SOS Children in Colombia

Children suffer from forced displacement as a result of families fleeing violence and armed conflict; some reports say 5% of the population is displaced. Many children are orphaned because of the violence and face a life without education or security, increasing the likelihood that they themselves will fall into a life of violence. Indeed, the high number of child combatants (18 years or under) is a serious issue for the country. Child labour is also a prevalent issue in Colombia, said to affect 10% of 5-14 year-olds. 

Today, SOS Children supports over 700 children and more than 100 youths in our Villages and youth houses, and a further 4,000 people through our SOS Nurseries, Schools, Vocational Training Centres and Family Strengthening Programmes.

We began our work in Colombia in 1971. The first SOS Children’s Village opened in the capital, Bogota, not far from the airport. The Village has 22 family houses and two SOS Youth Homes (where boys and girls in their teens can live while they start learning to live independent lives). Vegetables are grown for the Village's own consumption, and a bakery supplies the bread.

As well as long-term care for orphaned and abandoned children in Bogota, SOS Children is involved in caring for street children in the city. In 1990 the Nueva Vida project was established to give children and young adults temporary respite from the streets, with a place to sleep and something to eat, as well as the opportunity to take part in sports and other activities. The centre is in the San Vitorino district of Bogotá where there are many children living on the streets, with stealing and drug dealing often their only means of survival. Despite the dangers, it was decided to locate the project in this area so that the children would not have to leave their familiar surroundings.

Over the past few years, the project has expanded to include vocational training for women, enabling them to find work and get off the streets, while their children are looked after in the nursery. As well as food and shelter, lessons and classes are provided for street children, many of whom have never had the chance to attend school before.

In 1985 a volcanic eruption buried the city of Amero under a sea of mud and led us to build our second SOS Children's Village in Ibagué, the capital of the province of Tolima and about 30 miles south of the disaster area. SOS Children’s Village Ibagué has 16 family houses and two SOS Youth Homes. An SOS Nursery, Primary and Secondary school provide for the educational needs of the Village children as well as for children from the local community. The Village also has a clinic which, like the SOS Schools, is open to the local people, and a vocational training/social centre with five workshops. Here, young people from both the village and the neighbourhood can learn skills and trades. For many, this is their only hope of developing skills to secure their future.

The third community in Colombia, SOS Children’s Village Rionegro, was built in 1996 in the northwest of the country near the city of Rionegro in the province of Antioquia, and has12 family houses. An area of increasing economic importance where many of the country's paper, food and chemical industries are based, it is also the centre of operations for the Colombian drug cartels. Murder is commonplace and many families have left the region to escape the violence, leaving children orphaned and abandoned and in need of care.

SOS Children opened a Village at Bucaramanga in 1999, near the Venezuelan border in the city of Floridablanca, an area of small farms with a tropical climate. Bucaramanga has room for over 100 children in the 12 family houses. It also has an SOS Nursery.

We opened our fifth village in Colombia in 2003. It is in the small town of Ipiales in the south of the country, near the border with Ecuador. The local economy is dependent on agriculture, and the area has high unemployment and severe poverty. The Village has 12 family houses and an SOS Nursery. Children attend the nearby primary and secondary schools.

SOS Children's Village Cali opened in 2009.   It has 14 family houses and includes an SOS Social Centre that runs a Family Strengthening Programme.

Marco, now an independent young man, grew up in SOS Children’s Village Bogotá: “The most unexpected thing for a child is to lose your mother. Such innocence came out of me when I lost my mother, when I was only five years old.

"At that moment, to arrive in this green palace, SOS Children's Village Bogotá, gave me the necessary peace and tranquility to go ahead. I still remember my first image of the village. I think all the children who have lived in this village remember it... When I arrived ... I first saw the park, a beautiful green park with a nice playground. In my short life of five years, I don't remember having been to a park.

"My stay in the village was something particular. I always loved the green areas around the houses. It was like magic.

"Today, I have a job. I just finished my studies of social communication and journalism and this is something that makes me feel very satisfied. My story of growing up in the village is something I appreciate and acknowledge in every respect. My love for this place is so great that today I would like to go back to be a child. Not only do the people but the gardens themselves continue calling me..."