ERA of Communication

Estudiante reincorporado ERA Comunicación tomando fotos

Estudiante comunidad ERA Comunicación grabando video

Estudiante comunidad ERA Comunicación contando historia en plastilina

Estudiantes reincorporados ERA Comunicación tomando fotos maqueta plastilina

Since January 2021, two communities of excombatants who settled in Mutatá, Antioquia, have been participating in the pilot project "Rural Alternative School (ERA) of Communication, co-financed by the “Imagining Our Image (INI, for its acronym in Spanish) 2020” grant, awarded by the Ministry of Culture to PASO Colombia. The project brings together members of the cooperatives COOFORTUNA and COOPEMPRENDER —partners of the ERAs of ERA of Mutatá and the ERA of Ituango, respectively— family members, and victims of the armed conflict who live with excombatants in their settlements.

Participants of the Communication ERA are trained to use their own voices and perspectives to tell the stories of reconciliation and entrepreneurship behind their productive projects. In this process, they develop their own brands and create content for social media to support product marketing and project funding efforts.

The audiovisual pieces co-created with the participants can be viewed on their social media.

BRANDS THAT TELL A STORY

The objective of the Communication ERA is to strengthen the brands created by the participating cooperatives, as well as their digital presence, by developing narratives of social entrepreneurship and reconciliation that capture the stories and perceptions of the communities about their own reality.

revive

“We are a community that builds dreams of peace from the ABIBE mountains for the world”.

Paramillo

“We are a peasant group by birth, inhabitants of Ituanguo and Mutatá. We unite people in the process of reintegration with the community, to create opportunities for all."

The Avive brand, created by the community of San José de León and focused on artisanal fish farming, ecotourism, and clothing, was born in the Communication ERA and built its brand manual during this process. It produced several lines of audiovisual content for its social media.

Paramillo expanded its scope as a coffee brand and will now cover other activities, such as the manufacture of natural concentrates. To this end, it launched the crowdfunding campaign #FeedPeace (#AlimentemosLaPaz, in Spanish) in partnership with Bay-Build and PASO Colombia to finance the construction of a concentrate factory, which will allow participants to generate income while lowering the costs of animal husbandry for local campesino communities. The campaign was implemented with communication materials designed, recorded, and edited as part of the work conducted in the Communication ERA.

WATCH THE TESTIMONIES OF AVIVE PARTICIPANTS

Participants of the ERA of Communication created the AVIVE brand based on their learning in audiovisual production, social media advertising and audiovisual short storytelling.

WHAT IS AVIVE?

In the Abibe mountain range, a community of ex-combatants is building a dream of peace with productive projects that harness and take care of its natural wealth.

Follow the social media accounts of AVIVE on Facebook and Instagram.

MEMBERS OF PARAMILLO TALK ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE

Members of the Paramillo brand tell us how in the ERA of Communication they learned how to shoot and edit photos, videos and use social media to tell their own stories.

WHAT IS PARAMILLO?

In Paramillo, reconciliation brings together men and women working for a better future and new stories of peace for Colombia.

Follow PARAMILLO on their social media accounts: Facebook and Instagram .

LIQUID CONTENTS

With the support of PASO Colombia’s Communications team and workshop specialists such as the renowned artist Édgar Álvarez, creator of Should I Explain It in Modelling Clay?, the training process explores different forms of audiovisual, plastic, and digital expression that are relevant to develop communication strategies under the concept of liquid content in social media.

Through the “learning by doing” approach that characterizes PASO Colombia’s ERAs, the initiative covers topics such as brand identity, storytelling, script writing, social media management, photography, and audiovisual production.