Discover Comuna 13.
Fuel Hope for Local Youth.

Among all the talent, art and culture that surrounds Comuna 13, one life story cannot be overlooked: that of a woman whose social work with children has helped give them a better future. She is Marily Múnera, a woman focused on helping her community — driven, supportive and tolerant, qualities that have made her a warrior who has lived in the Independencia 1 neighborhood for 38 years. Today she shares her life story and tells us how, thanks to her experiences, she overcame her demons, left them in the past and moved forward building a better future for herself and her children.

She identifies with the phrase “I lived through the bad, the not-so-good and what is now good”, telling us that her life changed when, in the middle of the violence, she suffered the death of her brother — an event that pushed her mother into a depression that led her to alcoholism. Those were the facts that marked this warrior's life, and she decided to steer her path toward working with children. She began as a community mother, work she carried out for six years and that made her even more passionate about social work with kids. It was through art, in her role as a community mother, that she taught children to see their neighborhood full of color and joy.

But what happened to this woman's life once the territory lived through the hard, tragic days of the pandemic? From the start of the pandemic Marily lost her job as a community mother and began a sponsorship process for children with those parents who showed interest in their kids' wellbeing and supported the role she had played. She also built an alliance with the president of the neighborhood's JAC, who contributes to this beautiful process our leader carries out.

Another project that motivated our warrior is “How do I care for myself so I can care for others?” — a process of training leaders so that, through art, they can shape children and, at the same time, each of their families. Thanks to this initiative, this warrior decided to venture into the tourism that happens around the escalators, and started out as a tour guide on the Graffitour routes of this sector.

Marily tells us: “I do this work with a lot of love, because every day, with every new tour, I discover new stories that let me innovate with ideas to grow my social work with children.” She also shares that social work has allowed her to grow and strengthen her personal and family life, because it has let her reshape hearts and always contribute to finding solutions instead of dwelling on problems. Today she thanks life for the stages she went through and for how much she learned from each one.