Graciela, Colombia

Graciela* is 55 years old. She and her family left their village and fled to Soacha, a sprawling urban slum near the capital of Colombia, Bogotá, which receives more than a third of the people who have fled their homes in the Cundinamarca department. After one of her sons was nearly raped by an armed group, his brother had raced home to get their parents’ help—for that his life was threatened.

“We came here on August 20, last year. My husband had put up with everything they said to him, everything they did to him. Everything. I called him a coward a lot. But then, one of my sons, who is 15, went to the river and found my other son tied up by four men who were trying to rape him. He came running to the house, crying. I grabbed him, hugged him and asked, ‘Sweetheart, what happened?’ And he said, ‘Mummy, Mummy, they are going to eat my brother.’”

“My husband jumped, a terrible jump, and in three jumps he was on the bank of the river. And I said, ‘My God, this is too much.’ I asked God to help me leave because my husband had put up with enough. They told my son to watch out because they were going to kill him for being a snitch. After maybe eight days, they came and threatened him. And that’s when we left.”

“We got here and everyone started looking for work and we all found work.  But after 20 days, my husband got really sick. He died four and a half months after we arrived here.

I'm too alone. There are whole nights that I spend sitting, thinking about what will happen to me in the morning.”

As Colombia enters its fifth decade of violent conflict, Graciela’s story is tragically common.  She and her family are among the 3.8 million people displaced inside Colombia as a result of a conflict – largely fueled by a struggle to control the narcotics trade – that pits government troops against two heavily armed guerrilla groups, ELN and FARC, and also involves paramilitary forces.  Killings, intimidation, and fear have become inescapable parts of everyday life for civilians living in conflict-affected rural areas.

*All names have been changed.

 

Millions of people in Colombia are isolated from healthcare. Médecins Sans Frontières has been present in Colombia since 1985, with today more than 300 field staff working in isolated rural and jungle areas affected by the fighting, and in urban shanty towns, where people fleeing violence have gathered in overcrowded shacks. Médecins Sans Frontières teams provide emergency services, maternal and pediatric care, vaccinations, and treatment for sexual violence. They also treat infectious diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and educate people on how to gain access to the government’s health system. Throughout the country, Médecins Sans Frontières provides psychological support to victims of mental trauma.