The World Mosquito Program in Colombia is part of a global, not-for-profit initiative that is working to protect local communities from mosquito-borne diseases.

More than 25 million people are at risk of dengue, which is more than half of Colombia’s population. A number of large-scale outbreaks have occurred in recent years. The number of Zika cases also increased rapidly following a global outbreak of the mosquito-borne disease in 2015.

So, on this week's Colombia Calling podcast, we have the opportunity to talk to Simon Kutcher, Senior Project Manager for the World Mosquito Program in Colombia.

Simon Kutcher has been managing and advising on the implementation of international development projects for more than 25 years. He has extensive experience working on complex integrated programs across many sectors, including spending the past 15 years in public health.

The number of people affected by mosquito-borne diseases is rapidly growing.

In recent years, population growth, the movement of people from rural areas to cities, more international travel and climate change have all increased the spread of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.

And subsequently, the number of people affected by mosquito-borne diseases has also increased.

Dengue fever is now considered the most critical mosquito-borne viral disease in the world, according to the World Health Organization. It’s also the most rapidly spreading, with a 30-fold increase in global incidence over the past 50 years

Hallo and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling – I’m Emily Hart and this week I’m talking to Velia Vidal – author, journalist, campaigner, working from her homeland Chocó. She is the founder and director of the Motete Educational and Cultural Corporation and the Chocó Reading and Writing Festival.

Velia Vidal is going to telling me all about her most recent writing project – a collaboration with the British Museum and the Hay Festival which brought together ten of Latin America’s most inspiring contemporary thinkers to examine the ways in which we curate narratives of our past through museums.

Each writer took an object from the British Museum and contributed a chapter to the book, Untold Microcosms. It’s an amazing project which raises all kinds of issues about colonialism and power-relations, the narrative power of historical objects, the British Museum’s right to hold certain artefacts, and the erasure of Afro-Colombian history in hegemonic narratives.

We’ll also be talking about life in Chocó, representation and mermaids, and the inspiration which can come from contact with your homeland – and the sea, Velia’s foremost muse.

We are incredibly fortunate to speak to Jenny Pearce, Research Professor,
Latin America and Caribbean Centre (LACC) at LSE about her current research which focuses particularly on the role of Elites and Violence in Latin America.

She worked with young researchers in Colombia, led by Juan David Velasco (Lecturer, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana), on elites and the Peace Accord.

Together they designed a database to better define and differentiate elites in Colombia and the families behind them. Learn about the power wielded by a few families and how their far-reaching influence defines Colombia's wealth and politics.

The research is funded by the Instituto Colombo-Alemán para la Paz (CAPAZ). Read the original report here:

https://www.lse.ac.uk/lacc/assets/documents/PEARCE-VELASCO-ELITES-Y-PODER-EN-COLOMBIA-1991-2022.pdf

Hallo and welcome to another episode of Colombia Calling - I’m Emily Hart and this week I’ll be chatting to Nubia Rojas about journalism at war – how journalists fell victim to, but also took part in, Colombia’s civil conflict.

Nubia is a journalist and researcher who has worked on conflicts across the world both as a correspondent and an analyst, working for the United Nations, Doctors without Borders, and Oxfam, as well as numerous Colombian outlets.

Most recently, Nubia authored a chapter of the final report of Colombia’s Truth Commission – a historic publication which was the outcome of an unprecedented investigation into the causes and consequences of Colombia's internal armed conflict – the final report was the result of nearly four years’ work and tens of thousands of interviews.

Today we’ll be chatting about Nubia’s chapter – digging in to the historical and present relationship between journalism and Colombia’s political elites, paramilitary PR, rebel elites, corporate takeovers and more