Corporación Des-Enclave was formed as a result of the reflections of the local community regarding how to improve community life in regions commonly referred to as “enclaves”: regions characterised by having high levels of natural resources making them centres for extraction with very little investment from the state, and minimal respect for fundamental human rights. Based on the reflections of the community, Des-Enclave focuses on small-scale local projects with the objective of improving the living conditions in the community, increasing participation in community life, and rethinking “development” so that it is sustainable and not based on booms brought about by natural resource discoveries.

Its work focuses on accompanying local community processes, strengthening them, providing the community with the tools so that they can deal with their conflicts themselves in a peaceful manner, enabling them to understand the context in which they live, and generating strategies to enable them to deal with their issues without outside influence.

It has created a solidarity network conformed of organisations and individuals who can offer their professional abilities or specific interests in workshops or activities which the organisations may decide interest them.

Major achievements

• 14 village communities coming together with two organisations in a highly conflictive area to conclude plans for a Community School, which they have been carrying out in Bajo Cauca since February 2013.
• The successful “1^st Regional Meeting of the Community School” which allowed for conflicts in the region to be identified. The conflicts were prioritised and a plan of action was agreed to deal with them. Prior to this activity, workshops on how to deal with conflicts were carried out with the different communities.
• As part of the Community School, a training programme was started for two members of each community in community health and first aid (in the region the nearest hospital is six hours away, 3 hours on mule and 3 hours in a car). There is now a process to conform a regional health committee and carry out a second series of training workshops.
• In September 2013, workshops were carried out looking into the prevention of child sex abuse.

The successes of the Corporation can be summarised as the following:

• Forming the Community School with a limited budget.
• Generating discussions and actions in relation to community participation.
• Tackling conflicts based on community justice and using alternative methodologies such as conflict mediation.
• Initiating debates regarding economic activities from the perspective of community interests and not the interests of individuals.
• Working with the communities so that they have the tools which allow them to act as social actors inside their regional dynamic allowing them to define their interests for themselves.