The Ecology of Peace in Colombia 

Guest Dr. Lina Maria Ballesteros, Fundación Saldarriaga Concha

30 September 2015

Interviewer: Chanel Marin, MPH candidate, Yale University

Chanel Marin: Who is the Fundación Salarriga Concha and what is its role in supporting early childhood in Colombia?

Dr. Ballesteros: Fundación Salarriga Concha was created in 1973 by businessman Alfredo Saldarriaga del Valle in Antioquia, her wife Elvira and his son Ignacio Concha. With the donation of their assets to form the initial endowment, the Foundation was established to improve living conditions, opportunities for participation and social inclusion of people with disabilities and older people in the country.

From the knowledge and experience that we have achieved in these 42 years we seek to build a society for all, including people with disabilities and elderly starting from the concrete, effective and impact action and its environment and throughout his life, in a context of peacebuilding. As an organization we are an actor who shares his learning both in Colombia and in countries around the world where we identify an opportunity.

We are a Non Governmental Organization (NGO) governed by private law and legally constituted as non-profit foundation. We work in partnership with those who can most contribute to the expansion and consolidation of our goals: Governments at national, regional and local bodies, public and private institutions, foundations and international cooperation organizations. Our strategies are based on a differentiated approach that is seeking recognition of diversity, understood as something inherent to the human condition.

Marin: How has the Saldarriaga Foundation used the theoretical framework of the Ecology of Peace (where early childhood is a mechanism for peacebuilding) to design a program for children and families affected by the conflict?

Dr. Lina Maria Ballesteros: One of our areas of emphasis is aging, as the life course of individual starts or starts at the moment of conception. As an organization that brings us to the clear task of seeing old age as the result of actions throughout life and particularly in early childhood, this coupled with the interest as an organization to be an active part of the peace process that today we live in Colombia. We found in the model of the Ecology of Peace a way to understand and navigate the processes that allows the construction of peaceful environments, so we designed a program that involves community action raised from the model around developing peaceful relations among peers, a generation of healthy emotional ties, safe learning and teaching empathy from attachment to parents, older people (stakeholders in the inter-process) and adults who are involved in early childhood education in early childhood. This commitment has enabled us to promote resilient processes in the adult population and be transferred through vicars and meaningful to children early childhood learning.

Marin: The Foundation has been successful in mobilizing funds for investment in early childhood in Colombia through the conceptualization of peacebuilding from early childhood. What contributed to that success? What lessons can other countries and agencies learn from this experience?

Ballesteros: The model of the Ecology of Peace is systemic and comprehensive, flexible and tested in different scenarios model has sparked interest in our partners and institutional allies, especially those focused on early childhood and those responsible have joined this job. It is important to evaluate the other countries actions built under a model that considers human development from an ecological perspective and key peacebuilding.