IPS-English COLOMBIA: Thousands of Poor Line Up All Night for Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:00:11 -0700 COLOMBIA: Thousands of Poor Line Up All Night for Gov't Aid Helda Martínez BOGOTA, Aug 16 (IPS) - Spending the cold Bogotá night outside on a sidewalk is not recommended. But thousands of poor Colombians, including many displaced by the civil war, had no choice this week if they wanted to register for the meagre assistance offered by the government's Families in Action programme before the deadline expired. As many as 100,000 families in the capital could receive the health and education subsidies equivalent to 15 dollars per school-age child and 30 dollars per secondary school student, as well as a food stipend of 50 dollars handed out every two months. This week, many people have spent an entire night queuing up outside to apply for the assistance. Around 20,000 of the families have been forcibly displaced, fleeing their rural villages and homes as a result of the armed conflict that has dragged on for nearly half a century. There are more than 3.8 million displaced Colombians, according to the Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (CODHES), although the government acknowledges only two to three million, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reports three million. To be eligible for the aid provided by the programme, the families must be registered in the database of the Beneficiaries Identification System, which since 2000 has been used to identify the neediest families. The displaced, meanwhile, must be registered in the database of the Presidential Agency for Social Action. The families will receive health care for children up to the age of 18 as long as they go in for regular check-ups, and assistance in education for children between the ages of seven and 18 who stay in school. In this country of 42 million, the cost of the basic basket of goods and services is 450 dollars, while the minimum monthly wage is 281 dollars, according to the National Department of Statistics, which reports that 45 percent of Colombians are poor, although local non-governmental organisations say the proportion is higher than that. Of the total number of people in Bogotá hoping to receive aid through the programme, ”roughly 20 percent are displaced families,” the Families in Action national coordinator, Rita Combarías, told IPS. The food aid will be distributed in the form of coupons or food stamps that the beneficiaries will use to pay for items of their choice in specific supermarkets. In Bogotá, the supermarkets involved in the programme are the Colsubsidio chain, which in the opinion of María Maldonado, a displaced mother of two, ”is not very convenient, because we have to pay the cost of the bus ticket to get to these supermarkets, which have high prices. ”We would prefer to do our shopping in the neighbourhood markets, which are much cheaper,” she commented to IPS. But the Families in Action press office responded that through the agreement with Colsubsidio, the beneficiaries will get ”discounts, and we are guaranteed quality products. We understand that people are used to doing their daily shopping at the corner store, but after they start shopping at the supermarket, they will be convinced that it is better.” Families in Action was launched by the government of Andrés Pastrana (1998-2002) and has continued under President Álvaro Uribe, ”with coverage expanded to displaced persons in 2005,” said Combarías. ”At first, donations were distributed in pilot projects in remote parts of the country, and then coverage gradually expanded in 2006. This year we will be providing assistance to more than one and a half million people around the country,” she added. The president of CODHES, Marco Romero, said ”the inclusion of the displaced families was the result of the Constitutional Court's insistence on enforcement of the legislation in favour of those who have been forced to leave their homes.” But, Romero told IPS, ”Families in Action does not have the capacity to truly address the situation of the displaced, which goes beyond economic vulnerability, even though it's true that the cash support will be helpful for them.” ”Not all of the displaced are poor, but they are all victims,” he stressed. An average of 100 displaced people a day are flowing in to Bogotá, 51 percent of whom are children, according to ”Drop by Drop: Forced Displacement in Bogotá and Soacha”, a report produced by CODHES and the Catholic Archdiocese of Bogotá's Migrants' Foundation (FAMIG). ”We have 9,000 families registered so far in Bogotá, and we hope that by September, when the registration period ends, we will have 20,000 families,” said Combarías. ”That is our goal,” she said, adding that it is positive ”even if it is just a grain of sand within the complexity of the phenomenon of displacement in Colombia.” The gravity of the situation can be seen outside of the offices opened to provide information and register families in the capital. An Aug. 9 to 14 registration period was set for the area that has received the largest number of displaced persons. An estimated 5,000 people crowded outside the entryway to the El Tunal park in southwestern Bogotá on Sunday night, protecting themselves from the cold and damp with sheets of plastic and the traditional ruanas (wool poncho) worn by campesinos (small farmers). The huge turn-out forced the authorities to extend the registration deadline for that area to Friday. In the long line, IPS met 16-year-old Miguel, who fled the town of Gachalá in the central department (province) of Cundinamarca because the guerrillas wanted to recruit him. Also in line was José Antonio, who arrived four months ago from the southwestern department of Putumayo, fleeing the ultra-rightwing paramilitary militias. And María de Jesús, from Arauca in the east, said ”I'm not going back there!” because she doesn't want to run into the paramilitary militias again. Miguel is living with an uncle in a Bogotá slum, and now plans to go back to school, after being forced to drop out in Gachalá. José Antonio is seeking assistance to complete the meagre income he earns when he manages to find casual work in construction. María de Jesús, who is holding her 18-month-old daughter, says the subsidy will complement the minimum wage that her husband earns in his job at a mechanic's shop. In Bogotá, many of the displaced live in fear because of the threats that leaders of their associations have received from paramilitary groups, which continue to send death threats despite the controversial ”demobilisation” process that resulted from negotiations between the militias and the Uribe administration. According to CODHES executive director Jorge Rojas, 19 leaders of organisations of the displaced have been killed since 2000, and others have received ”warnings” signed by the Black Eagles, a new paramilitary group. This week, the National Coordination for the Displaced (CND) published the latest threat received by human rights activist Rigoberto Jiménez. The e-mail message, which was riddled with grammatical and spelling errors, said: ”Mr. son of a b**ch Rigoberto Jimenez and all of your fellow loudmouths who badmouth the government it looks like you didn't understand the message you continue to insist on the idea of the international tribunal to try the government for displacement. ”We have orders from the boss to get you at the first chance we get you big son of a b**ch you think we're just talking and you think we don't know that you go outside of Bogotá to badmouth the government. ”Sincerely, the black eagles of Bogotá, for a Bogotá free of guerrilla cowards.” ***** + Consultancy on Human Rights and Displacement (http://www.codhes.org) + Amnesty International statement (http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR230272007) + Presidential Agency for Social Action - in Spanish (http://www.accionsocial.gov.co) + Colombia: A Nation Torn - More IPS News (http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/colombia/index.asp) + COLOMBIA: Displaced People Find Relative Calm in Bogotá (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38615) + COLOMBIA: Displaced Women Build New Lives, Brick by Brick (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34194) + COLOMBIA: Displaced Families Return, to Create ‘Peace Community' (http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32675) (END/IPS/LA PR IP HD MD CV BO CS/TRASP-SW/HMC/DCL/07) = 08162342 ORP015 NNNN