Hola. This is Barbara, your curator of cultural news from Spanish-speaking cultures. Last time, I introduced you to the Venezuelan cooperative network Cecosesola. Today, I’d like to do the same with a relatively small German NGO which works in Colombia. Its aim is to empower girls and women through education. Its name is Casa Hogar (home). I came across the organisation because I listened to an interview with its founder, the German neurologist Theodor Rüber on DLF. I was impressed and so let me share with you what the organisation does.
The NGO operates in the remote Colombian region of Chocó to help girls and women grow up free from exploitation and abuse. As I wrote before, Chocó is rich in natural resources, but so far from the capital Bogotá that it may even be considered a lawless area where bandits and criminals reign. Chocó also has particular demographics, with more than 80 % of the inhabitants being of African origin and more than 12 % of Indigenous origin. It is Colombia’s poorest region. This situation is a big threat to everybody, especially girls and women. As the organisation says, «the role of women will have to be of central importance in breaking up patriarchal social structures.» They run several projects to offer girls and young women a safe home while they work towards their school or university degrees. To give an example: They have founded a student residence for female university students in Quibdó called CASA HOGAR La Paz which provides a dormitory for students from rural areas who want to attend university but do not have the means to do so. As their website states, 14 young women from the most remote regions of Chocó have been living there since the beginning of October 2020. They not only have a safe place at the dormitory but also receive psychosocial support. It is also very important that the residents develop a social project so that they can enable their local communities back home to enhance their economic and social perspectives. Since October 2021, the residence has received a second group of 16 young women from the rural areas of the department who wish to pursue vocational training.
As already mentioned, the NGO was founded by a young physician from Germany who travelled to Colombia to work as an intern at a hospital in Cali. He was deeply touched by what he saw in his surroundings. After his return to Germany, he set out the plan for his first project: a residential house in Istmina for girls who live too far away and are too poor to attend secondary school without support. All residents of this house receive a scholarship to the “Colegio Diocesan San Jose”. As Rüber explains in the interview mentioned above, the NGO closely cooperates with the local Catholic Church for pragmatic reasons. Even though it is the church that through its structures supports misogyny on so many levels, the institution has the power and skills to make things work in the region. Rüber has also won several important institutions to support his idea. Great job!
This video was uploaded to YouTube last week to honour International Women’s Day. It gives hope that one day exploitation and abuse of girls and women in Chocó will end.
If you wish to help accelerate the development of these courageous girls, you can donate or engage. I will certainly do that: https://www.casa-hogar.de/en/donate/
How could I end this post other than with «música chocoana». Enjoy!
I will be back in a few weeks’ time with more news. Let me know what you think about the NGO Casa Sogar or other aid projects in Colombia that you would like to see highlighted on my Tertulia.