Rural Alternative School of Pasca, Cundinamarca

Pasca Colombian re-integration school
The Rural Alternative School (ERA) in Pasca, Cundinamarca, was established by PASO Colombia to support projects of ex-combatants that settled in the Sumpaz region. The municipality of Pasca was selected because a significant number of former combatants interested in agricultural collective reincorporation projects were living there, as well as rural farmers interested in establishing collaborative projects with them..

PASO Colombia also assisted in the creation of COOMUPAS, a cooperative initiated by 10 ex-combatants that came from the former Territorial Training and Reincorporation Spaces (ETCR) of Icononzo, and 12 rural farmers from the Sumapaz region. In addition to the commercial agriculture projects, the ERA participants will produce organic fertilizers and crops to enhance their food self-sufficiency. However, the agricultural commercialization line is the main productive project of this collaboration platform, where participants of the ERA build partnerships with other agricultural producers to increase their supply capacity, and while connecting with customers from the capital city to sell their products avoiding brokers. This commercial agreement increases the profit margin for farmers so that they are able to fund new agricultural transformation projects.

The ERA is supported by PASO Colombia, the UN Verification Mission in Colombia and the Agency for Reincorporation Normalization (ARN).  With this ongoing process, the ERA participants want to become an example for reincorporation in the Sumapaz region.