phone calls What the kidnappers of two young people, aged 15 and 20, did were the key for investigators from the Technical Investigation Corps of the Prosecutor’s Office and members of the Army Gaula to find their whereabouts to rescue them.
It all started on February 19when both young women were intercepted by armed men.
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Ever since the kidnappers started calling To demand 700 million pesos from the families for both, the researchers began to implement a plan so that with devices they could find the place of origin of the communication.
According to the commander of the Third Brigade, Brigadier General William Fernando Prieto, it was essential to advance, but without the captors suspecting the advance towards the area.
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The calls were throwing that the plagiarized students were in an area of eastern Cali.
The signal became stronger from a building in Aguablanca.
It all happened in a matter of hours on February 19, according to the officer.
Once the house was located, the occupation proceeded. But the kidnappers fled.
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The girls were rescued safe and sound.
The commander of the Third Brigade insisted that the community must file a complaint in time so that the authorities immediately activate, as happened in this case, a plan to counter this type of crime and that the population escapes unharmed.
Since 2021, the District Mayor’s Office of Barranquilla appointed 600 seats to study intensive English and thus connect citizens with job opportunities in the so-called BPO companies.
Those interested can complete their registration through the website of the Ministry of Economic Development. There is everything related to the program called English for work.
“Before entering university, a young person without work experience could generate an income equivalent to twice the minimum wage in Colombia,” explained a spokesperson for the program, which guides foreign language training through various institutions.
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After the covid-19 pandemic, one of the sectors that has registered the greatest growth in labor demand is BPO or Business Process Outsourcing (outsourcing of business processes), which specializes in support tasks for an organization using various technologies.
The guild announces that there are available near 1,000 monthly vacancies for bilingual people who were not being covered by local human talent.
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There are already 600 students who have been part of the program, to which more than 4,000 new beneficiaries will be added in 2022
Against this background, since the previous year, the District has offered full scholarships to those seeking to study English intensively. Subsequently, the 32 BPO companies operating in the city are responsible for choosing the staff.
“There are already 600 students who have been part of the program, to which more than 4,000 new beneficiaries will be added in 2022,” said the Secretary of Economic Development, Ricardo Plata.
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“With a national growth of more than 17% in 2021, As announced by MinComercio, BPOs have been positioning themselves as great drivers of the economy. That is why we are committed to providing the tools to generate jobs that join the more than 11,000 people currently employed by the sector, allowing young people to have certified experience, in addition to exploring cutting-edge technologies and facing new job challenges. ”, added the official.
The secretary explained that to complement the training in the language with an intensive course in 380 hours, the development of activities such as conversation clubs and cultural agenda is contemplated; workshops on customer service, after-sales service; job immersion in BPO companies and other sectors, as well as the management of technological tools.
Salaries for bilingual people must range between one million 800 thousand and 3 million pesos.
BARRANQUILLA
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They denounce that students in Sincelejo are receiving classes on the ground
Arturo Álvarez, president of the Association of Educators (Asodes), denounced that the students in Sincelejo, Sucre, and its rural areas receive classes on the ground, a situation to which he attributed the name “coronasillas”.
“After listening to the evaluations of parents, students and teachers of each of the Educational Institutions of Sincelejo, we denounced before public opinion the terrible conditions in which students receive classes: children lying on the floor due to lack of chairs” Professor Arturo Álvarez initially said.
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Teachers who complain because to date they have not received markers, others where there is no biosecurity protocol against covid-19. It’s an inconceivable situation…
Álvarez pointed out that there are institutions that continue to alternate due to the lack of chairs. According to him, “coronasillas 2022”, alluding to the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, there are institutions with classrooms on the verge of collapsing the roof on students and teachers, classrooms with so many holes that children have to open umbrellas inside the classrooms.
“Teachers who complain because to date they have not received markers and there are others where there is no biosafety protocol against covid-19. It is an inconceivable situation after two years of non-face-to-face school activity. It is enough time for the municipal administration activated a plan to adapt and dignify education, but that was not the case,” said the union leader.
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In addition, Álvarez assured that “schools are dilapidated, without school meals, with non-existent school transportation. The municipal administration has become only speech, where officials do not assume their role as public administrators for the analysis and resolution of problems”, I note.
Finally, the union leader called on parents and students to hold a planto next February 24 in front of the municipal administration headquarters.
Bathrooms of some schools in Sincelejo
delivery of chairs
The chairs that will arrive from the Fund for the Promotion of Educational Infrastructure, also with quality resources, will invest 500 million pesos to strengthen the furniture…
The secretary of education of Sincelejo, Álvaro Hoyos, said that around 5,440 individual desks will reach 136 classrooms in 26 administrative offices that will respond to the needs of elementary and high school students, in addition to technical chairs and tables for the preschool stage.
The official indicated that the production of the stalls has been delayed and will arrive in Sincelejo in March. “I am asking the entire educational community in general of Sincelejo, in institutions where we have difficulties returning to classes due to lack of chairs, to have a little patience with us,” he said.
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Hoyos announced that he will meet with the rectors of all educational institutions to learn first-hand what the priority needs are to serve students, including the whole issue of biosafety.
For his part, the mayor of Sincelejo, Andrés Gómez Martínez, specified that investments will be made in infrastructure in different institutions, including those located in rural areas.
Francis Xavier Barrios Special for WEATHER sincelejo
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The presence of Venezuelans in the country and, of course, in Pereira and its surroundings, generates mixed feelings in the community. There are people who seem to understand their situation, but in other communities they only generate rejection and hatred. Headlines such as “16% of the homeless in Colombia are Venezuelans”, “Pereira Personnel alert for sexual exploitation of migrant minors”, “Venezuelans are begging in Pereira”, “Venezuelans involved in robberies”, are continuously reported in this capital and lead some Risaraldenses to engage in xenophobic behavior.
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Despite these situations, which overshadow the relations between Pereirans and Venezuelans, there are other citizens who show the Risaraldian idiosyncrasy based on help, empathy and resilience for the other. So you can also read headlines, such as: “Campaign to donate dinner to Venezuelan families”, “Schools must guarantee places for migrants”, “Venezuelans received humanitarian protection”. This whole situation shows that, despite bad times and difficult situations, the Venezuelan community has also received help.
The phrase “the good are more” is not a lie. It is demonstrated by José Luis Antonio Gavazut, a 54-year-old man born in Caracas (Venezuela), who, due to the situation in his country, made the decision, like many of his countrymen, to migrate to another nation. He arrived in Colombia four years ago. A math teacher, he has experienced adversity, but what he did not expect is that his story would be replicated by a photograph of him at the traffic lights in Pereira, where he asked for help to find a job. It went viral on social networks and so many people, fortunately for him, were able to contact him.
This image of the teacher asking for help at traffic lights went viral on social networks.
Photo:
Private Archive / The Newspaper – Pereira
“In Venezuela I studied pure mathematics and dedicated myself to teaching for almost 20 years. Then I was in a car accident, which is why they fitted me with a prosthesis. Due to the situation in my country, I had to migrate, more than half of the professionals left. The workload is a minimum of eight hours a day, but you have to add the hours of correcting tasks, evaluations. In what time can a person go out to search to round up their salary? Not to mention that they only paid us two dollars a month, that’s how no one can support themselves,” José told El Diario.
Faced with so much difficulty, looking for an opportunity for his family, José came to Colombia to try to support himself and send something to his country: “I arrived in Pereira in 2018. I never thought he would ever teach again.”
I started selling fast food in the park in Cuba. For a year I sold delicious products, stuffed potatoes, empanadas, pork rinds, that’s how I defended myself. With the arrival of the pandemic, the authorities talked to the vendors and made us evict. Understandable, due to sanitary conditions. That led us to stay in the air, not knowing what to do or how to hold on. But a friend I met reached out to me, helped me to have a roof over my head, he didn’t leave me alone. Now came the rummage to get the meal.
To classes with teacher José
His friend asked him what his strength was, what his profession was, and he replied: “mathematics teacher”. Then they distributed posters around Pereira. Little by little, mothers appeared to help. “I have to point out that the first people who called me were Doña Teresa and Doña Lorena. Thanks to them I survived. They are the mothers of some of my students. So I started teaching classes. When I realized it, I already had a large group and I was able to help them with their work. Everything was going well, but in January of this year, the prosthesis that I handle broke, it opened, I made a repair, but it is not the same and that was the problem. Most of the students that he had obtained in Pereira, Dosquebradas, La Virginia, could not visit them, they could not stand long walks. The rubbing of the prosthesis bothers me, because I can’t stand one more patch and it is seriously affecting me. So I was left with no way to continue with the work that I had already been developing, which gave me to sustain myself”.
The Venezuelan teacher who teaches in Pereira and asked for money on the streets
Photo:
The Daily – Pereira
José, desperate and not knowing what to do, once again invented something for himself. “Even if I fall a thousand times I come back and stop. Seeing that everything was complicated, I made a banner to recruit students virtually. Since I had no way to publish it, I went to the stoplight, not to ask, but to make it known that I work and needed to do it. Someone came, took a picture of me, I didn’t realize when, but it ended up on Facebook and this went viral in record time. They have called me a lot and it is very satisfying that they believe in my work, also because I do it with great pleasure. I came to this country to work, to improve my quality of life and that of my family.”
The incredible thing about this story is that many have turned to help him. They state that these are welcome Venezuelans and that it is excellent to see a community that is hardworking and moving forward. José says that Pereira is a paradise and that he thanks life for coming here. “Everything has been a blessing, I don’t think I’ll leave here, I planted my heart in this territory. I love to show that we are good people, that we like to work, achieve what is ours, but without a doubt the best thing is to meet citizens with such kindness and affection, this city is characterized precisely by that”. Like José, there are many Venezuelans who have come to the Coffee Region to support the growth and development of the region.
Fact
Clever León, associate of the UNHCR office, highlighted the importance of joining efforts to serve this population that is significant in Risaralda: “according to figures from Migration Colombia, at the end of October 2021 51,351 Venezuelans were reported in the Coffee Region, of which 35% in Pereira and 13% in Dosquebradas. According to the Secretary of Social Development of Pereira, the number of Venezuelans amounts to 21,000 in the city.
ALEXANDRA MONCADA* The Daily – Pereira United Colombia
This Thursday the delivery of the first 5,500 computers to the students of the 12 official educational establishments of commune 1 (Popular) in Medellín began.
The teams, whose final delivery goal exceeds 200,000, according to the plans of the Medellín Mayor’s Office, they were initially distributed to students in grades 9, 10 and 11.
“They are computers that have the power to transform the life of a child, reduce the gaps and inequalities that today in the world, the largest, are the technological ones. As mayor, my mission is to leave no one behind, which is why this bet is one of the things that excites me the most. We want to transform classrooms. This is going to be the extended day opportunity at the same time”, Mayor Daniel Quintero Calle said.
The Municipal Administration prioritized in this initiative children and young people from the educational institutions Barrio San Nicolás, Fe y Alegría Granizal, Fe y Alegría Popular No. 1, Fe y Alegría Popular Santo Domingo Savio, Federico Carrasquilla, Guadalupe, La Avanzada , La Candelaria, María de los Ángeles Cano Márquez, Nuevo Horizonte – Paulo VI, San Pablo and Antonio Derka – Santo Domingo.
In this last campus, according to the decree signed by the local president, students from 6th to 11th were benefited as delivery pilot in all groups of basic secondary.
The happiness of the children of Commune 1-Popular, on their way home with a computer, is the happiness of all of Medellín. This is the best investment. pic.twitter.com/xSZ1Swqjha
The computers that will be delivered this year, whose market cost exceeds two million pesos, in this case were purchased for just over one and a half million and had an investment of more than $80,000 million.
These computers are loaned so that young people can do their academic work. After the school year is over, students return it for maintenance and updating. However, they are returned the following year once they are enrolled.
Esneider Muñoz Carvajal, a student at the Antonio Derka – Santo Domingo institution, was one of the beneficiaries and already has his computer: “I am very happy to receive this computer because I know it will help me acquire knowledge and fulfill my dreams step by step. I study the technical average of Software Development, I am going to take advantage of this tool to learn”.
The shots in the college Yampai High School, in Jamundi they were committed with a traumatic weapon and would have originated in differences between the families of two students from the same campus. The latter are suspended, while the authorities and on campus investigate more about what happened.
The deputy commander of the Police Metropolitan of calli, Colonel William Quintero, reported that on Friday (February 4), two families had had a discussion due to differences between two students of the institution.
The Police of the capital of the Valley del Cauca has interference in Jamundí, a municipality in the south of the region, as it is the metropolitan area of Cali.
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“Immediately, the patrol that arrives at the scene requests the intervention of the Police for Children and Adolescents and the Judicial Police and began the collection of evidentiary material at the scene, in order to be able to determine with a security camera and some witnesses, and thus establish effectively what happened and to be able to carry out the corresponding investigations,” said the officer.
He added that “it was possible to determine that a traumatic weapondue to the fact that some pods used by this type of weapon were found”.
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The colonel noted that an accompaniment route was started to resolve the conflict between these two families and prevent a tragedy from being triggered.
Likewise, there would be a suspect, but the traumatic weapon was not found, when the Police found his whereabouts.
“The national quadrant surveillance model locates the vehicle, registers it, locating a person and not being able to locate the weapon,” said Colonel Quintero.
At school they indicated that they regret the situation, apparently of intolerance, and agreed with Colonel Quintero’s explanation that everything would have been caused by differences between the two families, when the minors argued.
“The meeting was triggered by physical and verbal attacks in which one of those involved in the discussion fired several shots into the air with a blank weapon, without consequences for any of those present who were in the institution at that time,” it is indicated. in a school statement referring to the “embarrassing incident”.
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“The institution will carry out due process internally, in order to determine the sanction corresponding to the situation of the students involved based on the Liceo’s Coexistence Manual,” the letter reads.
“The parents of the students were informed that their children were immediately suspended until a decision was made in accordance with said behavior, where the corresponding sanction will be communicated to them,” the school statement notes.
On campus they also pointed out that they do not agree with violence, since it is not the way to resolve differences of opinion.
Students from the rural area of the municipalities of Since and El Roble in Sucre, they have to walk several kilometers to reach the Educational Institutions and enter classes in person, now with the reactivation ordered by the Ministry of Education.
This has been denounced by parents, inhabitants of the village of Vélez, in the rural area of Since, closer to the municipality of Roble, where their children attend classes.
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School transportation
We ask the mayor of El Roble to help us with transportation, because our children arrive tired, they no longer want to do their homework.
Lalys Muelas is the mother of one of those students, who starts her journey on foot every day very early in the company of other children to arrive at the Institution on time, since there is no school transport service that distributes the children from corregimientos. , sidewalks and farms.
“We ask the mayor of El Roble to help us with transportation, because our children arrive tired, they no longer want to do their homework because they arrive with a headache. With a car that makes the journey they are calmer, rested, with encouragement and willingness to comply with the Institution”, he says.
It indicates that the route is double, because there are several kilometers to go and the pampering on the way back.
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“Only that the one on the way back is heavier, because they do it under the inclement sun, which harms the children. The way things are going, they’ll have to withdraw from school. We do not believe that our children can put up with this hustle and bustle, because they will surely get sick, “they indicated.
They were waiting for a response from the directors of the Educational Institution they attend in El Roble and the mayors on duty, to find out if they can count on school transport.
The situation was already registered in the Sincelejito corregimiento, in the rural area of Ayapel (Córdoba), where 300 children do not attend classes but because of the floods. Mayor Isidro Vergara contracted the services of a river transport to solve this problem.
Schools are in poor condition and do not provide minimum guarantees to students
Photo:
Taken from social networks
in bad shape
Parents and teachers recently made the complaint about the poor state of educational institutions, in the rural area of Sucre (Sucre), where the walls of the Nariño Corregimiento Educational Institution are about to collapse.
In the same way in the Manuela Beltrán Educational Institution, in the Sabanas de Beltrán district, in the jurisdiction of Los Palmitos, where thieves are taking the headquarters to pieces.
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Added to this is the lack of drinking water in different schools in the rural areas of Sincelejo, Toluviejo, San Onofre, Colosó and the indigenous areas of Sampués and San Antonio de Palmito.
Parents and teachers expect the solution to the requests they have made, so that children can access to receive classes in the midst of the highest possible quality.
Francis Xavier Barrios Special for WEATHER sincelejo
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Afghan students studying at universities in the U.S. through scholarship programs face a more uncertain future since the Taliban took over and many say they cannot return to their home country because of concerns for their safety.
More than 100 Afghan students came to the United States through the Fulbright program last academic year, some of them only days before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan and the U.S. embassy in Kabul was abruptly shut.
Under the terms of the Fulbright scholarship program, recipients are required to return to their home countries at the end of their academic programs.
Several Afghan students interviewed by VOA said their status as students studying abroad in America endangers their lives under a Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
“I have come to terms with the reality that is going back to my beloved Afghanistan and working there is no longer possible,” said Maryam Rayed who left Afghanistan last August to pursue a master’s degree in democracy and governance at Georgetown University in Washington.
The U.S. government has evacuated tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked for or had affiliation with the U.S. in Afghanistan out of fear that the Taliban will target them.
Immediately after seizing power on Aug. 15 last year, the Taliban announced a general amnesty for all Afghans who worked for the previous Afghan government and for the U.S. and its allies in Afghanistan.
Human rights groups, however, accuse the Taliban of targeting and killing Afghans who had ties to the U.S. and to the former Afghan government.
Afghan women chant and hold signs of protest, in Kabul, Dec. 27, 2021. Around 20 members of Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network protested in a closed area in Kabul while holding signs asking the Taliban for equality.
Before coming to the U.S. to study international affairs at the State University of New York in Albany, Ahmad Raheb Radfar worked as a foreign service officer at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of what was until August 2021 the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
“My plan was to return to Afghanistan and resume my work at the ministry upon the completion of my program. But now, given the current situation of Afghanistan, I cannot do that,” Radfar told VOA.
Hopes lost
Since 2003, more than 950 Afghans have received Fulbright scholarships, mostly 2-year master’s degree programs. Many others earned sponsored educational opportunities at undergraduate and graduate levels at various U.S. academic institutions. The expectation was that these highly educated Afghans would contribute to the building of a stable democratic system in Afghanistan.
“The return of Taliban rule in Afghanistan has fundamentally altered my personal and professional trajectory and took all my hopes and plans and aspirations for the future,” said Rayed, adding that she wanted to serve as a governance specialist in Afghanistan after her U.S. education.
Under the Taliban, Afghan women have been effectively fired from all government jobs except those working in the health and education sectors.
The Taliban have institutionalized large-scale and systematic discriminatory policies which “constitute a collective punishment of women and girls,” a group of three dozen U.N.-appointed experts warned last week.
“Taliban deprive women of livelihoods and identity,” Human Rights Watch said in a joint report with the Human Rights Institute at San Jose State University on Jan. 17.
One former Fulbright scholar, who did not want to be named out of fear of Taliban reprisal, said she was fired from a prominent job at the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock because of her gender.
“My education, work experiences, skills and dedication to my country don’t matter for the Taliban. They’re only obsessed with my gender,” she said.
Respect for women’s rights, including the right to education and work, is a major condition set forth by the U.S. and many other countries for a possible recognition of the Taliban’s self-declared Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Taliban officials have said the regime is working to facilitate an “Islamic environment” for Afghan girls and women to return to schools and universities but have not committed to giving any representation to women in the government. The Taliban’s leadership, cabinet and senior government posts are entirely occupied by men.
Students in limbo
The U.S. government has offered special immigration and entry procedures to help Afghans settle in the U.S., including a humanitarian parole program which allows individuals to enter the U.S. without travel documents.
Spokespeople at the Department of State and the Institute of International Education, which administers the Fulbright program, could not confirm to VOA whether there was a plan to waive the Fulbright requirement for the Afghan students to return to their home country after their studies are completed.
“We have been in touch with the [Fulbright] program administrators and have shared our concerns with them, but so far, they have not offered any assurance about our future,” said Radfar.
Two other students echoed similar concerns and added they were looking for an extension to their studies, primarily through PhD scholarships, in order to remain in the U.S.
“This ambiguity has affected our academic performance negatively and has taken any motivation from us,” said Rayed.
“We desperately need some clarity on what our future will be. This limbo status is hurting us,” said another student who did not want her name to be mentioned.
While the Afghan Fulbright scholars who made it to the U.S. in the past two years complain about their uncertain future, those selected for the 2022 scholarships are stuck in Afghanistan with no guarantees they will start their classes in the U.S. in the coming fall.
There is no U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan to process visas, and travel from the country is extremely restricted and complicated.
“We are reviewing the significant safety, logistical, and programmatic constraints which must be overcome to successfully implement the 2022-23 Fulbright Program. We are committed to remaining in communication with the semi-finalist group about the status of the program, understanding they must pursue the choices that make the most sense for themselves and their families,” a State Department of official told VOA.
It’s also unclear whether the Fulbright program will continue for Afghan students in the future because of the broken relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan’s de-facto Taliban rulers.
Until the U.S. and Taliban figure out what kind of relations, if any, they will have in the future, everything remains shrouded in uncertainty for Afghans who have studied or aspire to study in the U.S.
“I cannot foresee anything right now and like most Afghans, I am facing an uncertain future,” said 28-year-old Radfar.
