Women Empowerment Project-Colombia

Recently I spent the day in a neighborhood, La Honda , high in the mountains in Medellin with Andrea Gonzalez who started the foundation "Volunteers in Colombia" which is supporting 2 very important projects for women and children in La Honda. Andrea was born in Colombia, adopted by a dutch family and returned to Colombia 3 years ago to do great work with women and children. She found her birth mother in Colombia, years earlier and found out that she was given up for adoption because her mother was in an abusive relationship and couldn't care for her unborn child, Andrea.

La Honda neighborhood was founded by people who were forced to flee from their land. These can be indigenous people, Venezuelans, people from the countryside that were escaping from the Colombian armed conflict, or even those from other neighborhoods in Medellin that were no longer safe in the neighborhood they lived in. They built their houses from wood and plastic. There is high unemployment, violence and sexual abuse present in the neighborhood. The district is in the top 2 of reported sexual abuse in Medellin, with most cases with girls between 6 and 11 years old.

The money from this fundraiser will go towards the women empowerment project Box2grow which supports 50 girls & women between 7 and 65 years old. By offering them boxing classes twice a week and social and emotional training biweekly, we give them the tools to develop both physically and mentally.

In addition, to Box2grow, Andrea has started a project "Un Paso Adelante" (a step forward) which is a classroom next to the boxing studio that offers english classes, tutoring, health and sex education classes.

These are projects that I will be donating my time and money to, in the future and I appreciate all the support you can offer, no matter how small or how large. Thank you SO much for your donation.