On July 26 and 27, within the framework of the EOT Barichara 2025 Forum, a group of 26 young people participated in the Workshop for Young Community Reporters, a training space in reporting, photography and video, certified by the Autonomous University of Bucaramanga (UNAB). This workshop, in addition to providing technical tools, provided the foundation for participants to learn how to tell the stories of their territory as a way to get to know it better, to awaken in them a vocational interest and to enable them to exercise, from an early age, a democratic and responsible citizenship.
Thanks to the support of Barichara Regenerative Foundation, The youth reporter groups, which fund this initiative, have actively joined the coverage of the Territorial Planning Scheme (EOT) update process in Barichara and its surrounding villages. This process, driven from the Community Water Board – PLATEAU, It seeks to ensure that the new EOT (Land Use Plan) is born from the feelings, knowledge and proposals of the community, thus building an order designed with and for Barichara.
The reporters' task is to accompany the various gatherings, interview community members, and document what happens. They receive a financial incentive for each report they submit. In addition, the Sunday, September 21, during the EOT Barichara 2025 Citizen Forum In the main park, the awards ceremony for the best news reports will take place. It will be a day of community celebration, gathering, clear proposals, and shared dreams.
Armed with cameras, microphones, and notebooks, the young people have documented activations such as Affective Maps of the Territory, which brings together the Community Action Boards, and Living Dreams, which links girls and boys from educational institutions.
Beyond its contribution to the EOT, this program seeks Strengthen skills that go beyond the territorial planning process. Young reporters are forging a sense of shared responsibility with their community by narrating processes that inspire and revitalize. Their voices join the many initiatives flourishing in Barichara, which find strength in networking—such as the Life Cycles and other community processes – a way of caring for the commons and projecting sustainable futures.
With each article, interview, or photograph, these young people discover and demonstrate that To communicate is also to regenerate, and that the power of their stories has the strength to sow lasting changes in Barichara.
