IRC Launches New Program in Colombia

01 Feb 2007 - Members of the International Rescue Committee's emergency response team arrived in Bogotá in late January to re-launch relief programs in a country where more than 40 years of civil strife has displaced some three million people—a million of those in just the past five years, according to the United Nations.

The team will begin work in Nariño, an extremely poor province bordering Ecuador with a large indigenous and Afro-Colombian population. The province has been hit by severe violence, suffers significant displacement and receives little international assistance, according to Carmen Lopez-Clavero, who is overseeing the effort.

The IRC will initially provide education and psychosocial assistance to displaced youth in urban slum areas and work to improve access to health services in rural areas. The team includes a human rights specialist, a child and youth protection coordinator, and a financial controller.

The IRC previously ran programs in Colombia from 1999 to 2003.