Colombia’s Wounaan Indigenous people, displaced by guerrillas and left without a school after earthquake

The Wounaan Indigenous people of Colombia’s Jooin garim chaain community remember two recent traumas: fleeing their homes 13 years ago to protect children from guerrilla recruitment, and an earthquake that destroyed the only school their children had.

The 35 families live in a rural area of Buenaventura, the country’s most important Pacific port and one of its poorest regions. Their situation was already precarious when the magnitude 7.4 earthquake on Aug. 10 damaged the school and destroyed the two septic tanks used as bathrooms.

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The earthquake has affected us in food, housing, employment and social life. There is no space for the children to have fun. For now, the children are not attending classes because of the damage to the school and desks, and the lack of school supplies.

“The earthquake has affected us in food, housing, employment and social life. There is no space for the children to have fun. For now, the children are not attending classes because of the damage to the school and desks, and the lack of school supplies,” community leader Oliverio Perdiz told EFE. He said the tremor also left residents with psychological distress because they fear the ground could shake again, something they had never experienced before.

The community had only one school, a rudimentary structure made from wooden boards and plastic sheets. The earthquake damaged the building and destroyed desks, leaving children in the care of adults while classes remain suspended.

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There were gunfights in Litoral de San Juan, and people were frightened.

The Wounaan moved in 2013 from Litoral del San Juan, in the department of Chocó, to Buenaventura, in Valle del Cauca. They fled territorial disputes involving FARC dissidents, the National Liberation Army, or ELN, and criminal gangs. “There were gunfights in Litoral de San Juan, and people were frightened,” said Juancito Perdiz, who founded the community on a plot measuring seven by 15 meters before it expanded as relatives arrived. His son Oliverio said the family’s main reason for leaving was to protect the children and prevent future recruitment by illegal armed groups.

Maria Alejandra Celis, emergency manager for the Danish Refugee Council in Colombia, said the community was among those “doubly affected” by the emergency. “These are areas that have historically had the presence of armed groups and disputes over territorial control. The people we assist are in the middle of this crisis, which they ultimately know how to handle. What the earthquake does, obviously, is worsen the entire situation and leave them more unprotected,” she said.

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These are areas that have historically had the presence of armed groups and disputes over territorial control. The people we assist are in the middle of this crisis, which they ultimately know how to handle. What the earthquake does, obviously, is worsen the entire situation and leave them more unprotected.