COLOMBIA. Calli. 1998.
The sprawling refugee settlement Agua Blanca is infamous for its internecine gang warfare, drugs and gratuitous violence. Weekends bring the most suffering. Time, booze and drugs ignite bravado or recall supposed slights. Gangs roam their turfs and the staff the small local hospital waits for victims. A gang member was rushed into the E.R dead. The team checked him, closed his eyes and cut the bloody shirt from him so the family wouldn't see it in the morgue.
MSF. Colombia MSF began working in Bogota and Cali, Colombia in the summer of 1998. Because of the more than 30 years of wonton violence among the military, three main guerilla groups, the drug lords and countless innocent peasants victims. MSF were greeted with suspicion. It has been very difficult to establish trust with the thousands of refugees who had fled violence and relocated in sprawling favellas around Bogota and Cali. The MSF staff is made up of all local doctors, nurses, social workers and staff, except for three European directors who oversee them. Even with their local expertise and connections it has been slow going. Enric Grau, Bogota, spends a lot of time visiting new encampments to try to establish a working relationship with new refugees. The Camps house thousands of people seeking refuge. Their handmade homes sprawl over the foots hills and climb the slopes of the grand mountains that encircle the two cities. The flood of refugees started 30 years ago and continues unabated. The refugees are on their own and get no help from the government. But they are hand-driving survivors and slowly work and build new communities. One of the most notorious is Agua Blanca in Cali. It is a huge, lawless settlement that is controlled by youth gangs that rule their turf and live from the spoils of violence and crime against the thousands of people in Agua Blanca. The police will not go into the area. "You're on your own". The gangs fight and kill each other and then demand retribution.