Life story Zoraida Arenas

I come from Cisneros, which is in a village called El Carmelo, near Dagua. I lived on a farm with my family. My children, my partner, my in-laws and me.

Right now my family is made up of four children, my mother and me. I separated from the father of my children eleven years ago, then I met another person who was the one with whom I moved. On the farm where we lived, we dedicated ourselves to agricultural work, we planted plantains, simarrón and we dedicated ourselves to field work.

When we arrived in Cali, my husband –that was five years ago- dies in a confusion, when he went to visit a brother in Darién, and I was left alone with my children. After that I trained in hairdressing, graduated and started to set up the business.

I moved because the guerrillas wanted to take him – the couple he lived with – to provide service with them, also when they arrived at the farm, they had to be attended to, given food. We began to receive threats and when, in another village, they killed my brother, that's when we decided to come to the city.

This caused instability in my family, my children felt that in the countryside they had more freedom than here, I had to pay rent, transportation to work. Everything was different for me and my family.

The project has brought me happiness, on the one hand I can buy a house with more money and on the other I can aspire to have something more with the productive project, for the well-being of my children.

• I have learned to have more confidence in myself and have a better relationship with my children.
• I consider myself a berraca that I can get my children forward, provide them with a better quality of life and be able to go for a walk in San Andrés.