Evaluation of effectiveness of the project ‘Caring caregivers of persons in disability situation’. Bogotá - second semester of 2007

The present paper presents the results of a transversal descriptive study which intended to estimate the contribution of the project “Caring for those who take care of people with disabilities” in the areas of: strength of personal and group competences, self care, life project, dexterity in the care process of people with disabilities, and communitarian auto management; that was implemented in 20 urban areas with caregivers of the city of Bogota in the year 2007. The study allowed the nresearches to acknowledge the little change perception that caregivers had in terms of self care, however, the caregivers perceived change in the four areas, although this were not statistically significant in comparison with the general population. There were only significant changes in the communitarian auto management area in 30% of the population. As a result, it is proposed that more extensive, continuous, and sustainable processes are implemented and that this process arises from contention spaces which can be created with the caregivers, from which they can be motivated to participate in other ´processes of collective and individual changes. Also there’s a need to rely on facilitators (professionals and change agents) who have stronger competences on the how to be and the how to interact competences, because there’s a need to manage the psychosocial components in this group of people. Also, we must make organizational processes and the social networks stronger, this is: collective actions are required, because disability is a social fact, and so, the individual issues are just a moment in the process of inclusion of the person with disability, his family and caregiver.

Participación de las mujeres en la construcción social del territorio y el proceso de regionalización del Caribe colombiano

This paper describes women’s roles in the processes of territory construction and the Colombian Caribbean coast regionalization. First, we present women participation in the adaptation of the fi rst inhabitants, through their contribution to creating the most important cultures that emerged in that region, such as Tairona and Sinu. This paper also considers native women’s resistance actions against Spanish invasion; women participation in African, native, mestizo, zambo, and criollo freeing fi ghts against colonialism and in the consolidation of the Republic; along with their contribution to building the social fabric that consolidated the social life of new born towns and cities; which transformed women into family group integrators, new generation socializing forces, and sponsorsof the family structure performance. The second line of argument addressed in this article refers to women involvement in the regionalization of the Colombian Caribbean, by establishing and concluding that, although regionalization has happened, the recognition of its practical and strategic interests has not been guaranteed to allow changes in the social, economic, and political position. The reason is that, even though such interests were expressed insome forums held to reach an agreement on the vision and the requirements of the region, the social movement has not had any access to decision making, though this has not prevented its gaining strength in the last decades. 

Paradoxes of resilience: lessons learnt from a comparison between Columbia and France

This paper investigates a discrepancy concerning resilience. International institutions such as ISDR try to promote resilience as a notion useful for preventing disasters. And some searchers, mainly coming from ecology, such as Resilience Alliance group, found the notion relevant enough to promote it as a brand for their studies on disaster prevention. Yet, the second part of the paper will verify how other searchers are still not convinced by the relevance of the notion. Territorial managers are reluctant as well, in line with the poor number of policies trying to bring resilience to reality, be it in Columbia or in France. How can we make sense of this discrepancy? The paper will stress on various political, institutional and cultural conditionings hidden behind the notion. It will also enlighten the contradictions embedded within the notion, because resilience, as disaster, depends on the scales and the actors the analysis relies on first. Which resilience to whom and at what scale? These are critical questions that should be addressed in order to give sense to these contradictions. Resilience has no absolute meaning. However, it helps identifying trends towards future disasters. This is one of the main reasons why it may be found useful.