Maria Victoria Liu is still haunted by a vivid memory of a Saturday evening nearly 17 years ago. Four masked gunmen attacked the rural Triana community where she and her family lived, alongside 400 other families, some 40 kilometres from the city of Buenaventura in western Colombia.
Maria Victoria heard gunshots and when a neighbour started screaming, “It’s Pedro, Pedro,” she knew her husband had been shot.
“I ran to the billiards hall and saw my husband lying dead on the floor. My three sons had witnessed the killing of their father,” says Maria Victoria.
Within a week, Maria Victoria fled with her teenage children and sought shelter at her brother-in-law’s house in Buenaventura. “I feared for my family’s life. Fear drove me to leave,” she says.
Awarded the Nansen Refugee Award
Years later she returned to Triana. She now leads a workshop as one of 22 coordinators for the women’s rights network known as Butterflies. The network consists of nine organisations of and for women. Butterflies are a driving force in raising awareness about the high levels of violence against women in Triana. In 2014, Butterflies were awarded UNHCR’s Nansen Refugee Award.
Saw her friend killed
When she was seven years old, in 2008, Maria Nallelli had to flee with her family from the Colombian countryside to the big city of Tumaco. In 2013, an illegal armed group took control of their neighborhood in Tumaco, introducing their own reign of terror. Citizens were subjected to curfews, extortion and violence. Towards the end of the year, Maria's best friend, Alejandra, was shot and killed in front of her eyes. They were playing in the street at night, viloating the criminals'orders.
Fearing for Maria's safety, her family escaped to another neighborhood where she was finally able to return to school, five years after she was first displaced. Maria participates in NRC's education programme in Tumaco.
Fled for his life
17 year old Esaud Cadena lives in the Colombian city of Tumaco, a city devastated by violence caused by illegal armed groups and drug trade.
In August 2013, a group that controlled his neighborhood issued an ultimatum to boys living in the area aged nine to eighteen. They had three choices: Join the group, leave Tumaco or be killed. With help from relatives and teachers Esaud escaped to the capital of Bogota. Shortly after, two of his friends were killed by gangs who had taken control of the neighborhood. In Bogota Esaud stayed in a temporary reception center for internally displaced people. It was hard to make ends meet, and towards the end of 2013, he decided to return to Tumaco. At that time, the illegal armed groups were less active, although a shooting near his school in January 2014 put a fright in all once again. Esaud, participating in NRC's education programme in Tumaco, now rarely leaves the house after school.
