NRC in Colombia

 
NRC's operation

We provide assistance to IDPs in rural areas where authorities struggle to provide help, and in urban environments, where the majority of Colombia’s IDPs has sought safety.

We also contribute to the process of reintegration of the former combatants into civilian life, self-management, integration and stabilisation of the territories affected by armed conflict.

The crisis in Venezuela means that many people are seeking humanitarian aid in other countries. We are implementing a multi-country (Colombia-Panamá-Ecuador-Brazil) action plan for the response.
 

Information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA)

 
We improve access to registration procedures and legal humanitarian assistance as well as access to land and housing for communities who have had their land or houses seized or abandoned. Our ICLA teams:

• assist displaced people in rural and urban areas who have not yet declared their displacement to the Public Ministry
• provide legal services to displaced people who are victims of usurpation or abandonment of land or housing
• offer legal assistance services to guarantee victims’ rights when they return to their land
• provide legal assistance on how to access adequate housing and how to limit risks of eviction
• promote resolution of socio-environmental conflicts and draft livelihoods and economic proposals for ex-combatants
   

Education

We help displaced families keep their children in school, and work with youth and adults so they can complete their education and find safe vocational training opportunities. Our teams:

• conduct censuses in municipalities affected by conflict to identity out-of-school children
• give technical support to educational authorities to provide alternative education programmes for those out of school
• give technical support to schools and training centres to implement flexible education models for out-of-school children
• support schools and vocational training centres, increasing their capacity to meet the needs of out-of-school children
• work with children so they can attend flexible education model programmes and technical and vocational skills training
   

Shelter and settlements

 
Access to shelter is essential for one’s dignity, privacy, health, and physical and social protection. Our shelter and settlements teams provide access to adequate shelter solutions for affected people across all phases of displacement. This ranges from rapidly deployable emergency shelter solutions that can save lives, to supporting early recovery and promoting durable solutions.

Our shelter teams:  

• provide temporary shelter solutions through cash for rent
• provide transitional shelters for vulnerable families through complete shelter construction or cash for a housing upgrade
• provide habitat or hygiene kits for vulnerable families, thereby increasing and promoting safe hygiene practices
• initiate multipurpose protective and collective shelters, like community canters
• construction and repair of classrooms
• provide and maintain latrines or toilets segregated by gender, or family units that are safe for women, girls, men and boys
   

Emergency response    

When a new conflict arises in remote locations, we provide humanitarian assistance to communities where no permanent field presence has yet been or can be established. We also help newly displaced children go to safe learning environments during acute emergencies.

In emergencies, we:

• train teachers so that they can best teach and support their pupils during an emergency
• provide newly displaced people with safe learning environments
• distribute learning and sports equipment, so that children can continue to learn and play
• build temporary classrooms and latrines and upgrade school infrastructure
• supply food and temporary shelters
• facilitate the registration process in acute emergencies, so displaced people can access to humanitarian assistance