State-owned industrial and commercial enterprise EPM started implementing prepaid electricity meter card systems in 2007. The company expected demand for 30,000 installations by 2012, but just four years since initiating the project, 100,000 installed systems aren’t enough. The result? People started consuming 40% less electricity by spending what they could afford.
Social housing
About half of some 35,000 families who live in “high risk” zones have been helped with social housing. The Fajardo administration built 7,000 houses, paving the way for the establishment of the Social Housing Institute in 2009. That has enabled Medellin’s current administration to reach a goal of 15,000 houses and another 3,000 when the private sector is accounted for.
Fair trade
Europe is a destination market, says Nicolás Echavarría, managing director of Banafrut, because Banafrut’s fair trade certification means a portion of export revenue goes back to a managed fund for workers’ benefit. Children with special needs, social housing and university grants for workers are provided for out of this fund. “All of this we have achieved through British Fair Trade,” says Echavarría.
Independent media
During darker times, the role of the media was to report the violent truth of events, even when faced with mafia culture. However, the news did not represent the complicated reality of Antioquia and an incomplete picture of the region emerged, says El Colombiano editor Ana Mercedes Gómez. It’s still not easy, she adds, but journalists are in a better security situation today.
