Edison Sanchez smooths out a piece of fabric and begins work on a clattery electric sewing machine. Just two years ago, this same piece of equipment was used to make fighters’ fatigues deep in the guerilla camps of the Colombian mountains.

A member of the Farc, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, since he was 15, Sanchez, now 33, has been learning how to sew since 2016, when the combatants disarmed under the terms of a historic peace dealthat ended 50 years of conflict in which more than 260,000 people were killed and 7 million displaced.

Now living in temporary reintegration camps as part of that agreement, the former fighters have been promised support in the form of sustainable farms and education. That assistance has been slow to materialise, however, leaving them struggling to find livelihoods.

It is for this reason that some have turned part of their old war machine into an economic engine.

“We had the machines while we were at war and we had staff who worked on them,” says Sanchez, a red bandana around his neck. “We need to work.”

The bulky machines were once carried on mules between mountain camps, used to repair uniforms and make the infamous yellow, blue and red Farc armbands. Now they seam stylish backpacks and school clothes.

A Farc badge on the uniform of a former guerrilla. Photograph: Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty

In charge of the tailor shop is James Guzman, 36, who kept his sewing machine with him throughout the war. It survived the years of bombings and ambushes.

At his haberdashery table a young woman with a knife is laboriously cutting off pieces of zips and clips – remnants of old Farc flak jackets, now being recycled to make sturdy, army-style backpacks.

“People from around here buy them,” Guzman says, smiling, a measuring tape around his neck. “People place orders from Medellín too, but not many. That’s how we sell them.”

Sanchez was also 15 when he joined the rebels; like most of the ex-guerillas, he has spent most of his adult life in combat.

“Nobody who came here knew how to work. There were only about three or four of us working, so I asked who wanted to learn how to do this and taught them,” says Guzman, wearing a T-shirt with a giant red rose imprint – the symbol of Farc’s new political party.

Sanchez and Guzman are now based at a reintegration camp in La Plancha, Anorí in north-east Colombia, along with 80 others. Illegal mining and illicit crops persist in this rural municipality, despite recent government eradication efforts.

Backpacks made by former rebel fighters. Photograph: Cady Voge

Of the 26 initial reintegration camps in Colombia, 24 remain in operation. They were established to incorporate the Farc back into civilian life, in line with the 2016 peace deal. The camps, supposedly temporary, are due to end in August 2019.

Life as a civilian is very different, says Sanchez. “Before, we would be thinking about the war every day and you had to be moving all the time. Now we can work normally, without any danger.”

The former combatants have decorated the accommodation to their tastes, with Marxist murals of Che Guevara and quotes from Farc leaders.

The UN says the reintegration process has made progress but remains complex. Many former fighters have left the camps to seek the families they left behind during the conflict; others have gone in search of completely new lives.

“The mission has identified that a considerable number of ex-combatants have left the reintegration spaces and are increasingly dispersed, which is creating new challenges,” says Raúl Rosende, head of the UN verification mission in Colombia.

Promises of sustainable ways of making a living, like the creation of fish and pig farms from which the ex-rebels can sell agricultural produce, have yet to be implemented in some camps, including La Plancha.

However, the government-run Colombian Reintegration Agency (ARN) says departures are normal as people head back to their families and communities.

“Important advances have been made in terms of academic training, work training and in ways to make a living, but there is still much to be done. This is a long-term process,” says Juan Carlos Zuleta, a coordinator for the ARN.

The ARN are still awaiting funds for the fish farm in La Plancha, which they expect to be a key economic generator.

Educational programmes are being implemented and many ex-combatants in Anorí are receiving practical training in healthcare and epidemiology with a view to becoming rural health promoters.

But civilian life takes getting used to for some. Wladimer Camargo, 36, misses the guerilla camaraderie to which he became accustomed after joining the Farc at 16.

“I really loved it when we were united and we had cultural activities and meet-ups. We’d be really happy and we’d eat and drink and see people who we hadn’t seen for five or six months because they had been in combat in other zones,” says Camargo.

He wants to stabilise his financial situation so he can go back to his hometown, Bucaramanga, and reconnect with his family. But it is daunting.

“In a city, I wouldn’t have the experience of a person who has lived there for 10 or 15 years. It’s like a person from the city who comes to live in the mountains, who knows nothing. So, it’s difficult. But we are used to overcoming obstacles – a guerrilla has that trait and it never leaves them,” he says.

Colombia inaugurated its new president, right-winger Iván Duque, last month, but his connection to a political party that has staunchly opposed the peace deal has created a sense of uncertainty among former fighters.

“We have seen that the Democratic Center party has always been against some parts of the peace agreement and when it comes to them being in power, it is logical that it produces some uncertainty for us ex-combatants, because we know that they feel resentment,” says Camargo. “We hope that they will contribute to build peace in Colombia.”

The UN says the new government has expressed interest in the economic and social reintegration of ex-combatants. The hope is that others like Sanchez and Guzman can adjust to civilian life, but the peace project has been tough to pull together.

As the process begins to fray, it will take more than a measure of political ingenuity to bring the thousands of former guerillas into the fabric of a peaceful society.