Just sat in Barajas airport in Madrid waiting to catch my plane to Bogotá. Very excited and a little bit nervous, of course.
Before I go, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged me and, in particular, to my sponsors and Allison at The Humanity Exchange for organising my stay.
As those of you who know me are undoubtedly well aware, next week I will be travelling to Colombia to start a volunteer placement in the city of Medellín.
While I’m away, I’ll be producing a travel blog (partly written but mostly in photos) as a “thank you” to the people who generously sponsored me and for anybody else interested in the organisation, the region or the people I’ll be visiting.
Before the real blogging begins, here are the basics about my trip:
WHAT?
I will be working as a translator for a non-profit organisation called AMICHOCÓ (http://amichoco.org). AMICHOCÓ is committed to protecting the environment and the inhabitants of an area known as the Chocó Bioregion.
WHERE?
The Chocó region lies between the Eastern Andes and the Pacific Ocean (http://g.co/maps/zgpxz). It is considered to be one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet, as well as one of the richest in natural resources. With an incredible wealth of forest, mining and marine resources, it represents one of the world’s foremost strategic and endangered ecosystems.
WHY?
The race to exploit its natural resources has caused huge environmental destruction in the Chocó: of the 80,000 kilometers of forest that originally covered north western Ecuador, barely 6% remains. Poverty levels are high and the population struggles to meet even the most basic of its needs. The region has also suffered greatly from the armed conflict that has gripped the country since the 1960s, which has seen massacres take place all over the Chocó in Jurado, Rio Sucio, Bojaya Quibdo, San Juan River, Naya River, Raposo River, Buenaventura, Tumaco and Barbacoas, to name only a few places.
HOW?
Needless to say, tackling the region’s problems represents a huge challenge. AMICHOCÓ has been at the forefront of this battle for over ten years. It works to promote the sustainable use of natural resources and improve the population’s quality of life through education, communication and the implementation of capacity building projects.
Unfortunately, there is not a huge amount of information relating to the specific projects run by AMICHOCÓ available in English on the web at the moment – hence the need for me to go and translate it all! But there is a brief summary of some of the larger projects on the information tab of the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/AMICHOC%C3%93/163917113153?sk=info
A VENIR…
In upcoming blogs you can expect to read about my quite frankly humiliating attempts at fundraising, my ultimate Colombia soundtrack (it won’t all be Shakira, I promise), Hablar el español colombiano (Speaking Colombian Spanish) and some of my adventures on Colombian soil. I can’t predict the photos I’ll be taking but I can promise there will be muchísimos!
For more info check out this Guardian article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/19/columbia-robber-barons-choco-province
Translation, translation, translation... 