10 Years of Responsible Volunteering: How does Globalteer help the Colombia Community Project?

Globalteer works with two Government approved children’s projects in Medellin, Colombia. Both projects work with children who are victims of the huge displacement in Colombia caused by the country’s infamous drug wars. The projects offer a safe place for children who would otherwise be at risk from child traffickers, the drugs trade and street violence. Globalteer helps with funding and by placing volunteers who help with the children’s school work. Amongst the varied duties that our volunteers carry out, assisting with English classes is one of the most important, and as our Elena, Colombia volunteer coordinator explains, it really is having a positive impact:

The Impact of English Classes

We have regular English classes for different age-groups and home-work support activities which are done by volunteers and myself. English is the most difficult subject for all children in Colombia, at any school. Keeping in mind that the English classes at the state school, are of quite low quality - most of the teachers don't even speak English and prepare their classes based on Google translate materials - many students used to fail their English subject. Which caused quite a lot of problems as the children had to repeat the subject or even an entire year.

Since Globalteer started regular English activities at the project, not one child has failed his or her English grade in the last year and half. And many of them also have improved substantially their grades, which makes the project director and staff at the project very happy. Of course English is a really important subject for the children too as tourism is growing in Medellin and international trade is important too, especially with the USA. 

Why Globalteer donations are important too

The financial contributions made by Globalteer and our volunteers are also making a huge difference to the projects we work with. The Colombian Government’s “institute of Family Wellbeing” applies strict regulations to projects such as the ones we work with and keeping up to their standards can put a lot of pressure on the projects Again, as Elena explains:

One of the projects we work with is at the final stage of getting the 2-years licence from the social services regulator - Insitituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar (ICBF) - and to be able to get to this point, they had to do very extensive improvement works to their premises.

Amongst other things, they are required by ICBF to have a separate office for the children’s psychologist,  to certain types of kitchen units, and they have also had to fully re-paint the premises with the special paint, similar to what is used in hospitals and similar institutions. So pretty much all the money they received from Globalteer this year has paid for this work.