The Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism 2017-2018

Andrés Bermúdez Liévano (Colombia)

Freelance Reporter

Topic: An online project investigating post-conflict mental health issues in Colombia. Some questions that will be explored will focus on how victims are overcoming trauma and whether there is access to public services and programs designed to ensure a stable peace. Following its traditional in-depth reporting style, the website Lasillavacia.com will publish 10 investigative multimedia stories that will answer these important questions.

Projects:

After decades of war, national and personal healing begins
My country suffered through 50 years of violent internal conflict before The Carter Center and others helped the government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia conclude a historic peace agreement in 2016. 

More time to redress Colombia's victims. The question is how.
In the midst of Colombia’s divisive transition, a rare political consensus emerged over the past two weeks, to extend the landmark 2011 bill that recognized victims of the armed conflict and set out specific measures to redress them, such as economic compensations, land restitution and psycho-social rehabilitation.

Survive the Poppy/Sobrevivir a la amapola
De la mano de un laborioso esfuerzo por recuperar sus tradiciones y su espiritualidad, los indígenas Inga de Nariño han venido sanando las heridas físicas y emocionales que les dejaron dos décadas de cultivo de amapola y de convivencia forzada con tres grupos armados ilegales.

Broken Pieces: this is how the victims of mine rebuild their lives/ Pedazos rotos: asi reconstruyen su vida las victimas de minas
Las manos de José Numael Sánchez recorren la superficie de un plato aguamarina, tocando las cicatrices visibles y en altorrelieve que denotan que hace poco se rompió en añicos y que alguien lo pegó.

Édgar Bermúdez, el costo humano de la erradicacion forzosa de coca/ Édgar Bermúdez, the human cost of forced coca eradication
Édgar Bermúdez, un policía que fue víctima de una mina antipersonal, es la prueba viviente de que la erradicación manual forzosa de coca tiene un altísimo costo humano.