Progress reports
Projects
• Gato de Monte • Sport-Girls • Improving communication skills 1 and 2 •Vocational program•Teenage Mothers•Homework Clinics- Cali School•Las Palmas School•After Shool Program - Tunja • Teresa Toda homes for abandoned girls• De la Cruz School
Events/Miscellaneous
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Visit to the Altos de la Cruz School
Buy holiday cards-designed by the children and t-shirts with Colombiacare logo
Why Help the Children of Colombia ?
Inocent children are being affected by the conflict in Colombia and, without help they will become part of the problem. more
Welcome to ColombiaCare
A non-profit organization
dedicated to help Colombian children affected by the on-going Colombia
conflict. It is estimated that more
than 1 million children have been displaced in the last 15 years in
Colombia as a result of the armed conflict. At least two thirds
have witnessed the brutal murder of a close family member or friend.
They have lost the certainty of a place to live and access to education,
and have been forced to 
live
in conditions of extreme poverty. Once displaced, education in particular
becomes very difficult. More than 85 percent of displaced children do
not receive a primary education. Children who are unable to go to school
lack basic employment skills, and often choose recruitment into armed
groups, gangs, drugs or crime as an alternative to poverty. See
more details on the situation.
Our Mission To provide help and support to Colombian children whose families have been displaced by the ongoing armed conflict in Colombia . The focus is on specific educational projects that can be measured and monitored to ensure that we have an impact.
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A Difficult Time for Our Children
Grants For three years we obtained grants for the Vocational project and for the Homework Clinics project. The former trained young people in Carpentry, Construction, Welding and Sewing and the latter provided after-school programs. Unfortunately, due to the world finance crisis these grants were discontinued. At this point in time we are working with resources obtained by individual donations and fund-raising events. |
Giving girls a chance Of the children, girls tend to be the most affected by the displacement and families' financial difficulties. Girls, as young as five years old, become responsible for the household chores including taking care of their younger siblings to allow the parents to go to work. Pregnancy in very young girls is becoming a serious issue in this population. Many times these pregnancies are welcome by these girls, they see this as their only future and to have something of "their own". Girls Sport is a new project that focus on girls only to give them an opportunity to see and experiment something different, give them discipline and drive in a fun and healthy environment. Please visit the pictures and progress of this project. An Ecological Theme On a brighter note: there
is a very touching story to share with you. As you may remember,
ColombiaCare had paid for the construction of a retention
wall for one of the schools we work with. By the way, if that
wall hadn't been built, it is possible the school would not have
survived the strong rains, fortunately, it did. |
The
community we work with is located in the outskirts of Cali , in
the hills surrounding the city. We work with the local schools
in that community for the most of our projects. Unfortunatelly,
often we have to put these projects on hold because of bad weather
conditions. Since the end of last year and the beginning of this
one, an unusually long and strong rainy season (due to the “Niña”
phenomenon) has caused innumerable problems. The fact that most
of the streets aren't paved makes the access hazardous at best
and impossible in many cases. Typically, strong rains often make
the area very muddy, and the teachers and children can't make
it to school. With the accumulated impact of the continuous rain,
some of the houses have literally fallen down. As a result, some
of the children don't even have a place they can call home.
The school developed an ecological theme, taking advantage of
the location of the school and the retention wall and as part
of the 
The
program has been very successful. It has facilitated the integration
of our Communication project with the teachers and their regular
program. But most importantly, it has provided for an increased
interest on the part of the teachers for their classes, and an
increased motivation in the children. The pictures say it all.
Those smiles are the ones that keep us going.