With a view to improving the quality of life for Colombian families, COFEP (ECLOF Colombia) has begun to give loans for the construction of low cost housing for those who would otherwise have nowhere decent to live.

Just over one year ago, COFEP began mak ing house building loans in the town of Quimbaya, in the Colombian Coffee Belt. As with other towns, Quimbaya is suffering from the effects of last January’s earthquake in the country. We had visited the nine COFEP family clients there not long before the earthquake and we saw how they had managed to complete most of the work on their homes. Each family had received a loan of around US$2,000. To our great surprise and satisfaction we saw each family living in their own home and able to buy other necessities with the money which previously would have been paid out in rent.

We visited the home of Evilia, a single par-ent who lives with her mother. Evilia was not at home because she works during the day. Only her mother was there with her grandchildren. Her face beamed with pride and she showed us the house as if to say, “This is my house and my daughter’s house. No one will ever take me away from here.” Words cannot express what we felt while visiting this home plus the eight others, and the happiness of each family. After the earthquake, we paid a return visit. The population of Quimbaya is around 1,800 and almost everybody makes their living from the production of coffee. The earthquake damaged 120 homes in the town and they had to be torn down. To our great surprise, not one of the homes of COFEP’s clients had been damaged. They are all located in the José Hilario López neighbourhood. Even though this is a poor area it is also a place of solidarity and mutual support. It almost seems as if God had wanted to protect it and show it to the world as an example.

There were more people in the homes than the first time we visited them. Why? Because Carlos, Humberto, Azucena and every one of the owners was accommodating relatives and friends made homeless by the earthquake.
Flor Astrid was extremely sad. In less than four months she had lost her husband and daughter Catalina, who was 23 years old and had just begun working at the Chamber of Commerce in Armenia, the capital of Quindio. The earthquake hit this city hardest. After four days of digging, they pulled Catalina’s body out from under the debris. Flor is the group leader and the person who had contacted COFEP for the loans. Her parents’ house is among those that had to be demolished. Now her mother is living with her as well as other relatives.

Whilst the ECLOF-funded homes of these families were not directly affected by the earthquake, today the people are suffering due to the loss of their jobs. Almost all the families have women as the head of house hold. One woman worked in the Town Hall, another was a sales clerk, another was a day helper for other families, and so on. However, all are repaying their loans on schedule. How? These families come from a very proud community and would never accept charity, but they do welcome a helping hand and a chance.

When we met the families, each of them had their payment ready for me. They had not been able to make the payment through the bank as normal because it had been destroyed. I was able to tell them COFEP could at least help by lowering their interest rate from 3.8% to 3% per month because of the natural disaster. There will be hard times ahead, but these families have already organised them-selves into what they call ‘the chain’. In this system, they hope to help one other especially during these first months after the earthquake as they wait for the economy to get back on its feet and for their jobs to return. In having a home today and being able to take in relatives, these families appreciate assistance shown to them by COFEP through its loans. Whatever else happens, these people will go ahead with dignity. I saw it in their faces and they have already started to prove it.

Olga Lucía Álvarez is Executive Director of COFEP (ECLOF Colombia).