Espacio Bristol-Colombia is part of the Red de Hermandad y Solidaridad con Colombia (Network of Friendship and Solidarity with Colombia). This is a space for coordination between both autonomous, grassroots organisations in Colombia and between these Colombian organisations and solidarity collectives in other countries.

Groups in the Red de Hermandad work together around themes such as the impact of multinational corporations; the problem that the perpetrators of most human rights violations rarely get brought to justice; and a negotiated solution to the social and armed conflict in the country.

International collectives who are part of the Red de Hermandad not only take action in their own countries in solidarity with groups working on these issues in Colombia, but also provide ‘accompaniment’ to social organisations in Colombia

There are basically three types of accompaniment work, depending on your experience. In practice, however- these are flexible and depend very much on what you want to do and feel comfortable with:

1.People who are in Colombia for the first time or who have less experience can either (a) do several shorter periods of accompaniment and- in the process- learn about the work of various organizations and the reality in different parts of the country or (b) work with one organization but without being given huge amounts of responsibility.

2.People with more experience of accompaniment or political work are normally linked to one organization during their time in Colombia, often (although not always) in rural areas.

3.People with specific areas of knowledge might be linked into relevant areas of the Red de Hermandad’s activities. E.g. a plumber might help displaced communities returning to their land with the installation of water and sanitation, an academic might help with a research project, and so on.

The network is organised around the concept of horizontal relationships between peoples and thus, irregardless of which form of accompaniment you do, we get actively involved in the work of the groups we’re accompanying and try to build collective processes of mobilisation.

The training will be done by someone from Espacio currently living in Colombia and working with social movements and someone from the red de Hermandad in Ireland who spends half of each year in Colombia.

The content for training at the moment is:

· an introduction to Espacio, the Red de Hermandad an organisations
within it
· an introduction to Colombia’s historical and political context
· accompaniment with social organisations in Colombia
· cultural awareness
· security and legal issues
· emotional issues of working in Colombia
· hearing experiences from people who have provided accompaniment
plus opportunity to ask questions and chat with them informally.
· how to get a Visa
· what to pack.

If you have other suggestions on what you would like to go through then please let us know and we will endeavour to build this in to the weekend.

If you are interested in attending this training, then please complete the details below and email to  espacio@redcolombia.org.

There is absolutely no requirement to commit to doing accompaniment just because you come on the training. If you decide it’s not for you: that is your own decision and we’ll fully respect that.

If however, after the training you decide that yes-you want to do accompaniment then we will support you all the way, as we recognise that accompaniment may effect you in many ways both before, during and after your stay.

The training will take place at Kebele Community Coop, 14 Robertson Road, Easton, Bristol from 11am – 5pm on Saturday and then 10pm – 4pm on Sunday.

On Saturday evening we will cook and eat together. Accommodation will be
provided. However as Espacio is an entirely volunteer run group with little
financial resources we aren’t in a position to subsidise travel costs and we ask
for a donations of £15 if you can afford it for the weekend to cover the cost of
food and room hire.

The following is not an application form – it is just so we know a little
about you before the training.

Name:

Citizenship if other than UK:

Date of birth:

Permanent address:

Dietrary or Special Needs:

Would you like accommodation (it’ll be in the homes of members of Espacio) in Bristol on:
· Friday 15th: Y/N
· Saturday 16th: Y/N
· Sunday 17th: Y/M

Level of Spanish (ability to communicate without difficulty in Spanish is essential for accompaniment):

Have you been to Colombia before? If so, please provide details.




Relevant experience (activist/social movement/campaigning involvement, other experiences of accompaniment etc.):



Any useful skills (e.g. photography, carpentry, research, art, counselling):



Qualifications and professional background (not essential but may be useful for visa letter):



Anything else you want to tell us?