live webinar
Memories of Social Justice: “20 years of Accompaniment in Colombia”
February 25, 2021 6PM CT | 7PM Colombia
Join us for a webinar with the CPT Colombia team and celebrate, together with our partners, 20 years of peacemaking work in the country.
Our guests and partners will share their reflections about the past, present, and future of accompaniment and solidarity activism, strengthening grassroots initiatives for social justice.
Join us to explore our work, our learning, and the change we would like to see. Find out how you can be involved and take part in the struggle for social justice.
Demand recognition, guarantees, and protection for human rights defenders in Colombia.
Salvador Alcantara
Salvador Alcantara is the pastor of the Four Square Gospel church in the community of El Garzal in the southern region of the Bolivar province Colombia. He and his wife Nidia have pastored the small rural church for the past 20 years. Pastor Salvador is a key leader of a regional farmers association ASPROAS that provides agricultural, business, and technical support to farmers. In 2004 Manuel Enrique Barreto, a former drug trafficker who had left the area a decade earlier, returned, threatening the families in El Garzal with displacement and death. Pastor Salvador confronted Mr. Barreto and told him that neither would he nor anyone else from the community leave. Since then, the community of El Garzal has been struggling against threats of physical violence and eviction. Pastor Salvador has personally received multiple death threats. He has also faced challenges from his church, whose leadership would prefer he concentrate his pastoral efforts on saving souls. But he has always said that being a pastor is being a leader in the church and the community. Pastor Salvador has a profound understanding of the Gospel as a message of justice and peace and works hard to exemplify this understanding to his church and the broader community.
Alix Lozano
Alix Lozano is a pastor and theologian in the Mennonite Church of Colombia. She is a CPT reservist for the Colombia program and actively participates in Women Peacebuilders' Ecumenical group (GemPaz). Alix is also an advisor to the Movement of Anabaptist Women who do theology from Latin America in the Andean Region. Currently, she provides pastoral care to victims of gender violence. CPT began its work in Colombia with the invitation of the Mennonite Church of Colombia in 2001.
Christine Forand
Christine Forand was part of the initial 4 person team that came to Colombia to explore locations for the program site. Currently works as school librarian and grows as much of her own food as possible as part of her homesteading life. She is from Turtle Island, Canada.
Duane Ediger
Duane Ediger was part of the initial four-person team that came to Colombia to explore and identify a location to set up the Colombia program in 2001. Duane is a CPT reservist and works for environmental justice in Turtle Island, USA.
