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2008-03-04 issue:

Feb. 4 march protests guerilla group

Volunteers join Colombians in peace demonstration that started on Facebook

by Hannah Heinzekehr

Print Article

The streets of La Mesa, Cundinamarca, in Colombia were transformed into a sea of faces as hundreds of people marched for peace on Feb. 4.















Laura Kauffman and Radical Journey participant Melina Hunsberger (bottom right) joined Colombians in a march for peace. Photo by Stephanie Hollenberg.

Five young women—members of Radical Journey, one of Mennonite Mission Network’s Christian Service programs—marched alongside their Colombian friends in a protest against FARC (the Armed Forces of the Republic of Colombia), a guerrilla group involved in countless kidnappings and acts of violence.

The Radical Journey participants—Stephanie Hollenberg, Rachel Voran, Amy Bradshaw, Melina Hunsberger and Karin Esh—joined their host families and students and faculty from Colegio Americano Menno, a Mennonite school where the participants volunteer, in the march.

“We all wore the official campaign T-shirts, and one of the teachers here commented that it was cool to see non-Colombians supporting the cause,” said Voran, from First Mennonite Church in Newton, Kan.

According to BBC News, the protest grew out of a grassroots movement on Facebook, a social networking Web site, begun by 33-year-old engineer Oscar Morales from Barranquilla, Colombia. As members flocked to the site to join the group, radio, television stations and other media outlets across Colombia began to publicize the idea.—Hannah Heinzekehr of Mennonite Mission Network

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