Global Changemakers

It’s 9:00 in the morning and the cold breeze in Bogotá force us to use the hood or the pockets of our sweaters. It took us almost one hour to get to Rincón del Valle (Valley´s Corner), a vulnerable neighborhood in Bogotá where we were going to visit the kids that last went to our BAKONGO social summer camp. The eight of us, volunteers of the Colombian Youth Network, had been already travelling to this place where time stood still for more than two years. The same rotten houses, some fortunate ones, made out of bricks and plastic ceiling, others, built with whatever families could grab on to, including wood and metal sheets. To us volunteers, this image recalled the sad phenomenon of displacement of people from rural places. Violent groups had taken all they had shaped for years and forced them to move to the main cities where attention from the state was almost null.

Walking up the hill was always exhausting but at the same time exciting. We all knew the kids were waiting for us with hugs and kisses saved up during the week. People in the neighborhood knew who we were, and although this was a place with presence of guerillas and paramilitary groups, they still received us with some hellos or waving hands. They knew we were working with the kids and respected us for that.

We were close to our final destination. With our cold noses and hands, seeing some small kids and children wearing nothing but a short pant and a t-shirt was unintelligible and touching. But suddenly, in the middle of our thought and reflections,  we see what looked like a stampede of kids turning around the corner and running likes gazelles our way.  Hugs and kisses are short words for what we received. The strong love of these kids that almost took us to the ground was overwhelming and heartbreaking. The cold was gone and we were left with nothing but smiles during the rest of the afternoon.

United Nation`s Economic Comission for Latin America (CEPAL by its spanish acronym) revealed in its last report that poverty among children and young Colombians is 45% in the line of poverty and 17% below the line of poverty. This adds up to a 62% of Colombian children that have no access to a fulfilling life and debate between malnutrition, poor health and illiteracy.

Dream Wardrobe or Armario de Sueños, is a project inspired by these kids who make part of these statistics. Through the donation, categorization and selling of clothes in excellent conditions and affordable prices in the communities where it operates, Armario de Sueños aims to be a social and sustainable business model that generates employment and invests part of its profit in projects for education, culture and sports, which provide development opportunities for children and youth in vulnerable situations in Colombia.

- Olga, Global Changemaker from Colombia