The city of Bogotá hosted the Cáritas Bolivarian Zone Meeting on September 23 and 24, 2014, bringing together directors and delegates from five countries - Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador and Bolívia - under the motto "Building our location... charting the path to the future."

The event, which included the participation of members of the regional secretariat and Cáritas sisters, marked an important milestone in regional collaboration and the strengthening of Cáritas' action strategies in Latin America.

The meeting focused on four main objectives: identifying possibilities of consensus to guide future actions and strengthen advocacy; align the Cáritas Strategic Framework with the programming of the Bolivarian Zone; evaluate localization development in the region; and propose indicators to objectively measure progress in the implementation of localization. In addition, crucial topics were discussed such as the reality of the Bolivarian countries, the perspectives of Cáritas' action, and the main issue of localization was delved into.

The director of Cáritas del Perú, Manuel Huapaya, highlighted the importance of the meeting. "It has been a time of great blessing and openness. We have raised strategic issues on how to improve our path as Cáritas and we have achieved an openness with the sister Cáritas throughout this localization process." Huapaya emphasized that the agreements reached are not closed points, but "paths that we are building", highlighting the dynamic and evolutionary nature of the discussions.

For her part, Janeth Márquez, director of Cáritas Venezuela and animator of the area, highlighted the achievements of the meeting. "We have been looking at how to address the problems and cries that we have in common, reaching consensus on what we are going to work on."

Márquez also highlighted a crucial aspect of the event.

We concluded by evaluating the location of the realities of our countries and the relations between Cáritas, which has allowed us to begin to chart a path for a real cooperation protocol.

This focus on localization and cooperation adapted to regional realities marks a significant step in the evolution of Cáritas' work in the Bolivarian Zone, laying the foundations for more effective and contextualized collaboration in the future.