Children displaced by war pledged support

BOGOTA, Oct. 3 (UPI) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pledged $343,000 in grant money to support Colombian children displaced by war.

The U.S. funds, from the U.S. Agency for International Development, will go to provide music education and other services to children displaced by the years of war. Colombian officials say the funds will expand the National Batuta Foundation and Colombia's Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation to about 20 areas, according to the U.S. Defense Department.

With the expansion officials estimate more than 3,500 children along the remote areas of the Pacific Coast who were at risk for recruitment by illegally armed groups, internally displaced or who are living in precarious neighborhoods will receive the aid.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe Velez and Gates met at Casa de Narino, the presidential palace, to sign the agreement. Gates signed the agreement with Norma Poveda, the general manager of the National Batuta Foundation, and Sandra Alazate, the director of Colombia's Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation.

"When a child embraces a musical instrument, that child will never hold a rifle against his neighbor," Velez said, in a statement.

The defense secretary is on a five-day, five-country trip in Latin America.