (Asociacion para una Sociedad mas Justo) in Tegucigalpa, Honduras that are doing a lot of good work on human rights issues all around Honduras. They have an e-zine at www.revistazo.com where you can check out some of their current cases. They're involved with the IJM...cool stuff.

Good luck!
Suzannyo

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DeDerechosHumanos says on Nov 22, 2004, 11:07:

Relax Chuck. Like I said, the definition of human rights in the context in which I am talking about it is basically anything charitable. My interest lies more with studying and dealing with the fallout from the war rather than to place blame and try to influence policy (though I admit that there are plenty of NGO's that do that as well).

HASTA LA VICTORIA SIEMPRE!!!!!!!!!!
kidding

Thanks for the suggestions. Please keep them coming.

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elocin says on Dec 7, 2004, 14:30:

Possible Leads I would check out InterAction (www.interaction.org) to see which of their members are active in Colombia (for example Children International which was mentioned earlier is a member) and then go from there. Also, check out Idealist.org and search organizations and put in key word Cartagena...that'll give you a few good ones. I really like Fundacion Indufrial. On a European note, WFP (World Food Program) has an office there also. Lastly, I would contact Yo Creo en Colombia to see if they have any leads.

Buenas Suerte! (If you have any luck, I would love to know which one you are going to work with so I can follow your lead in a few months!!!)

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Hunter says on Dec 7, 2004, 15:29:

The owner of Caribenet Dirk, might know somebody and point you in the right direction:

http://caribenet.com/cartagena/index.php

Hunter

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