Manuel has to concentrate when he tries to remember his age. “I stopped counting the years long ago,” he says with a rueful smile. The last birthday he remembers was when he turned 60, and that was “a while back.” Manuel has lost his family and his friends. Now, he is trying to start his life again.
“I never imagined that a cookie recipe could become my future,” said Dwilliam Norberto Toloza, describing his success as a commercial baker.
Rubiel Zapata always dreamed of growing rubber. A certified teacher who lived in his hometown of Uré, he taught in rural schools in the northern Colombian department of Córdoba for five years before “the violence in the region forced me to leave,” he said.
“René” (a pseudonym) was one of 14 children born into a poor family in southern Colombia. He started working early to support his family, and by age 12 had joined an illegal armed group. When René turned 18, he began receiving training from the USAID-supported Don Bosco center in Cali to rebuild his life and self-esteem.
Life was bleak until Julio Contreras heard about Actuar por Bolivar, a USAID-supported non-governmental organization that provides social and economic assistance to people displaced by the drug-fueled violence in Colombia. He enrolled in its program and received psychological counseling to come to terms with the many changes taking place in his life.
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