Empowering 113 Youth to Break the Cycle of Poverty

Soroca Program — Fundación Ser para Ser · Cali, Colombia

In the first five months of 2026, Soroca accompanied 114 young people from Aguablanca — the eastern district of Cali, Colombia, a territory shaped by inequality, limited access to higher education, and the daily reality of armed conflict. Thirty-nine newcomers joined through a competitive selection process that drew 87 applicants from eight public schools; a second group of 36 continued deepening their civic leadership; and 31 recent high-school graduates navigated the transition into university, work, and independent adult life. Every young person in the program — whom we call Valiants— received personalized mentorship, participated in structured formation sessions, and was accompanied through the challenges of their specific life moment.

This semester's most visible transformation happened in a community garden called Mi Terracita, where our second-year Valiants took on a real challenge: to design, build, and run a series of environmental interventions — entirely on their own. Working in teams of six, they constructed bee hotels to protect local pollinators, transplanted seedlings they had cared for in their own homes for three weeks, and took to the streets to teach their neighbors how to sort household waste. The garden community rated their work a perfect 5 out of 5. More importantly, young people who had never spoken in front of strangers found themselves standing on a street corner, educating their community with confidence.

Across all three program levels, the semester reinforced what we know to be true: formation that touches identity, body, emotion, family, and territory is the only kind that lasts. First-year participants created personal life museums and explored body autonomy and sexuality with expert facilitators. Graduating-level Valiants practiced job interviews, built financial literacy, and were actively referred to psychological support when needed — with many seeking it themselves, which the team considers one of the semester's deepest signs of growth. 

Soroca has always understood that accompanying a young person means accompanying their family too. This semester we held six family formation workshops, including a landmark event in May — Tejiendo Comunidad (Weaving Community) — that brought together 72 participants from all three program levels, families, and members of Club 50 (our donor-leader community) at Universidad Javeriana Cali. Families shared stories, built new connections, and left with a clearer sense of themselves as co-creators of Soroca's impact. 

"For me, the community project helped me understand my surroundings better and the value of working together. It made me step out of my comfort zone, interact with others, and see realities different from my own. I felt useful — and more aware of everything that still needs to change."

— Valiant, second year · Mi Terracita, 2026

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• For more info, here's a video!