Code

S036

Title of the project

Centre for University Studies for Peace (FUCLA)

Location of the project

Quibdò, Chocò, Colombia

Applicant

The Claretian Missionaries of West Colombia

Summary

The projects involves the creation of a Centre for University Studies for Peace that will develop its educational activities in a context characterized by marginalization and social exclusion, lack of job opportunities, political violence by various armed groups, huge cultural pressure on the local ethnic groups.

The project aims to be an alternative in favour of Peace because it will:

• provide the population of the region with the basic tools through which they will learn, recognize and critically re-create their own reality.
• Significantly contribute to the social, economic, political and cultural  transformation of their context, for an effective answer to the number of local and regional problems and needs.

The Centre for University Studies is based in Quibdó, capital of the department of Chocó, for the benefit of the entire Colombian Pacific region and it has possibilities of  distance learning.

Initially the University will offer the following programmes:

• Degree in Artistic Education and Culture.
• Anthropology of Ethnic Rights.
• Social Work with a focus on Social Re-integration.
• Theology with a focus on Religious life and on Bible Studies.
• Degree in Religious Sciences.

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries of this project is the indigenous and afro population of the country, the poorest share of the overall population. There are severe conditions of social, economic, political and cultural marginalization .The living conditions in terms of health care, education, public services, infrastructures and accommodation are indecent.
In this specific territory the armed conflict has worsened due to its strategic position for the cultivation and trafficking of illegal drugs and of arms. The various illegal actors are trying to gain control over the land and have in various occasions carried out genocide, displacement, selective murder, .etc. The  80% of the inhabitants of this region are of Afro-Colombian ethnic origin.

Implementing agency

Claretian Missionaries of the Province of West Colombia

Duration

N/A

Total cost

153.000,00 EURO (new installations for the building and furnishing)

Contribution sought

To be defined yet

Local contribution

To be defined yet