School becomes a safe haven from violence

Violence is a daily risk for children like Lucia* (right) and
Elena*, who attend a rural boarding school in Colombia. Mercy Corps is
working to make these schools safer by ensuring students receive the
full-time care they need to stay protected and healthy. All photos:
Miguel Samper for Mercy Corps

It’s early morning on a stormy day in the jungle of Putumayo, Colombia. Lucia*, 13, and the girls she rooms with wake from their dorm beds to get ready for the school day.

The mud is 10 inches deep around the boarding school grounds but the
kids don’t miss a beat, plodding around in their rubber boots or bare
feet and taking little notice of the marked trees announcing the
presence of rebel forces in the area.

For many reasons — protection, discipline, financial hardship — many
parents like Lucia’s choose to send their children to rural boarding
schools like this one. Here, the children live away from their family homes for weeks at a time and traditionally receive little in the way of emotional or academic support outside of class time.

But Putumayo is a dangerous place to be a child. Domestic
abuse, sexual assault and recruitment into armed groups are regular
occurrences. And without proper guidance and life-skills education,
young people are at great risk of becoming victims of violence.

That’s why Mercy Corps is working with the local government to make
rural boarding schools in Colombia safer. We’re implementing programs
that support children’s healthy development and teach parents and
educators how to keep at-risk youth free from harm.