Luis-felipe

Say the word Colombia to most people and they think of a continuous battle between a corrupt government, drug barons and guerrilla activists. The whole situation summed up when scoring an own goal during the 1994 World Cup proved fatal for Colombian footballer Andres Escobar. A member of a drugs cartel shot him dead in a car park for his mistake. If you think this sounds a bit over the top, check out the history of Colombia as a timeline and you'll see that this is not exactly what you'd call an isolated incident.
Of course, the reality here is that there is a population who would really just like to get on with their lives. The BBC gives us some simple facts and figures about the country as well as links through to local newspapers for any Spanish readers out there. However, the telling stuff can be found at UNICEF where, for example, you'll see that 3% of children do not survive beyond 5 years old.
Luis-felipe was born in 1997 and attends nursery school where drawing is his favourite subject. It's a 45 minute walk for him to get to school but, at least, he is getting an education and has a number of friends at school. Sometimes, in the rainy season, the roads are so heavy with mud that Luis-felipe is forced to stay at home. When at home, he enjoys playing with dolls which is rather ironic given the macho world of Colombia. Like many other boys, he would like to be a driver when he grows up but he is part of a programme to help identify children suffering from lack of nutrition. As a family, the evenings are passed by watching TV. This may sound rather grand. However, this is a communal event with local families paying to view the TV as if they were at the cinema.

Luis-felipe's family lives in a small house made of cane with a corrugated metal roof. Despite its rather basic nature, they do not own the house but are squatters. They have electricity but it is 'unofficially' supplied. Their water from just less than 1 km away is insufficient and 'unofficially' supplied, too. This tells you that Plan International is able to help the local community in a number of ways to improve sanitation, water supply, etc. Given the need here, we are more than happy to help.

Plan International has developed a large, global network of support for children. From this, they were able to introduce us to Luis-felipe. The organisation was started in 1937 by a couple of journalists shocked by the orphaned children in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Today, the organisation operates at a number of levels in 45 developing countries. They get involved by working with governments, development partners and communities to help to improve specific facilities in deprived areas. They key point is that everyone can buy into the local projects to safeguard the future of the community and, in particular, the children. When a local family is involved in these projects, people like us get the opportunity to sponsor their children for the duration of the community project. These projects are based around five key elements that support the development of the children and, hence, the future of the community. These are health, education, livelihood, habitat and building relationships. Nobody can argue with that and Plan International does a wonderful job across many parts of the world. Pretty obviously, Mr Kite thinks that it would be great if you got involved, too. Read about sponsoring a child here.