Sponsor a Child in Colombia

A country shattered by decades of conflict

The Republic of Colombia is a country in the north-west of South America.

Colombia is the only South American country that has both Caribbean and Pacific coasts. It has the Andes running down its western side, the "Llanos" to the east and the Amazon jungle to the south.

With roughly 47 million people, the country has the third largest Spanish-speaking population worldwide after Mexico and Spain. 

Over the last fifty years, Colombia has been marked by an intractable and complex internal conflict that has consumed many lives and led to the displacement of millions of Colombians. The recurring patterns of violence include murder, torture, kidnappings of civilians and forced displacement. Unequal land distribution has been one of the root causes of conflict and displacement in Colombia. The country continues to be immersed in an internal conflict that affects all sectors of society.

In recent years, Colombia has launched a wide-ranging tourism campaign in order to improve the country's tainted reputation in the world and attract more foreign visitors.

Colombian children at risk due to violence and poverty

Colombia's 18 million children make up for roughly 40 per cent of the country's total population. The armed conflict doesn't exclude Colombia's most vulnerable sections of society: young children and adolescents. At present, around 11,000 child soldiers are actively involved in Colombia's internal conflict. After being recruited, they frequently become victims of assassinations, land mines, mutilation, sexual abuse and kidnapping.

In Colombia, around 820,000 children under the age of seventeen are orphaned. Many of them grow up without a family. They are thus vulnerable to recruitment by street-gangs in which drug abuse and high levels of violence rapidly become part of their everyday lives.

At present, an estimated 30,000 Colombian children live on the street. They wash windshields at traffic lights, sell merchandise or collect reusable items on waste dumps.

Roughly 10 per cent of all children aged 5-14 - particularly young boys - are engaged in different types of labour activities. Many of these young children are forced to work to earn money for an entire family. The majority of them do not go to school.