Why Am I doing this?

I have narrowed it down to six reasons, in no particular order:

1. I want to get better at speaking Spanish
2. I want to live in a rural area
3. I want to live in Colombia
4. I am motivated by the tenacity San Jose de Apartado has shown by taking ownership of its own future and actually doing what they see as necessary to improve their own situation. On top of the typical hardships of living in a rural area in a developing country, this community has endured general disregard from the Colombian government as well as assassinations that go unpunished all the while upholding their their commitment to non-violence and neutrality for 13 years.
5. FOR is in the community only because it was invited to do a very specific job and will stay only as long as the community members deem that they are necessary.
6. Lastly, but probably most importantly, I am attracted to this job because it is addressing the community's problems on a long-term systemic level. FOR recognizes that the community would be able to build schools, irrigation systems and farms IF their basic need for an adequate sense of security were met. As citizens of the US and other influential countries, FOR Human Rights Accompaniers posses the connections necessary to pressure the Colombian government to respond to, and work to prevent, human rights violations. While human rights law is a long way from being fully enforced and respected globally, the international community, including Colombia and the United States, do see human rights compliance as a source of pride and are humiliated when exposed as human rights violators. Capitalizing on such concern for international reputation, FOR uses political contacts, both in the US and Colombia, that it has built up over the years to effectively push for adequate responses to previous human rights violations, and prevention of future ones.
   

(On specific source of pressure comes from the Leahy Law, which requires the US government to certify that any country receiving US money is in compliance with human rights law. Colombia is currently recipient of the third largest quantity of US aid, so while there are a lot of loop-holes through which the US and Colombia can avoid the onerous vetting process, it is still a source of legal leverage for human rights advocates.)

As a result, as a FOR human rights accompanier, I can be confident that I am doing work that is not only needed and desired by the community, but also utilizes tools that I, as a US citizen, uniquely posses to address the larger issues that are preventing the community from getting past their violent history, getting on with their lives and accomplishing their own set of goals.