Ellie Cayer and Sam Primis Travel to Mahates, Bolívar, Colombia to Complete Capstone Fieldwork
With the support of the Georgetown Americas Institute (GAI), Ellie Cayer and Sam Primis were able to travel to Mahates, Bolívar, Colombia to complete fieldwork in April 2024 as part of their final Capstone Project for the Center for Latin American Studies (CLAS) in collaboration with the Centro de Investigación y Educación Popular / Programa por la Paz (Cinep/PPP).
During the Capstone Project, they worked with Cinep/PPP and the Coalición de Mujeres del Caribe por la Tierra y el Territorio to plan a seminar for local and regional government officials on strengthening women’s land access in the Caribbean region of Colombia. The seminar itself is one component of a larger pilot program Cinep/PPP and the Coalition are working on as part of the global Stand for Her Land Campaign (S4HLC) led by Landesa.
This particular iteration of the seminar which Ellie and Sam were able to attend in Mahates was the first of a series of five, which are scheduled to take place between April and July of 2024.
It was an important and meaningful experience to complete this fieldwork in Mahates, as it allowed for a better understanding of the local complexities influencing the day-to-day realities for women in the Canal del Dique and Montes de María subregions of the Colombian Caribbean. The insights gained from realizing the first seminar of the series will inform the next iterations taking place in the coming months.