On September 26, the Interreligious Initiative for Tropical Forests carried out a new formation process in San Vicente del Caguán, aimed at the members of the local chapters of IRI in this municipality, in the township of Ciudad Yarí and the village of Campo Hermoso.
The Aldea Amazónica auditorium of the Diocese of the municipality, hosted more than sixty religious and community leaders, indigenous authorities, teachers and representatives of social organizations, who participated in this pedagogical day, corresponding to the second cycle of training of IRI-Colombia and whose central axis is the care of forests and water.
“I want us to leave this place today with the firm conviction of being better stewards and stewards of all this beauty that surrounds us and that the creator gave us to take care of,” said Pastor Julieth Quevedo, coordinator of the three local chapters in San Vicente del Caguan.
The pedagogical meeting began with a theological reflection on water, by Juan Felipe Martínez. The executive secretary of the Pan-Amazonian Ecclesial Network (REPAM Colombia) reflected on the values of this natural resource from the Christian vision, as a symbol of creation, purification, healing, death and transcendence.
“As leaders in churches, schools or community action boards, we have the moral responsibility to call attention to the care of water, because it is something that concerns us,” said the religious leader, who also reflected on the human vision of this essential element and its religious, cultural, aesthetic, economic and ecosystem value.
Biologist Diego Fernando Campos, for his part, addressed the role of Amazonian forests in the water cycle and the physical and ecological dynamics generated by “flying rivers”, aerial flows of moisture that contribute to the water supply for much of South America.
To end the day, the members of IRI-San Vicente del Caguán, IRI-Ciudad Yarí and IRI-Campo Hermoso participated in a political advocacy workshop, led by political scientist José Adolfo Castañeda, in which they acquired the conceptual and practical tools necessary to advance advocacy processes that contribute to the protection of Amazonian forests and water.
“With these training processes we seek to bring knowledge closer to your leadership, so that you can transmit this information to your communities, help raise awareness and promote actions to end deforestation and protect the Amazon,” concluded Blanca Lucía Echeverry, national coordinator of IRI-Colombia.
“In human terms, what is the experience of faith? It is nothing other than the thirst for something higher, for God. And this is only calmed in eternal life”, Juan Felipe Martínez, secretary general of REPAM Colombia.
