Transforming Lives for a Peaceful Future in Colombia


As the second most populated city in Colombia, Medellin has been disproportionately affected by Colombia’s history of violence. However, for a city that has become primarily associated with civil war and the narcotics trade, Medellin has witnessed a dramatic rebirth in the past decade, write Astrid Girlesa Uribe, Eva Enyedi, and Mónica Yohana Aguirre Duque. Their article examines the ties between youth empowerment, civic engagement, and the role the ACJ-YMCA has played in creating positive change in Colombia.


by Astrid Girlesa Uribe, Eva Enyedi, & Mónica Yohana Aguirre Duque T


he names of Colombia, and especially Medellin, have been frequently associated with violence, drugs,


festivals and social transformation – especially inequality and


poverty. Nevertheless, within the last decade Medellin has become a modern and developing center for new businesses, cultural


for


youth. In this article we would like to take a look at part of that transformation through the youth initiatives undertaken by the ACJ-YMCA of Medellin, Colombia, and two of our volunteers who have experienced the transformation themselves.


By the beginning of the 1990’s Medellin was considered the most violent city in the world, with more than 300 homicides per 100.000 residents.[i]


In 2004, in an effort to confront growing


violence, the City Council of Medellin initiated the Integral Urban Projects program that aimed to build a city where citizens would have better access to essential public services, such as


education, food, security, housing and a safe natural environment. [ii]


A symbol of the new and better city envisioned in the program


was the Metrocable, a gondola lift system that traversed the hills of Medellin and now connects the most vulnerable districts of the city. Suddenly, public libraries and parks became meeting points and spaces of social transformation all over the city.


In the field of youth engagement, the city took on an innovative approach, consulting youth in order to understand their specific problems and find solutions in a collaborative way. A key to the city’s youth engagement strategy was The Youth Observatory, a network of municipal and external institutions responsible for identifying, analyzing and sharing information about related to the youth of the city.[iii]


One of the Observatory’s most


interesting initiatives is the Youth Development Index, a statistical tool that asks youth in Medellin aged 14 to 26 about eight areas of interest (jobs, democracy and civic participation, development of young individuals,


32 iAM Youth as... Allies


human rights, health, services and goods, and education for life).[iv]


Alongside the Youth Development Index, in 2012 the City


Council created a Secretary for Youth, who is responsible for the coordination of youth policies, promotion of youth initiatives, and a separate program called Medellin, Jóvenes por la Vida, which integrates the results of the Youth Development Index into new policies and projects.[v]


The youth projects of ACJ-YMCA of Medellin are not only part of the Medellin, Jóvenes por la Vida framework, they go beyond it. ACJ-YMCA’s programs uses a holistic approach that helps young people to fight poverty, exclusion and violence but also to find their own role in society and become agents of change in their own communities. Alongside the national ACJ-YMCA youth strategy, the ACJ-YMCA of Medellin works around three main areas: Peace and Coexistence, Organization and Participation of Youth, and Young Entrepreneurship. ACJ-YMCA’s


initiatives include: the


Peace and Coexistence Ambassador Program, which trains participants about personal development, coexistence, peace, entrepreneurship and environmental protection; supporting the Reciclarte group by generating handcrafted paper using recycled products and vegetable filters; PreunYcom, which helps students prepare for university; youth entrepreneurship programs; and a series of institutional collaborations designed to provide training to public and private sector professionals who work with youth.


topics


The ACJ-YMCA of Medellin believes that the best way to transform Medellin is to challenge inequality and empower youth. The following two stories are from young ACJ-YMCA volunteers who have experienced the transformation themselves.


family and development, coexistence and


Mónica Aguirre is a 28-year-old Colombian woman who lives in Medellin. She sees herself as a dreamer and her biggest dream is to change the world. Mónica truly believes that a better world is possible and can be achieved through politics and communication.


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