Former French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt on Monday announced the start of a new outreach project for poor Colombian children as she accepted an international peace prize in Rome.
Receiving the Pellegrino di Pace prize from Chamber of Deputies Speaker Gianfranco Fini, Betancourt said Project Calamar will give children in Colombia an alternative to joining the Marxist guerrilla group Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) as a means of improving their lot.
The project takes its name from one of the Colombian villages in which FARC recruits poor children with what Betancourt described as the ''great lie'' of a better future.
Betancourt added that she thought often of her captors, some of whom were aged 13 and 14, and described them as ''prisoners of an ideology and of terror''.
''I'd like to see them come out of the jungle as well (as my fellow prisoners),'' she said.
Betancourt was rescued by the Colombian army on July 2 after more than six years in the hands of FARC.
She was snatched in 2002, shortly after announcing her intention to run for the Colombian presidency.
The Pellegrino di Pace (Peace Pilgrim) prize is awarded each year by the International Centre for Peace Among the People, based in Assisi.
Past winners include Bill Gates and Kofi Annan as well as American social activist Patch Adams.
