Connecting with Life plans to continue with the activities initiated last year to promote the mental health of survivors of the armed conflict in Santa Marta and their families. Through their radio project, Connecting with Life will increase the general population’s awareness of mental health and promote the commitment to cultivate it. They will develop two self-help groups to encourage the reconstruction and re-signification of the most difficult events that occurred during the war in order to strengthen survivors’ resilience and self-esteem.

The organization will continue with workshops designed to be self-care and self-help spaces specifically for women who experience stress, anxiety, or depression as a result of the war, domestic violence, or gender-based violence. For men with a history of domestic or gender-based violence, they will promote new skills, behaviors, and thought processes that will allow these men to interact with women using principles of equality and non-violence both inside and outside of the home.   

All Connecting with Life’s activities are designed with a psychosocial focus–that is, to influence the individual in the context of their interpersonal relationships, both of which are impacted by trauma. In this way, people can recognize that although their traumas mark them in particular ways, they are maintained by certain social, political and cultural structures.