Wow. What an incredible display of solidarity we saw this year!
Thanks to your help, this year’s 7th Annual Days of Prayer and Action for Colombia was a huge success! Here at LAWG we are super impressed with how many of you got involved. Whether by creating paper homes, sending postcards to President Obama, or signing our Petition to Congress—you helped make sure our message was heard loud and clear: everybody deserves a place to call home. Together, we raised our voices to call for an end to the world’s largest displacement crisis that’s left millions of Colombians homeless.
In April, over 100 communities got together and created paper homes to raise awareness about forced displacement in Colombia. From San Francisco to New York, Chicago to Miami, you gathered in community centers, churches, and college campuses to learn about Colombia and join in the effort to create 5,200 paper houses symbolizing the yearning for home of 5.2 million displaced Colombians. The results were inspiring and imaginative. Your homes were displayed publicly throughout April to raise awareness, and photos of the events were shared on our facebook page to show solidarity between groups in the U.S. and Colombia. In June, we’ll deliver your houses to the White House along with 15,000 postcards you helped us distribute asking President Obama to make meaningful changes in U.S. policies towards Colombia. Houses and postcards are still arriving at our office in the mail everyday—it’s not too late to send them our way!
And you didn’t stop there! Along with crafting, you made your voices heard through organizing lobby days, holding prayer services, and signing an online petition asking Congress to stop funding the war and to increase aid for displaced people and refugees. In addition, we planned our main weekend of action to coincide with the Summit of the Americas, in which leaders from across the Western Hemisphere gathered in Cartagena, Colombia. Through letters to the editor, radio interviews, and coordinating with Colombian partners planning a vigil in Cartagena, we focused press attention onto the displacement crisis and amplified our call to support victims of violence and those working for peace in Colombia.
We owe an enormous thanks to everyone who took part in this remarkable project. By working together, we have gained amazing momentum in the movement for better U.S. policies towards Colombia. But don’t forget, it doesn’t end here. Be sure to keep in touch with us and we’ll keep you up to date on the human rights situation in Colombia and send you critical action alerts at moments when a little action can make a big difference. You can also “Like” us on facebook and follow us on twitter!
