The Rural Alternative School of Patía is located in southern Cauca. Its location corresponds to the Aldemar Galán Territorial Training and Reincorporation Space (ETCR), where almost 70 ex-combatants from the Cendapaz Cooperative live (40 of which participated in the ERA as a part of their group reincorporation process).
Three years after the Government and the FARC-EP signed the Peace Deal, Aldemar Galán is still behind in terms of basic infrastructure development, public services, school attendance, bank use, productive projects, and skills. These are the conditions in which ex-combatants and their children live, which is why an ERA was needed to implement agriculture and livestock projects to provide sources of income and food self-sufficiency in the area.
To meet this end, a biofactory and a garden were established to farm one hectare of land. The resulting products are used to support participant food self-sufficiency, guaranteeing the reuse of resources produced in the area and decreasing costs to grow the crops. The ERA is also strengthening the hen-laying project that the ex-combatants started on their own. A group of 25 women are also designing a swine farming project.
This ERA has the support of the World Food Program, the United Nations Development Program, the National Training Service (SENA), and the UN Verification Mission.
