Visiting sponsored children in Bogota
03/07/2008
SOS Children sponsor and travel writer Sarah Woods, has recently had the Bradt Guide to Colombia published. Here she talks about her visit.
My visit to the SOS Childrens Village in Bogota was squeezed into a water-tight schedule just a few hours after touching down at Aeropuerto Internacional El Dorado. At over 2500 metres, Bogotá's altitude makes it the third-highest major city in the world after La Paz and Quito, and I was suffering a little. My driver, noting we were pushed for time, put his pedal to the metal, weaving through the city's gridlocked traffic and tooting horns. His careering driving style only served to worsen the symptoms of my altitude sickness so I held my thumping head steady in my hands a bid to fight off nausea in a dizzying haze.
SOS has had a presence in Colombia since 1968 with Bogota's Childrens Villages opening in 1971. Colombia's complex social and political history has been bloody and violent with paramilitary, rebel and army fighters battling it out for control for over 45 years. One of the biggest impacts on Colombian life is the mass displacement this has caused to entire communities, many of whom have been forced to flee homes to seek safety in the city of Bogota. Colombia's largest group of left-wing guerrillas - FARC - forcibly recruits all children over 13 in rural regions, leaving parents the impossible choice of leaving their village for Bogota's make-shift slums.
Many of these refugee families arrive penniless and starving after many long days of arduous travel - often on foot. It is little wonder that the fabric of family life begins to break down under this pressure as the crime, drugs, drink and domestic violence of the shanty-town culture all begin to take their toll. Over 50,000 of Bogota's displaced people eke out a living from scavenging the rubbish dumps that sprawl along Bogotá's fast-decaying southern nub. Conditions are nothing short of horrendous for these so-called "recicladores" with sanitation and fresh water scarce. A river of rotting garbage soaks the sewage-swamped streets of these ramshackle slum areas. They are as lawless as they are vile, and offer the thousands of migrants that arrive there each month, very little hope of the new life and sanctuary they crave.
Children have flourished into budding artists and musicians
As a consequence, the number of orphans in Bogotá is particularly large. Today SOS Children's Villages has five centres across the country, including those in Bogotá, Ibagué, Rionegro and Bucaramanga. However in a country where over 1-million children between the ages of five and seventeen are working and more than one million have been displaced in the last 15 years, the challenges are tough.
As well as providing long-term care for orphaned and abandoned children in Colombia, SOS Children is involved in caring for street children in Bogotá. In the San Vitorino district many children find that stealing and drug dealing are their only means of survival. SOS provides food, shelter and education these abandoned children, many of whom have never an education or the support of a family unit.
The oldest Bogotá Village is run by the inspirational Fabio Curtido Arguello, an extremely likeable family man in his early fifties who is clearly adored by the children he nurtures. The village contains around a dozen modern single-storey houses that are home to "families" of up to ten children each. Although it is wedged in a small gap between urban housing and high-rise apartment blocks, the village does contain some much needed green space, including a small football pitch. There is also a recreation centre that is mainly used by the children for music lessons and art.
Under the guidance of Fabio Curtido Arguello, the children have flourished into budding artists and musicians and the village has earned a reputation for its promising creative talent. Many of the local sponsors actively fund-raise for art materials for the children, including easels, paints, crayons, canvasses and paper.
I was lucky enough to spend time with some of the most dedicated art-fanatics in the village who proudly displayed their favourite works for a personal viewing before telling me how painting acted as a kind of 'therapy'. I was staggered at how close-knit these family units were - and at how articulately the children were able to describe their emotional needs. Their eyes sparkled as they carefully picked through a box of oil paints before setting about a large canvass with daubs of bright, bold colour. A large mural on the wall at the entrance of the village has been painted by children as young as 4 - and touches on some of the problems they've faced in their young lives. But primarily the works of children focuses on the hope they feel for the future - their hopes, their dreams and the courage they share.
I left with several drawings tucked in my pocket and a very warm feeling in my heart - assuring Fabio Curtido Arguello of a return visit. It's a pledge I intend to honour and hope very much to be able to bring some art supplies with me - that this creative outlet is helping them heal so admirably has opened my eyes to the therapeutic power of art.
Relevant Countries: Colombia.