Our Impact
WHAT KINDS OF NEEDS HAVE WE SERVED?
(Updated January 2023)
In 2022 we served more than 80 young people with all sorts of needs through our Resource Center and our Learning Lab.
Check out some stories below!
COMING JUNE 2023...
In June we will star a cohort of about 20 people from five cities in three countries, who will receive training to be agents of social and spiritual transformation using innovative, agile learning tools. This project, called ComuniLab, will have many of us traveling in large groups in a multi-city effort to build stronger communities of faith with a solid commitment to peace and justice.
COMING DECEMBER 2021…
We’ll get back on the road now that Covid numbers are descending. We’ll serve in the Guajira desert amongst the Wayúu indigenous population, and our young people are in charge of planning every inch of this trip: budget, transportation, food, activities. etc.
We believe in service-learning as a powerfool tool to achieve skills and experience, while true transformation happens in many lives. Tune in for more details!
Within a month, we had had three young women find jobs. All three had been through our program and at the end were spending a big part of their time working on their resumé, sending it out on different platforms and walking the streets together or on their own, looking, asking, going to interviews. It was hard work, with a lot of help from the Comunidad Viva team, but it paid off in the end with each finding employment in different places. On their one day off, they come by to say hello, they stay for house church and catch up with their friends.
One of them didn’t last long and soon fell prey to a prostitution ring trying to recruit her. All safeguards were activated, a new job was found and we keep alert.
Pablo may or may have not been a child soldier. His story is shady, full of holes and secrecy, but it is for sure that he comes from a region of Colombia with a lot of internal conflict = war. When he started coming to the program, he was jittery; a helicopter flying over would make him tense and suspicious. He had nervous twitches and a knee that wouldn’t stop jumping. In group settings he wouldn’t make eye contact and would sit in a corner, not participating. But now, we see a different Pablo. He has a smile on his face, and likes to give everyone hugs. He likes to teach classes on making jewelry and is working on selling some of his artwork. He flees when we are about to start our house church gathering… but ten minutes later comes back with some silly excuse and gradually sits closer to where the action is.
Pablo may or may have not been a child soldier. His story is shady, full of holes and secrecy, but it is for sure that he comes from a region of Colombia with a lot of internal conflict = war. When he started coming to the program, he was jittery; a helicopter flying over would make him tense and suspicious. He had nervous twitches and a knee that wouldn’t stop jumping. In group settings he wouldn’t make eye contact and would sit in a corner, not participating. But now, we see a different Pablo. He has a smile on his face, and likes to give everyone hugs. He likes to teach classes on making jewelry and is working on selling some of his artwork. He flees when we are about to start our house church gathering… but ten minutes later comes back with some silly excuse and gradually sits closer to where the action is.
Checho was about to get kicked out of state-care and lose the opportunity to study a University career. We committed to give him a stipend for six months so that he could show savings based on his work and effort. At the end of the six month period, the home where he lives and his case worker saw such a dramatic change in his attitude, in the way he dressed, in his motivation, that he not only is no longer getting kicked out, but started studying in August at a local university, sponsored by the government!. With one condition: that he continue attending Comunidad Viva.
