GET INVOLVED
Although our work in Britain is mostly based in and around Bristol, there are Espacio members in other parts of the country who have worked with us in Colombia and now working as part of Espacio from other cities, so feel free to get in touch even if you’re not based in or near Bristol.
We aim to be a friendly and supportive group and welcome new people who want to work with us. We try to be horizontally-organized, which means that we make decisions together and share our knowledge, skills and experiences. It doesn’t matter if you’re not an expert on Colombia or experienced activist - we aim to be a space in which people can contribute what they’re good at and learn from one another.
Here are a few examples of the sorts of things we need help with, although please feel free to come along with your own ideas and suggestions:
Organizing:
Any good at organizing events, actions, campaigns, or think you might be? If it’s you’re first time, we’re happy to hold your hand. We need on-going administrative support for training future volunteers in Colombia and for the Pen-Pal Protection Plan.
Translation team:
Our translation team is vital to helping us raise awareness about what’s going on in Colombia and faciliating communication between Colombian and British pen-pals. If you have a high level of both Spanish and English, por favor, ayúdenos!
Fundraising:
None of us ever get paid for our work, but it still costs money to print materials, paint banners, call Colombia, send faxes, and invite Colombian activists over to speak. If you’ve got any bright ideas for fundraising, be they as humble as flogging a few home-made cakes (and which don’t involve accepting grants off multinational corporations of course) then we’ll give you all the support we can to help get them off the ground.
Arty things:
Any good at designing publicity materials or painting banners? Or got any other creative abilities you’d like to share with us? We can always use artists of all abilities to help make what’s going on in Colombia more visible. For example, we’ve got a photography exhibition that’s currently on tour, submitted stuff highlighting BP’s impact in Colombia for a squatted art exhibition, and are currently working on a compilation of short stories from Colombia in comic format, in collaboration with Colombian artists.
Volunteering in Colombia:
We work closely with a number of social organisations in Colombia and are part of the Red de Hermandad y Solidaridad con Colombia (Network of Friendship and Solidarity with Colombia), a space for coordination between ‘grass-roots’ organisations in Colombia and between these Colombian organisations and solidarity collectives in other countries. For more information on the voluntary work Espacio members do in Colombia click here.
Become the pen-pal of a victim of state terror in Colombia:
The Pen-Pal Protection Plan which we run with the Colombian organization COSPACC involves "twinning" threatened Colombians in BP's oil exploration zone with people in Britain. British pen-pals then put pressure on the authorities to bring cases of human rights abuse to justice and provide moral support to their friend in Colombia through the exchange of letters. More info.
