The village of La Virgen de Quipile is a community that is located in Cundinamarca, Colombia, in the eastern Andes mountain. The town of La Virgen de Quipile has suffered greatly due to Colombia’s armed conflict. Much has happened here and one can still see the consequences left by the war that has gone on for nearly 20 years. The people who live here know fear intimately. They have seen their relatives and friends killed, their children recruited by the guerrillas and paramilitaries, received death threats, and have been displaced geographically by the violence in the region. As the armed conflict has drawn to and end the people of La Virgen de Quipile are trying to move forward and heal wounds of the past. They wish to live in tranquility and hope for a better future for their children.
Approximately 2,000 people live here in total, with at least 400 children of scholarly age. The youth of La Virgen de Quipile have suffered the most due to the violence here, due to poor infrastructure, absence of advanced education, and lack of employment opportunities. When they finish their secondary education, if they do actually finish, they tend to leave in search of jobs in the major cities or they join the emerging criminal gangs that have replaced the guerillas and paramilitaries in the area.