Presbyterian International Peacemaker visits New York on behalf of Colombian internally displaced persons

The Reverend Vilma Isabel Yanez Ogaza of Colombia. Photo by Joseph Williams

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) International Peacemaker the Reverend Vilma Isabel Yanez Ogaza visited the Presbyterian U.N. Office (PUNO) October 2–4 to share the realities of life experienced by the more than 3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Colombia.

Over her three-day visit to New York, Ogaza gave a presentation on "IDPs and the Role of the Church in Colombia" to representatives from 10 non-governmental organizations during a luncheon.

She also gave a similar talk and answered questions from a group of parishioners, clergy and New York City Presbytery staff over coffee and cookies at Rutgers Presbyterian Church on the Upper West Side.

Ogaza is one of 13 international peacemakers of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) who visited congregations throughout the United States during a three-week tour in October to itinerate on behalf of the church's international peacemaking program.

An ordained minister who has served in ministry for 14 years, Ogaza is Moderator of the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Colombia and preschool director of the American College in Barranquilla.

Populated by more than 41,000,000 people, Colombia has been engaged in a civil war between guerillas, the Colombia military and paramilitary forces since the 1960s. In addition, large landholders and corporations seeking access to minerals, rich soil and the Amazon rainforest have displaced many rural poor and people of African descent.

Ogaza said the support of the PC(USA) through the accompaniment program, which allows Americans to witness the realities of internally displaced persons while accompanying human rights workers, labor leaders, and people of faith in Colombia, has been integral to addressing the humanitarian crisis of IDPs.

Ogaza said, "Their presence has been a message to the Colombian state that we are not a small church, that we are not alone and that the church together will do everything it can in order to assure that love, justice and hope will grow in the midst of much death."

The Presbyterian U.N. Office is a member of the NGO working group on Colombia. Through that group, PUNO advocates on behalf of Presbyterian missionaries and mission co-workers and the more than 3 million internally displaced people in the country.