Voices from the Rivers of Abya Yala and Turtle Island Delegates Bios

Ana Teresa Ruerda Lozada

Organización Femenina Popular (OFP), Colombia

A social leader with over 25 years’ experience in defending and promoting women’s human rights. Her work began with the organisational development of the Organización Femenina Popular (OFP), where she honed her skills in supporting women from working-class communities in the Magdalena Medio region, community organising and developing initiatives aimed at guaranteeing rights, building peace and fostering regional development. She subsequently broadened her scope of action to include forums for social movement coordination and institutional settings, contributing to the strengthening of social and community processes in the region.

A business administrator by profession, she has experience in the planning, organization and monitoring of social and institutional projects and processes. Her training has enabled her to contribute coordination tools to organizational strengthening, inter-institutional coordination and the development of social and community initiatives.

Her career has enabled her to raise awareness of Colombia’s social and humanitarian reality, as well as the processes of organization, resistance and peacebuilding led by women. Within this framework, she has shared experiences and lessons learnt in exchange and training programs held in Germany, England, Spain, France and, in particular, Canada, addressing issues related to human rights, women’s leadership and organizational experiences in the Magdalena Medio region.

She has experience in supporting victims of the armed conflict, particularly victims of enforced disappearance and children and adolescents at risk of recruitment, exploitation and sexual violence. She has worked on institutional and community-based capacity-building processes to protect populations affected by the conflict, guarantee rights and build peace in these regions.

She is a woman who firmly believes that peacebuilding is strengthened through social organization, dialogue and the implementation of public policies; in this regard, she has focused her work on strengthening collective processes that contribute to the transformation of these regions through women’s leadership.

Paola Chindoy

An Indigenous Kamëntšá woman from Colombia, is president of the Asociación de Mujeres Indígenas Sabedoras de la Medicina Ancestral (ASOMI). The organization is made up of women from five Indigenous Peoples knowledgeable in ancestral medicine from the Colombian Amazon who are defenders of human rights and the life of Mother Earth. ASOMI and the Indigenous Peoples of Mocoa are leading the defense of Mother Earth against the activities of Copper Giant Resources Corporation, a Canadian mining company with copper and molybdenum extraction operations in Mocoa, Colombia.