There are three main events (not the only ones) that brought me to this point. When I was 15 years old, I joined the NGO TECHO. The first slum that I saw in my life was Republica de Canada. The images of this place was a kick to the bubble I have lived in for years. The poverty was extreme but as bad as the situation was, as great were the people I met. The people living there are the definition of resilience. They are warm and welcome, and for some reason even though I couldn’t be farther away from my own reality, somehow, I felt at home, welcome, and comfortable. I met the most amazing kids, got a life changing lessons and created an amazing second family. After 5 years of working together I made the promise of making my life’s biggest goal to work in social services.

In 2017, just months after the peace treaty in Colombia was signed, I joined a group full of crazy and dreamy students that wanted to see the reality of the war with their own eyes. In the slums, I had already met some faces of this war, but I had never met a member of the FARC in their territory. Wanting to known all sides of the story I said yes to entering the jungle that a only few months ago was war territory. In the jungle I was going to provide literacy training for demobilized FARC members. I got my first lesson even before arriving to the territory that was going to be my home for the next few days. In the bus from San Jose de Guaviare to El Frente de Colinas, I realized the power of what the media and society have told me about FARC. 

I discovered on that bus that it is easy to have an open-minded view of the guerrillas if you never have to interact with them. But when I was actually about to meet them, I was struck by stress and fear, caused by the images of the media that manipulated my mind in such a way that I did think of them as monsters. With these images I was not able to see them as people that made mistakes and are asking for a second chance. My perception was blocked by fear and a one-sided narrative. 

But the moment I got off the bus and came face to face with members of the FARC, I met the humans that made mistakes, the victims of a system, the sons of war that had no other options. I don’t justify their actions but I do know that the main perpetrator is not in the jungle but in an office. This bus drive and the whole experience in the jungle showed me how essential and useful it is to have the chance of telling your own version of the story. To give people the opportunity to be heard is to end the pain in the world. If the people in the cities hear the stories of the jungle, hear their dreams, their hopes, their fear, their pain, they will the stop the war. Because they will realize how much they have in common. Discrimination and marginalization are one of the main reasons war happens. 

One of my last experiences was volunteering in a refugee camp in Greece. I can only say that this place is hell on earth and where the refugees come from must even be worse. But this is the only hell where angels live. I met the nicest, warmest, most open, and conscious people I have met in my life. They're living in the middle of trash and sleeping in tents that weren’t made to resist the -2 degrees that February brought. And even there between the shivers and endless waiting, you could find big smiles, thankful faces, helping hands, and open hearts. 

In Greece I realized that something was lacking. A space to be “normal”. A space to not be labeled as anything else than human. A space where refugees, displaced, the sick could just forget those labels and become musicians, artists, storytellers, and directors. Anything in which they could let their imagination fly, taking them somewhere else. And I didn’t just see the lack of space to create. I encountered a huge amount of creativity and talent in these places. All of which was ignored and unknown to the world. That is the injustice that I want to fight with Upeksha – Voices of Resilience.