In this CUSLAR and LASP Public Issues Forum, speakers from Asociacion Sembrando Semillas de Paz, or Sembrandopaz, will speak to the challenges of grassroots peace-building with a human rights framework in post-civil war Colombia. A large part of their work includes a focus on sustainability and agroecological farming practices.

This event will be in Spanish with interpretation into English.

Lillian Hall '84 is an agronomist by profession and currently serves as the international relations coordinator and manager for Sembrandopaz at the Villa Barbara farm in Sincelejo, Colombia. She is an alumna of Cornell University and lived for nearly 30 years in Nicaragua, where she developed her expertise in international public relations as director of a small NGO in Nicaragua and served as a leader of delegations for understanding and solidarity

Andres Ruiz is a community leader in Sucre, Colombia. He has worked with Sembrandopaz for more than 20 years. He has served as the leader of the victims division for more than 9 years, and has worked on the forefront of the group’s various reconciliation projects. He has also worked on the part of the Municipal government of Coloso, Colom-bia in the Familias en Accion (Families in action) as well as the Colombia Mejor (A Better Colombia) initiatives.

Register at: tinyurl.com/SowingSeedsNov2020

The Committee on U.S. Latin American Relations (CUSLAR), in partnership with the Cornell Latin American Studies Program and the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies, is sponsoring this event highlighting the role of community initiatives in constructing peace in Colombia. The event is sponsored in part by the Student Activities Finance Commission and funded in part by the LASP Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language (UISFL) grant from the US Department of Education.