Crime and violence are still widespread in Colombia. Many young people grow up in difficult conditions and without stable attachment figures and join youth gangs that fight each other. Young people who infiltrate the territories of other gangs are often attacked and hospitalised with gunshot and stab wounds. In 2022, the Friends of Waldorf Education funded an emergency pedagogy project to prevent violence.

In the Colombian city of Cali, surgeons, psychologists and social workers have joined forces to treat not only the physical but also the psychological wounds of young people. In the University Hospital del Valle in Cali, emergency pedagogical work is done with young people affected by violence. The hospital stay is supposed to be a starting point for the young people to change their lives in order to build healthy interpersonal relationships with themselves and others. In this way, the vicious circle of ongoing violence can be broken.

Already in the recovery room, art therapy and music, as well as a reading circle are available to the young people, so that an examination of their own person is possible. In group sessions, the adolescents can also deal with their past and their wishes for a new beginning, and experience caring and attentive interactions in the group. The clinical professionals found that emergency educational work with the injured adolescents is essential to motivate them to enrol in a longer-term programme after their hospital stay. In the course of this, more than 55 young people were supervised by social workers in their homes and communities using emergency educational methods and other support services. During the project, further initiatives were developed to accompany the young people, their families and caregivers in the future, in order to break the spiral of violence. In order to disseminate knowledge about traumatology and methods of emergency and trauma pedagogy, professional training is also offered.