Today in Colombia...
Human rights defenders are being disappeared.
More than 40,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in
Colombia as a result of the armed conflict since 1990 alone*
Campesinos are being displaced from their land.
There are 3 million internally displaced people in Colombia.
Second in the world only to the Sudan*
The military/paramilitaries are killing and disappearing people with impunity.
Colombia has received more than $3.5 billion in largely military aid from the US since 1999, and their forces have been trained at the School of the Americas.
What are you doing to stop America’s other war?
The Fellowship of Reconciliation is working to demilitarize US policy and support peace initiatives in Colombia. Please help support their work by sponsoring me**:
In early November of 2006, I will ride 500 miles in10 days on my bicycle from Boston to Washington, DC to raise awareness about and money for FOR’s work in Colombia.
My goal is to raise $10,000 for FOR. I hope to get 500 people to sponsor me for each of the miles I will ride, at $20 per mile.
*statistics from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
**”Me” is Janice Gallagher, janicekgallagher@yahoo.com. I was a member of the August 2006 delegation to Colombia with FOR, and am a former teacher, and long-time social justice acitivst.
