• Amazon women create sweet business success with wild, vitamin-C packed fruit
• Colombia: How Bogota cares for its family caregivers: From dance classes to job training
• Colombia: How Medellin is beating the heat with green corridors

• Father Gabriel Mejia of Colombia includes Transcendental Meditation in rehabilitation of street children
• 'Love and Transcendence: The Secrets of Lasting Rehabilitation' - Father Gabriel Mejia's talk now available online
• Colombia: Transcendental Meditation provides new drug rehabilitation approach, alternative to prison

• Colombian children rescued in jungle had been fleeing for their lives
• Cattle, not coca, drive deforestation of the Amazon in Colombia - report
• Colombian farmers under pressure from frosts linked to climate change

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Positive Trends
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Amazon women create sweet business success with wild, vitamin-C packed fruit
15 November 2023 - A women's group in Colombia's Amazon is successfully leading a sustainable, and profitable, business by harvesting camu-camu, an acidic wild fruit with more vitamin C than an orange or lemon. The business has been able to produce four to 14 tons of fruit pulp per year for sale around the country, while sustainably managing the plant species' population. (more)

Colombia: How Bogota cares for its family caregivers: From dance classes to job training
21 October 2023 - A dance class is one of the free services offered to anyone in the neighborhood who is an unpaid caregiver for their family, part of a groundbreaking city-led program rolled out in 2020 called Manzanas del Cuidado, or Care Blocks. Each block provides services, including wellness and professional training, within a short walk of residents in neighboring areas. The program is trying to ease the often invisible burdens on Bogota's family caregivers -- the vast majority of whom are women -- and help them pursue their interests, including education, and finding paid jobs. (more)

Colombia: How Medellin is beating the heat with green corridors
22 September 2023 - Sometimes referred to as the 'City of Eternal Spring', Medellin's temperate climate has long helped attract tourists all year round, but increasing urbanization had also exposed it to the urban heat island effect, where buildings and roads absorb and retain heat. Its new green corridors, however, have proven remarkably effective in reversing this impact, with a 2C temperature reduction across the city, according to local government data seen by BBC Future Planet. Medellin, Colombia's second largest city after Bogota, started its 'green corridors' programme in 2016 due to concern about air pollution and rising heat. (more)

Colombia sees a 29 percent drop in deforestation over the last year
17 August 2023 - As the second-most biodiverse country in the world, Colombia has an important role to play on our planet. Over 60,000 species have been registered in the country, many of which call the Colombian Amazon home. But deforestation has always been an issue. Thankfully, according to official figures released by the government, deforestation fell 29 percent nationwide and 26 percent in the Amazon over the last year. (more)

Colombia begins a six-month cease-fire with its last remaining rebel group in hopes of forging peace
3 August 2023 - Colombia and the National Liberation Army, or ELN, formally began a six-month cease-fire Thursday [3 August] as part of a process to forge a permanent peace between the government and the country's last remaining rebel group. (more)

UN given green light to monitor peace deal between Colombia's government and its largest rebel group
2 August 2023 - The UN Security Council on Wednesday [2 August] unanimously authorized the U.N. political mission in Colombia to help verify implementation of a cease-fire agreement between the government and the country's largest remaining guerrilla group, the National Liberation Army. The council also expressed willingness to do the same if a cease-fire is reached with another armed group, the Estado Mayor Central. (more)

Pink dolphins and reformed Colombian rebels turn no-go zone into ecotourism hit
6 February 2023 - 'The dolphins are more playful than us,' says Diego Cifuentes, co-founder of Villa Lilia Agroecoturistico, a community dolphin-watching project on Colombia's Lake Nare. ...Rural communities, former guerrillas of the Farc (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), and endangered dolphins are unlikely allies in this near-forgotten corner of Colombia's Amazon basin, where tourism is providing opportunities for reconciliation as well as creating jobs and promoting conservation. (more)

Rare hummingbird last seen in 2010 rediscovered in Colombia
5 August 2022 - A rare hummingbird has been rediscovered by a birdwatcher in Colombia after going missing for more than a decade. The Santa Marta sabrewing, a large hummingbird only found in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains, was last seen in 2010 and scientists feared the species might be extinct as the tropical forests it inhabited have largely been cleared for agriculture. But ornithologists are celebrating the rediscovery of Campylopterus phainopeplus after an experienced local birdwatcher captured one on camera. (more)

Colombia awards contracts for 11 solar projects
29 October 2021 - Colombia has awarded 11 new large-scale solar projects expected to bring investment of some 3.3 trillion pesos ($875 million) and enter operation in early 2023, the government said, as part of its efforts to promote use of renewable energy. The projects will be located in nine of Colombia's 32 provinces, create some 4,700 jobs and reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 465,000 tonnes a year, Mines and Energy Minister Diego Mesa said. (more)

Colombia's Medellin plants 'green corridors' to beat rising heat
24 August 2021 - Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city of 2.5 million people, has put in place an award-winning 'green corridors' project to create cooling public spaces, funded and led by city hall. Tens of thousands of native trees, tropical plants, bamboo, and palms have been planted along sidewalks, riverbanks, and busy traffic thoroughfares, as well as in squares and parks. (more)

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Success of Maharishi's Programmes
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Father Gabriel Mejia of Colombia includes Transcendental Meditation in rehabilitation of street children
22 July 2016 - The founder of Colombia's Fundacion Hogares Claret, (Claret Homes Foundation), Father Gabriel Mejia, has helped over 45,000 young people get off the streets, away from drugs and crime in his rehabilitation centers. During the early days of organizing his foundation - while touring other treatment facilities - Father Gabriel realized that including yoga and Transcendental Meditation in his facility's daily routine would improve on the traditional therapeutic approach. Staff and students at Hogares Claret have expressed the many ways that their change towards a more peaceful, orderly life has come from within themselves through practising TM. (more)

'Love and Transcendence: The Secrets of Lasting Rehabilitation' - Father Gabriel Mejia's talk now available online
24 March 2014 - ConsciousnessTalks is a new website featuring compelling talks from some of the leading thought-leaders and change agents in the world who are shaping our conscious future. A new talk just released this month is by one of the most remarkable men of great heart and depth in our time--Father Gabriel Mejia, who has rescued over 100,000 children off the streets of Colombia. His rehabilitation programme includes Transcendental Meditation--creating the opportunity for the children to return to productive, happy, and healthy lives. In this 20-minute TED-style talk, Fr. Mejia explores how this kind of lasting rehabilitation can come from the complementary forces of love and transcendence. He explains that love is the basis of a compassionate society--one that sees homeless children not as problems, but as opportunities full of potential. (more)

Colombia: Transcendental Meditation provides new drug rehabilitation approach, alternative to prison
4 December 2012 - Transcendental Meditation is central to rehabilitation programmes at Fundacion Hogares Claret, a network of centres in Colombia caring for thousands of troubled youth. The technique has been shown through scientific research to promote integrated brain functioning and reduce drug dependency, and its use at Hogares Claret has yielded very good results. Now the programme has a new angle: teaching drug addicts Transcendental Meditation instead of their being sent directly to jail. This is a new development where young offenders who would probably have to spend a few years in prison, instead go to an alternative programme--Transcendental Meditation and a four or five-year stay at Hogares Claret. (more)

From the streets of Colombia to MUM
25 October 2012 - Just a few years ago, 12-year-old Camilo Estrada was one of many thousands of displaced children living on the streets of Medellin, Colombia. Then he heard about Father Gabriel Mejia's Fundacion Hogares Claret, which provides shelter for homeless children. There he learned Transcendental Meditation. 'I don't know if I would be alive if I hadn't gotten into the Foundation,' he said. He received a scholarship to enrol at Maharishi University of Management, where he is studying health and physiology, and plans to return to Colombia and create Maharishi Ayurveda Health Centers for the children in Father Gabriel's rehabilitation centres. (more)

'Saint of Colombia' uses Transcendental Meditation to successfully treat drug addiction
7 August 2012 - Father Gabriel Mejia, founder of Hogares Claret, a network of rehabilitation centres in Colombia, traveled to treatment facilities around the world, observing many different therapeutic methods. This led him to realize that the traditional methods his centres were employing were not enough. Father Mejia saw a way to improve the traditional therapeutic approach applied in rehabilitation programmes, by introducing yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and its advanced techniques. These new programmes have proved very effective. (more)

Colombia: 100 youth learn advanced meditation in rehabiltation centre
7 August 2012 - In a recent course at a Hogares Claret rehabilitation centre, 105 young participants from five different regions of Colombia came together to learn an advanced meditation practice known as the Transcendental Meditation-Sidhi programme. In recent years centre administrators have seen substantial physical and mental health benefits for children in their care through Transcendental Meditation and its advanced programmes. Three new courses will be held in the coming months, mainly in long-term centres throughout Latin America, where some of the children will spend 3-6 years in rehabilitation programmes and therefore can benefit most fully from their meditation practice. (more)

Colombia: Hogares Claret offers Transcendental Meditation as focus of rehabilitation for troubled youth
7 August 2012 - In the beginning, the founder of Hogares Claret--a network of rehabilitation centres caring for thousands of at-risk youth in Colombia and other Latin American countries--used traditional therapeutic methods. Ten years ago, however, he saw a way to change and improve the traditional therapeutic approach applied in rehabilitation programmes, introducing yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and its advanced techniques. Now, these approaches have proved so successful that Father Gabriel Mejia is focusing a large part of the therapy around Transcendental Meditation. 'It's one of the main ingredients of his rehabilitation programme,' said a Transcendental Meditation teacher--'a key ingredient and top priority'. (more)

Youth rehabilitation programme in Colombia uses Maharishi's technologies
15 November 2011 - Ninety students in Colombia, Latin America, recently learned one of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's most powerful technologies of consciousness. Many of the students are at risk for drug involvement or former drug users themselves. They are learning Transcendental Meditation and its advanced techniques as part of an effective drug prevention and rehabilitation programme started by Father Gabriel Mejia. (more)

Colombia: Meditation course gives 106 youth in rehab centre a fresh start
14 June 2011 - In Father Gabriel Mejia's many youth centres in Colombia, the Transcendental Meditation Programme is central to rehabilitation programmes for homeless youth, many of whom come from stressful backgrounds including experiences with crime, drug abuse, and violence. Recently 106 young men at one centre graduated from an advanced course in the Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme. Father Mejia told graduates they were equipped to make a fresh start for a much better future. (more)

Transforming the lives of Colombia's street children
2 May 2011 - Over the last 25 years the centres of Father Gabriel Mejia have helped tens of thousands of the abandoned street children of Colombia find a way to live healthy, happy and purposeful lives. As part of the rehabilitation process the children learn the Transcendental Meditation Technique, which helps relieve the traumatic stress of their daily lives. (more)

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Flops
Short Summaries of Top Stories

Colombian children rescued in jungle had been fleeing for their lives
18 June 2023 - The four children who survived an almost unfathomable 40 days in the Colombian jungle after their tiny plane crashed in the Amazon rainforest had boarded the plane because they were fleeing for their lives. Manuel Ranoque, the father of the two youngest survivors, explained in an interview that an armed group that forcibly recruited children by threatening violence had seized control of their home region in southern Colombia. (more)

Cattle, not coca, drive deforestation of the Amazon in Colombia - report
22 February 2023 - Authorities have blamed the growing of coca -- the base ingredient of cocaine -- for clearcutting, but a recent study shows otherwise. Cattle-ranching, not cocaine, has driven the destruction of the Colombian Amazon over the last four decades, a new study has found. (more)

Colombian farmers under pressure from frosts linked to climate change
19 January 2020 - While dry weather stokes fire fears in Colombia's coastal regions, early morning frosts in the Andean country's high altitude areas are laying waste to farm pastures and crops. The frosts are caused by thermal inversions, including rapid cooling of the ground on clear nights, said Yolanda Gonzalez, the director general of the Colombian Institute of Meteorology (IDEAM). ... In Boyaca the frosts have hit dairy farmers, ruining grass that cows depend on to produce milk. (more)

Colombian armed groups recruiting desperate Venezuelans, army says
20 June 2019 - Venezuela's crisis is spilling across the border into Colombia as Marxist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries recruit migrants to strengthen their ranks, according to five Colombian military commanders. (more)

Colombia seen losing deforestation battle in war-hit areas
31 May 2019 - Colombia is fighting a losing battle against the destruction of its rainforests in war-hit regions where the government remains weak, a Norwegian climate envoy said during a visit to the country. ... The threat to the forests has grown since a 2016 peace deal between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the government created a power vacuum in former conflict areas in the jungle where illegal deforestation now goes unchecked. (more)

Colombia's peace deal promised a new era. This is what it looks like.
17 May 2019 - After Colombia's government signed a peace deal with the country's main rebel group, ending decades of war and upheaval, both sides said it heralded a new era. But two and a half years after the militants agreed to lay down their arms, many of the promises made are not being honored, and the prospect of a true, lasting peace now seems far from certain. Rebels are rearming, violence is soaring in the countryside, and a new government is wavering in its commitment. (more)

Indigenous leaders decry Colombia's deadly crackdown on land protesters
4 April 2019 - Indigenous groups in southwestern Colombia have since March 10 mobilized mass protests, known as minga, to demand a meeting with President Ivan Duque over his government's failure to implement agreements made during the previous administration's [Juan Manuel Santos] historic 2016 peace deal and recognize community land rights. (more)

Rising tensions as Colombia's displaced converge with Venezuelan migrants
29 January 2019 - More than 1,300 Colombians were forced to flee their homes in January alone to escape fighting between armed factions despite a peace deal signed two years ago, aid groups said on Tuesday (29 January). ... But people continue to be uprooted in parts of Colombia because of armed groups and criminal gangs taking advantage of the power vacuum left behind by the FARC, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). ... Thousands of displaced Colombians seeking safety and shelter in their own country are being forced together with the more than one million Venezuelans who have fled their homeland to escape an escalating political crisis and economic meltdown. (more)

Colombia: Conflict continues in areas vacated by FARC fighters
1 March 2018 - Thousands of Colombians are being driven from their homes and dozens killed despite a peace accord ending half a century of civil war, the Red Cross said on Thursday. (! March), urging the government to better protect civilians. A peace deal between the government and the left-wing rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) was signed in 2016, ending a war that has killed about 200,000 people. The FARC has largely demobilized and become a political party. But conflict continues in areas vacated by FARC fighters, leaving a power vacuum ... Some areas, particularly in Colombia's south and Pacific region, have become flashpoints for fighting among crime gangs and a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), over drug trafficking and gold mines. (more)

Colombia in unchartered territory with peace deal's defeat
2 October 2016 - After a stunning referendum defeat for a peace deal with leftist rebels, Colombians are asking what comes next for their war-torn country, which like Britain following the Brexit vote has no Plan B to save an accord that sought to bring an end to a half century of hostilities. The damage from Sunday's vote is still sinking in. Instead of winning by an almost two-to-one margin as pre-election polls had predicted, those favoring the accord with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia lost by a razor-thin margin, 49.8 percent of the votes to 50.2 percent for those against the deal. (more)