A School Reopens in the Mountains

Mesones vereda (a small settlement) is is a five-hour hike from the urban centre of Argelia in the Antioquia region of Colombia. For many years, this journey was unsafe as Non-State Armed Groups (NSAGs) had laid anti-personnel mines to block roads and access routes to the local communities.

10 years ago, more that 30 children went to school here—before the conflict forced it to close and many families fled to neighbouring villages for safety.

But, thanks to support from The Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement in the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs (PM/WRA) and the Canadian Government, HALO began work in November 2021 to make the land safe. Our teams removed more that 50 landmines from paths leading to the vereda and school.

Yurleidy, age 26, is a Demining Supervisor for HALO Colombia. She has specialist training to allow her to dispose of the mines one-by-one as her team discovered them.

On August 9th 2023, HALO declared two areas in the vereda to be free of landmines and returned the land to the local community. This allowed the school to be officially reopened and made it possible for Alina, the new teacher, to move in and begin her new job. Alina comes from Chocó, a department in the Pacific region of Colombia with high levels of deprivation and many people eager for job opportunities. Since the school reopened, six children have already enrolled and can play and learn in safety under Alina's care. Juan Bernardo Marulanda is the ombudsman for Argelia municipality. He expressed his thanks for HALO’s work and the impact it has had on the local community and school.

Thanks to the support of PM/WRA and the Canadian Government, over the last three years, HALO has cleared four minefields—equivalent in size to three city blocks in Manhattan. The vereda is now safe, allowing families to return and work their land, infrastructure to be built and a new generation to live in safety. Making land safe is also important in the process of land restitution—the program established by the Colombian government to help internally displaced people to return home, securing their future rights through land property registration and formalisation. 74 requests have been enabled since HALO finished clearing the minefields.