Empower 40 Colombian kids in extreme poverty

Dear Donors,

Some months has passed since our last monitoring trip of January to Colombia, but our joint work with our local partners has never stopped. Our local representatives as well as NGOs and International Organizations’ data witness that despite being an upper-middle-income country, Colombia has to face different challenges from a social and economic point of view.

Advancing the peace process is among the Government’s main priorities. The Country faces a complex humanitarian situation, exacerbated by multiple emergencies triggered by increasing violence from non-state armed groups (NSAGs), often overlapping with extreme weather events, a mixed migration crisis, economic shocks of high inflation, currency devaluation and pandemic’s residual impacts. According to UN report published in May 2023, Colombia’s 50-year-long armed conflict resulted in 7.8 million internally displaced people (IDPs), while the country has also been the largest host for migrants from Venezuela.

43% of the Colombians lives under the poverty line and children and teenagers are the most fragile part of the population. Adolescents face multiple dimensions of vulnerability that threaten long-lasting consequences for themselves, their prospects for survival and living healthy lives and for their communities if not addressed urgently. Violence is often part of their everyday life and high rates of violence against children are also attributed to cultural influences, limited understanding among caregivers of affective non-violent disciplinary methods, weak government systems, corruption, organized crimes, narco-economies and urban marginalization.

In this general contest, Aleimar supports Hogar San Jeronimo center in Tunja, where children and teenagers can phyco-social support, education and training in a safe place and leaded by trusted educators. There minors can also take part in recreational and educational activities like sport and workshops. This makes them feel part of a community and allow them to express themselves in a constructive way. Thanks to your support all this is possible!

Thank you!

Dear Donor,

we are glad to share with you good news from Colombia! Last January Aleimar Country Representatives Andrea and Rosanna with the volunteer Teresa finally came back to Colombia for the periodic monitoring trip. During this two-week trip, they had the opportunity to visit all the projects that Aleimar support in Colombia and in particular San Jeronimo project in Tunja.

In Tunja high poverty rate joins together with incredibly high levels of domestic violence and also to the worrying number of children that are forced to spend whole days on the street without care and protection. The state of abandonment in which they live makes them victims of violence, abuses, exploitation and deletes development opportunities for their future.

In Hogar San Jeronimo, the Centre managed by Somaschi Fathers, 40 children and teenagers that come from the harsh reality of the road receive support. Together with pedagogical and educative activities, several workshops are foreseen: children and teenagers can join carpentry and electronics lessons and the mothers of the children helped can take part in a cutting and sewing course.

These workshops allow young students to learn a profession and to easily find a job, while for the children the courses are an expedient that make them able to overcome the trauma experienced or to prevent social disadvantage.

Your support is really fundamental and it is the heart of all our activities!

Thank you from Aleimar and from the young Colombian participants!

Dear Donor,

our activities in Colombia never stop despite the difficult economic, social and political situation of the Country. Our local representatives report that inflation has risen by 11% in just one year in particular in the food and housing sector and unemployment has reached the highest level of the last five years. The most penalized by this working crisis are the informal workers and most of them are the parents of the families that we support. Social protection is in first place for the new president Gustavo Petro who promotes a “total peace” with the groups of dissidents that could receive benefits (like for example the reduction of the custodial sentence if they submit to justice). All the armed groups involved in the conflict are connected to the drug trafficking according to security and governmental sources. The Colombian government is now working for a plan for farmers in order to voluntary eradicate coca crops, the main ingredient of cocaine, in favor of new crops and investments in infrastructure, education and health.

In order to ensure more safety to our children, the priorities that we want to establish for this school year are related to school and to the after-school support. Often the houses in which our families supported live are located in risky neighborhoods and it is important to guarantee a safe space where our children can spend their afternoons far from the street. For these reasons, we would like to increase our support to the center Hogar San Jeronimo in Tunja, where boys and girls are hosted during the day before and after the school lessons. Here we can provide one meal per day, homework support and professional courses though which the recipients can learn artisanal jobs (like woodworker and electrician). This represents an opportunity for the future of all the boys and girls supported and that’s why your help is so fundamental!

Thank you!

Dear Donors,

with this report we would like to update all of you about our project that supports 40 children and young teenagers in the center Hogar San Jeronimo in Tunja. Thanks to our local representatives, Myriam and Luis, and thanks to your help we can contribute to the work done every day by Somaschi Foundation.

The news that come from Colombia in relation to the social situation and to the security of the country are worrying. After five years from the signature of the Peace Agreements between the president Juan Manuel Santos and the captain of the Armed Revolutionary Force of Colombia (Farc) the country is facing a huge wave of violence. Frequently activists are killed and unfortunately the number of deaths is destined to increase because of the extractive oil projects and because of the intensive agriculture of coca that causes clashes among paramilitary forces, drug traffickers and guerrillas that compete for these territories.

In the end of May the new president didn’t have to face just this situation: he also had to cope with the demonstrators that in the previous months started to take to the streets to protest against the project law about the Sustainable Solidarity in order to ask for more social justice. We hope that the economic crisis that has hit the country won’t stop our local representatives from keep on supporting children and families in need. After lockdowns, school at distance and social isolation it is always more important to guarantee all the activities of the center Hogar San Jeronimo to the children hosted because the opportunities of improvement are really limited for the poorest part of the population. Thanks to your help, 40 children can receive psycho-social support, education and training as well as a safe place where they can grow.

Thank you!

Dear donor,

through this report we would like to share with you few updates about Colombia and about the project that Aleimar supports in Tunja. COVID-19 pandemics, that is still touching the entire world, in Colombia has caused more than 139 thousand deaths and the World Health Organization counts more than 6 millions confirmed cases since February 2020.

More than 31 millions of people (62% of the population) have been fully vaccinated. In the country there aren’t strong restrictions due to the pandemics any more, but the government invites the population to keep a responsible behaviour, social distancing and to use face masks.

In relation to education, students of every degree had been able to come back to school and to study in person in their classrooms since the last week of January or the first week of February 2022. In this wat they have started a new school year with their classmates and teachers.

News about the current economic situation of the country are contrasting: financial journals report a good economic recovery, in particular thanks to exports; on the other hand, in the everyday life all the prices of goods of first necessity are still rising and this fact touches the most fragile part of the population.

Moreover, the security situation of the Country is still worrying: in 2021 in Colombia 145 human rights activists have been killed. The Government accuses the gangs related to drug trafficking to be the authors of these homicides.

Aleimar has supported “Hogar San Jeronimo” house in Tunja to reopen after the closure due to the pandemics. Now in the house there are 40 children that can live and study in a safe and quiet place, far from the risks of the streets that they could face during not-scholastic time. The house also assures one meal per day and this is a very important support for the children that come from really poor families.

We are thankful for your precious support that helps us to keep on working for these students involved in the project!