Child Sponsorship background from Bogotá, Colombia

SOS Children's Village Bogotá

After the terrible disaster caused by a volcanic eruption in 1985, which buried the city of Armero in an avalanche of mud, an SOS Youth Centre and an SOS Vocational Training and Production Centre were erected in Guayabal, which is located about 4 km from the destroyed city of Armero, 200 km west of the capital, Bogotá. It is situated not far from the airport on a site of about 2 hectares.

The SOS Children's Village is home to 19 families comprising over 170 children. Further features of the SOS Children's Village include a village director's house, a house for the so-called SOS aunts (SOS Children’s Village mothers in training, who assist SOS mothers and substitute them in the case of illness or during holidays), an administrative building, a community house, a small village shop, a joiner's and a tailor's workshop, a bakery, and a multi-purpose hall for special events.

Since SOS Children's Village Bogotá opened its gates in 1971, the work has continued to expand. Today, SOS Children's Villages is not only caring for children in need, but is also providing invaluable support and offering hope to local families and communities through a number of facilities and programmes.

Other SOS Projects in Bogotá

Two SOS Youth Homes, one for girls and one for boys, were created in urban Bogotá, where up to 17 adolescents are housed in shared flats throughout their secondary or vocational education in order to prepare them gradually for an independent life.

SOS Social Centres "Nueva Vida" and "Cazucá" are also part of the SOS Children's Village Bogotá. The SOS Social Centre "Nueva Vida" (new life) emerged from an SOS Children's Villages project to support street children, and offers supervision to 75 single mothers and their children.

The SOS Social Centre comprises three classrooms for child-care, three rooms for educational advice, an assembly room, a library, a sick ward, a kitchen, a dining room, and the necessary additional rooms. In two workshops, women can be trained in tailoring, broom-making, and hairdressing, enabling them to stabilise their social standing through increased qualifications.

The SOS Social Centre Cazucá was opened in 2000, and consists of three classrooms, two seminar rooms, a kitchen, a dining room, and a playground. The SOS Social Centre offers day-care for up to 250 children and youths, in order to keep them away from the streets, and provides a regular, balanced diet.

Background to Bogotá

Bogotá, Distrito Capital is the capital city of Colombia, as well as the most populous city in the country, with an estimated 7,304,384 inhabitants as of 2009.