Yeny and the Children for Peace by Michelle Mulder Page B

leading workshops about peace, helping other young people who have survived violence, and teaching adults how to treat their own children with respect. Colombia is still a violent country, but both children and adults are working steadily toward solutions.

    The Children’s Movement for Peace has been nominated for every Nobel Peace Prize since 1998.
    Note: Many of the photographs in this book were taken in the years following that first day of peace in 1996, as the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) offered increasing resources and encouragement to the Children’s Movement for Peace.

    Children’s Movement for Peace representatives travel to the countryside too. They talk about peace with children who work in the fields and might not hear about it in school.

    Around Colombia, the Children’s Movement for Peace teaches workshops about non-violence. Children learn to become workshop leaders.

    Colombian teenagers speak to classes of younger kids about building a peaceful country.

    In towns and villages across the country, children gather with workers to share their experiences.

Glossary
    adios
– goodbye
    arepas
– corn pancakes
    arroz confrijoles
– rice and beans
    arroz con polio
– rice with chicken

    buñuelos
    buñuelos
– hot, fried dough snacks
    chiva
– a jeep used for public transportation
    cumbia
– a kind of Colombian dance music

    desaparecidos
– the “disappeared,” people who have been kidnapped and never heard from again
    disculpe
– excuse me
    empanadas
– hot, fried pastry pockets, usually filled with meat or potatoes
    gracias a Dios
– thank God
    gracias por venir
– thank you for coming
    grupos armados
– the armed groups
    guagua
– a giant rodent
    hola
– hello
    huevos pericos
– scrambled eggs with tomato and onion
    licuado de mango
– mango milkshake
    lo sienio, chicos
– I’m sorry, kids
    mercado
– market
    muy bien
– very well

    panela
– a sweet brown cube made from sugar cane juice that dissolves to make a hot drink
    platanos
– plantains or starchy bananas, eaten fried
por favor
– please
    sapo
– a toad; also used for a person who talks too much and gets other people into trouble
    señora
– ma’am
    señorita
– Miss
    tamales
– corn dumplings cooked in plantain leaves
    tatabra
– a wild pig
    yuca
– cassava; a root vegetable, eaten fried or boiled

    tamales

Acknowledgments
    Thanks to Clara Nelly Becerra for telling me about the Children’s Movement for Peace in Colombia, for helping with research, and for reading the manuscript and offering suggestions. I am indebted to Holly Caird and Pilar Riano-Alcala for their research help, and to Mireille Evans for her many stories, manuscript reading, helpful comments and answers to my questions, and photos. Thank you to Juan Mesa and Leonor Morales for checking the manuscript for inaccuracies, and to Jacqueline McAdam-Crisp, Rachel Crisp, and Sheldon Crisp for their feed-back and encouragement. Susan Braley, Margo McLoughlin, and Gastón Castaño have offered enormous emotional support. I’m grateful to Gena K. Gorrell for her brilliant editing, and toMargie Wolfe, Carolyn Jackson, Melissa Kaita, Phuong Truong, and Emma Rodgers at Second Story Press for turning this tale of courage and resolve into a beautiful book. To my friends and family, I extend a special thank-you for being such a loyal and enthusiastic cheering section.