Transforming Soacha through regenerative tourism

When Yanileth Ramos arrived in Soacha, Colombia, she didn’t just seek safety — she sought purpose. Determined to build a better future for herself and her children, as well as greater unity and prosperity in the neighborhood she now lived in — a diverse mix of refugees, migrants, internally displaced people, and their host communities — Yanileth approached Teresa Lezcano, the director of refugee-led organization Fundación Genval, with a simple aspiration: “I want to do something for my community.”

Teresa had come to Colombia from Cuba several years before and had witnessed the struggles experienced by Venezuelan refugees and migrants, like Yanileth, there. After a private-sector career in entrepreneurship and innovation, she decided to shift focus. In 2019, Fundación Genval was born, aiming to support the social and economic inclusion of people forced to flee through entrepreneurship and skills building.

After meeting at a conference, Yanileth and Teresa discussed the growing challenges faced by Yanileth’s community, including a lack of job opportunities, safe play spaces for children and young people, and sense of belonging and community, as well as environmental pollution. Their discussion inspired Fundación Genval to devise a solution that could bring people together: a community-led regenerative tourism project, coordinated by Yanileth. Inclusive and resilient tourism is recognized as a key tool for fostering long-term development through sustainable economic growth, social development, and environmental conservation. In simple terms, regenerative tourism involves meaningful ways for visitors to connect with local communities, support local economies, and help improve the areas they visit.

So, in 2024, with the support of UNHCR’s Refugee-led Innovation Fund, Fundación Genval collaborated closely with local leaders to build Senda Soachuna, a regenerative tourism route that winds through three neighborhoods of Soacha. The first project of its kind in this region of Colombia, it has now positively engaged close to 700 people. One participant, 21-year-old Verónica, says, “For forcibly displaced people and the communities that host us, this regenerative tourism project is an opportunity for economic development while preserving the cultural and natural heritage of the neighborhoods we live in.”

A three-step journey to regenerative tourism

The initiative took a three-step approach, addressing, in turn, infrastructural, economic, and environmental challenges. Before that work began in earnest, a governance committee was formed. Made up of seven community members, six of whom are women, the committee is responsible for leading the implementation of Senda Soachuna — ensuring the maintenance of public spaces, encouraging community participation, promoting the route, and building strategic partnerships to support its long-term sustainability.

To start, the committee and Fundación Genval mapped key areas of cultural significance in their neighbourhoods to design the route. They then renewed public spaces along this route, restoring house facades, stairways, and playgrounds. Some participants, like Verónica, collaborated to design and paint murals representing the neighborhood’s cultural heritage. “This type of activity is a great strength for the community,” she says, “especially for young people like me who are looking for opportunities to share our talents and skills but often don’t have spaces to do so.”

To address the issue of economic inclusion, the project is supporting livelihood opportunities for refugees and host community members. For instance, local entrepreneurs are starting and scaling small businesses thanks to new opportunities to market their goods along a gastronomic route, boosting incomes and preserving culture, like Soacha’s rich tradition of artisanal sweets. At least 20 families have already launched new enterprises thanks to the route. The project also provided entrepreneurship workshops, empowering participants to design business models, manage projects, and handle finances. Through such initiatives, the community has come together to advance economic well-being for all. “This project has reminded us that we need each other,” says Luz Dary Duarte, a local entrepreneur who has showcased her business through the gastronomic route.

 

 

The third pillar of the project is its push for environmental sustainability. Although it initially aimed to develop just two community gardens, enthusiastic participants have now created 14. These gardens are helping to restore local ecosystems while also providing food and livelihoods. Through gardening workshops, participants learned how to reduce or repurpose waste and harvest produce. Since then, they have organized to collect organic waste, create compost, and trade produce, reinforcing community cohesion. “Previously, there were invisible borders and divisions, but the community gardens have fostered solidarity,” says Yanileth. “People now see themselves as part of the same territory, where everyone’s well-being is interconnected.”

 

 

Along Senda Soachuna, tourists are invited to help out — restoring murals, improving public spaces, supporting local entrepreneurs, and planting in the community gardens — advancing a sustainable future for Soacha’s diverse community.

Senda Soachuna’s achievements and roadblocks

Senda Soachuna demonstrates the potential of empowering refugees, migrants, internally displaced people, and host community members to lead the development of equitable socioeconomic opportunities and the preservation of the region’s natural and cultural heritage. As Andrés Daza, a social architect supporting the project, says:

 

“This project has enabled residents to see and feel the neighborhood as their own, realizing that they can take action to improve and develop it. It has fostered a sense of identity and belonging.”

 

These positive effects will likely continue well into the future, rippling outward to new community members. For instance, Laura, who took part in the gardening workshops, is now training other community members on how to make their own agroecological gardens and compost.

On the other hand, the project also ran into a few challenges, which must be addressed to ensure the regenerative tourism route can continue to grow and thrive sustainably. Theft and property damage in recently refurbished spaces have posed a difficulty, raising the need for greater security measures. Infrastructural works also caused damages, which Fundación Genval and local leaders are working to mitigate in coordination with local authorities. Finally, extreme weather events, such as heavy rain and prolonged droughts, have threatened the community gardens. To boost their resilience, the organization has been working to adapt farming practices, exploring approaches like rainwater harvesting.

 

Charting a sustainable route forward

Fundación Genval and the Senda Soachuna Governance Committee have devised several strategies for scaling its successes. They are negotiating with the Municipal Tourism Office to include the route as one of Soacha’s main destinations. They are also working to establish partnerships with the private sector and academia aiming to build additional tourism capacity in the community and promote the route.

 

Senda Soachuna, ultimately, represents the serious potential of sustainable and resilient tourism to promote social cohesion, economic growth and inclusion, and environmental conservation in communities composed of locals and people forced to flee. For Yanileth, the project has helped bring hope away from home. She says:

“To reach the point where I have helped mobilize [the community in Soacha] — seeing them now empowered, transformed, and full of new energy — is incredibly rewarding. I feel welcomed and accepted now. It is wonderful, as someone forced to flee, to be able to be a positive force for change in this place.”

Find out more about UNHCR’s Refugee-led Innovation Fund.