This is the third article in a series of five from students of social communication from Bucaramanga, Colombia. The students found local organisations operating in the social economy (known as the solidarity economy in Latin America), visited them and wrote a report about them. In this article Laura Pradilla writes about an organisation in which people work to produce food for the community in sustainable ways and to lobby for a policy environment which supports this.
As part of the social economy in higher education project we are seeking to understand where social economy organisations, who they are and what they do (Chapter of handbook: Identity and profile of organisations)
Article in Spanish by Laura Pradilla, student at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Colombia.
Translated into English by Charles Hanks, Collaborator in the Social Economy in Higher Education project
“How happy farmers would be if only they knew they were happy!” Virgil
Photo: foodresourcebank.org
For healthy land, a decent job and a better future: the Corporación Buen Ambiente (Good Environment Corporation, ‘Corambiente’) is backing the development of the Santander region’s farmers and carrying out food security proposals, starting with the recovery and improvement of organisational processes in farming communities, especially those displaced because of the armed conflict.
Corambiente carries out its work in different areas such as: farming for personal consumption; generating income; improving access to drinking water; supporting the creation and strengthening of community organisations, principally those for women and farm producers; and political lobbying to ensure that food remains a topic at the heart of local, regional and national politics.
Photo: foodresourcebank.org
Corambiente has been working for around nine years with the farmers of Santander, for which it has gained recognition in the promotion of good environmental practice, educational processes and the commercialisation of organic products offered directly onto the market by farming communities. For its work helping the rural population, Corambiente has in its turn received support from national and international bodies such as the Norwegian Refugee Council, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and the International Organisation for Migration.
Finally, Corambiente continues to implement its work and development expertise through participatory processes characteristic of the assistance it offers to rural communities, and as such the organisation is helping to secure a prosperous life for present and future generations.