New UNHCR Listen for Change Projects in Colombia

UNHCR Colombia is launching a "Listen for Change" initiative for better protection and improved living conditions in some of Colombia's most vulnerable communities. "Listen for Change" gives priority to small-scale projects that bring rapid and significant changes in displaced people's lives, mostly through the provision of health, education and basic infrastructure like water and sanitation. Twenty-two projects were selected for the first phase on the basis of urgent needs.

The new projects are located in parts of the country with a high rate of forced displacement, either as expulsion or reception zones. They range from the opening of emergency shelters and school cafeterias to the provision of clean water and sanitation.

Seven of the 22 new projects focus on children and young people, another seven on indigenous communities and the remaining eight on community infrastructure. One project will help run a boarding school along the Ecuadorian border so that children can stay for the night, avoiding the difficult and at times dangerous daily journeys on the Putumayo River. Another initiative will bring basic sanitation to an Afro-Colombian community on the Pacific Coast, a part of the country suffering from high levels of violence and displacement.

UNHCR Colombia hopes to raise $600,000 for the first phase of the programme by the end of the year through the international community, civil society and the private sector.