ABOUT US
Diaspora Woman is one of the multiple initiatives that the Colombian diaspora has developed to make themselves visible in Colombia and their countries of residence. The singularity of the initiative resides in our priorities: psychosocial healing, the empowerment of women, and the development of innovative methods to achieve more transformative and sustainable peacebuilding processes.We believe that there is a necessity to address and work on the experiences of women, both from an individual perspective as well as collectively.
The process has been wonderful. Initially, there was an expectation of women only speaking from their pain; however, we have spoken from the strength, strategies and abilities that we have developed in order to face complex situations and to adapt to other contexts and cultures. Our findings have brought us to create a new methodology, which we call Memoria Activa (Active Memory). It results from dynamic and organic work. It is a methodology full of professionalism, affection, analysis and rituality.
History
"Diaspora Woman works to transform experiences into knowledge, and that knowledge into tools
that can be passed on to other women."
Our initiative emerged in London in late 2014, when the Colombian diaspora was questioning the role it should play regarding the peace negotiations between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
In this context, a group of women from the Colombian diaspora shared the need to create a process from a woman’s perspective that would allow us to participate and position ourselves as agents of peace and social transformation.
To achieve this, we needed our own innovative and original proposal, with the ability to break down the barriers and polarisation that defined the war, and to engage the wide range of social, economic, political, and ethnic identities within the Colombian diaspora. This is a calm, welcoming space, respectful of differences, focused on dialogue and collective reflection, with a specific orientation: working on women’s historical memory from their own perspectives.
In 2015, we formed our first group in London. Later on, we expanded to other cities such as Barcelona, Stockholm, Brussels, and Oslo. Women’s groups of returnees in Colombia are also organizing themselves locally, considering how to effectively and productively use their migration experiences within the peacebuilding process.
Diaspora Woman was born with the idea of responding to the following needs:
Goals
Healing potential trauma caused by both the armed conflict in Colombia and the subsequent migration process.
Documenting the experience of war and migration to utilize within the formal processes of Truth, Memory, and Reconciliation processes in Colombia.
1
2
Facilitating integration processes in host countries.
3
Identifying skills and providing tools for the empowerment of women.
4
Contact us :
mujerdiaspora@gmail.com
Tel: (34) 646 644 983
With support from :
