SYMPHONY

Hundreds of former farmers, who were on strike in the linen factory after they had been ruined by the decrease in coffee prices, started to sell their products from Saturday onwards in the subsidiaries of a French supermarket chain and will export the same within a few months time.

Attractive bras and tiny bikinis were presented in a fashion- show which could have been called “Sex without drugs and rock and roll.” It dealt with an alternative program to assist families that might produce cocaine or heroine for drug traffickers in a region where coffee was prominent but has since lost its value due to the fall in coffee prices.

“We are opening a universe of new possibilities for the rural communities of Colombia” said Gabriel Silva, representative of the Federation of Coffee Cultivators. The project was initiated by this Federation together with the French Embassy, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the French supermarket chain Carrefour.

The project was established in the aftermath of the collapse of international coffee prices which triggered the ruin of thousands of farmers who subsequently saw themselves forced to cultivate illicit drugs. Through such illicit cultivations the influence of the leftist guerillas and the rightist paramilitary groups of Colombia expanded.

Colombia produces 70% of all global cocaine and most of the heroine that is sold in the U.S.A. This drug trade is controlled by the two leftist rebel groups and their paramilitary enemies.

Alarmed due to the profound increase in poverty and crime in Valle del Cauca, a coffee cultivation area in the southeast of the country, UNODC tried to find employment and markets for the impoverished population.

“We are trying to find projects that we think could reduce the illicit activities,” said Thierry Rostan, a UNODC official in Colombia. He further stated that: “What the people need is employment and places where they can sell their products.”

After his field-visit to Valle del Cauca, Mr Rostan identified a local cooperative by the name of Industrias Integradas that conducted capacity-building activities for poor families so that they could acquire new skills.

Nevertheless, due to minimal access to markets, the cooperative struggled to find sufficient work for its employees and was in need of a big company like Carrefour in order to offer its products to potential customers.

Symphony, an underwear brand sold in Carrefour, united itself with the cooperative that owns 12 factories in various sites of the province. The factories are well connected to the highways, which overcomes a problem challenging other projects.

In the past, programs that were located in remote areas of the country and that promoted alternatives to coca cultivation, like, fruits and vegetables, have frequently failed due to the lack of infrastructure and impassable roads.

Well-known models exhibited this underwear to the rhythm of music and under flashlights in front of company executives, politicians, legislators and His Excellency, the Ambassador of the French Republic, Daniel Parfait.

Around 800 women, many of whom sustain their families, fabricated the underwear which was sold in the supermarkets of Carrefour throughout Colombia and which will be exported to be marketed in other supermarkets of the French chain in the upcoming months. “Violence and unemployment have brought misery to the rural areas of Colombia,” stated Edilma Arango of Industrias Integradas in front of the officials present at the fashion-show and emphasized that: “You are bringing hope.”