Early in 2017, my friend Sabtain from Toronto contacted me to ask if we could help coordinate a charity project, Bags for Belén. He was organizing it with his new charity, Creating Change Together (CCT). They raised over US$2,000 in order to buy schoolbags for children in our hometown of Belén de Umbría and wanted to come distribute them in early May.
Parque Los Arrieros is an entertaining theme park in Colombia’s UNESCO World Heritage listed coffee country aimed at protecting the Coffee Region’s culture and heritage. It’s located on the road between the towns of Quimbaya and Montenegro. When traveling through the region, you don’t hear much about it and it isn’t well publicized, but it has been around since January 2014.
After a night of heavy rain, the only road in and out of the village of Columbia collapsed in a landslide. Columbia is just outside of the town I live in – Belén de Umbría. This small agricultural community will be without road access for at least six months. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and no cars or motorcycles were traveling on the road as it collapsed.
We’ve been able to do a few more things for the school in Belén de Umbría since our last update in March. Once the construction finished and supplies were given to the students, we decided to look at the smaller issues affecting the school.
Not too far outside Pereira is a great park for both kids and adults. Parque Consotá is a huge recreational area with sports fields, several swimming pools, a spa, nature trails, fishing ponds, paddle boats, a small zoo, restaurants, and a hotel. We took Marisol’s 6 year old nephew, David, to enjoy the park for a day.
Marisol, Lina, and I would like to express a heartfelt thanks to every donor who made this project possible. In just over a month, you were able to completely make over a school and change the lives of 30 students.
The school building, as mentioned in the video in the previous post, had several problems. It hadn’t been painted in many years, the roof had huge holes in it and leaked terribly every time it rained, and the school was in bad shape in general.
In Belén de Umbría, a tiny two-room school serves a marginalized community. Andrés Escobar Primary School has two teachers and 30 students from preschool to 5th grade. Many of the students have discipline issues or learning disabilities. Some come from broken families, have just one parent, or are raised by their grandparents. A few students have been displaced by violent conflict in Colombia while others have drug addicts or prostitutes in their families. All of the students come from very low-income families that struggle to afford school supplies, uniforms, and lunches.