Photo: ARD, Inc
USAID helps to improve a bridge in the municipality of Puerto Caicedo in Columbia, while encouraging citizens to play an active role in improving their communities.
“The number of students increased by 60% after the bridge construction. Now we need one more school teacher because we have more children in school.”
Ligia del Carmen Pejendino,
school teacher
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Initiative
While these high-risk areas present multiple challenges for development in Colombia, USAID’s activities provide badly needed bridges, health stations, and aqueducts while restoring a sense of community pride and possibility. One of the key ingredients to the success of these activities is community participation.
A prime example is a bridge project in Puerto Caicedo, a major coca-growing region.
While completing the final inspection of the bridge, the civil engineer noticed a large sack of steel re-enforcing rods at the work site. Concerned that the community action group purchased more steel than required and the corresponding oversight committee had not reported the mistake, she called a meeting of local leaders.
Somewhat sheepishly, the leaders confessed that they had conspired to build two bridges rather than one. Because they had paid cash for the materials, a local supplier had given them a substantial discount, and they convinced the workers to donate half of their wages back to the project. With those savings and the proceeds of dances and raffles, they had almost completed the construction of a second bridge. The engineer was surprised when she saw a very well-constructed bridge, even longer than the first.
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