When peace comes to Barrancabermeja, people in Colombia say, peace will come to Colombia.

No one understands the truth of this saying better than women's rights activist Yolanda Becerra Vega, national director of Popular Women's Organization, which helps women - especially the millions of internally displaced persons - resist the deadly effects of their nation's long-running civil war.

She was born in 1959 in Barrancabermeja, an oil-refining center and boomtown that has grown rapidly with Colombia's oil wealth. Male workers flocked to Barrancabermeja from all over the country, and women were brought in to work as prostitutes.

Becerra Vega's father taught her to be a help to others, while her mother taught her how to feel comfortable in any situation.

Becerra Vega attended the Camilo Torres Restrepo School, which followed "liberation theology," a philosophy that emphasizes the role of the Catholic Church in helping the poor. In 1972, the Popular Women's Organization came into being as a church-related organization helping women escape from prostitution. The organization set up a women's center in Barrancabermeja, opened a soup kitchen, and worked to provide skills training to women who needed to work. While in school, Becerra Vega helped poor people learn to read and write by discussing the social structures that polarized society economically and socially.

www.amnestyusa.org/our-mission-and-the-movement/the-ginetta-sagan-fund/page.do