From the Jungle to the City: Asha’s Journey

In the midst of the armed conflict in Colombia, Asha, a 12-year-old peasant girl who was studying at a boarding school, is kidnapped by the FARC-EP guerrilla to force her to join their ranks,where she is subjected to multiple forms of violence by her peers and superiors, including cruel and inhuman treatment and sexual violence. After being recovered with other companions by the military forces in the “Berlin operation,” and while still children, they had to face a long journey in various state institutions that, instead of guaranteeing their rights, treated them like criminals and put them at risk of being recruited again in the urban context. Although several decades have passed since these events and she has become a leader who demands justice for what happened, her story is that of thousands of girls and boys who continue to be linked by armed and criminal groups in the country.