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Donate Today!

Help us build an audio/visual training school in Colombia!

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Through the extensive research of Mr. Steve Salisbury, our Director for Latin American Projects, Developing Opportunity made cash donations to The Paper Children Association, Actuar and to Medellin's Metropolitan Institute of Technology. Please read below for more details on each of these fantastic organizations as well as our ideas for a future audio/visual vocational school.

The Paper Children Association
La Asociación Niños de Papel is a non-profit organization which has worked in the Colombian cities of Cartagena, Bucaramanga and Monteria for the past 15 years. Its mission is to provide a model of integral attention to children who live in perilous situations like prostitution, drug addiction, abuse, war, criminal gangs and other circumstances that violate their rights. The Cartagena branch of The Paper Children Association, to which Developing Opportunity donated, is helping to improve the lives of approximately 100 children. It has education programs to train children in making handicrafts, food preparation, tailor and seamstress skills, and other such programs. Our donation assisted the organization with purchasing chocolate making supplies.

ACTUAR
ACTUAR, Corporacion Accion por Bolivar Famiempresas (Corporation Action for Bolivar [province], Famiempresas) was formally founded in 1992 after having started projects in 1989. Actuar is a non-profit, private organization that provides loans for micro-business entrepreneurs to improve their way of living and the development of their community. The ACTUAR branch handling efforts in Colombia's Caribbean coastal Bolivar province is based in Cartagena. The main purpose is to create jobs for families of the community, turning them from unemployed to economically active people in society. Specifically, ACTUAR "supports the generation of employment and micro-businesses to help the persons in condition of [internal] refugees to build a dignified life." From 1992 to 2006 ACTUAR programs trained over 79,000 people and benefited more than 120,000. Developing Opportunity's donating will contribute to continuing ACTUAR's impressive work. Our donations assisted the organization with purchasing musical instruments for the children in the program.

Medellin's Metropolitan Institute of Technology
The Instituto Tecnologico Metropolitano de Medellin (ITM) was founded in 1944 as an educational institution with special emphasis on helping to educate students from economically deprived conditions through technological education. Today, approximately 14,000 students attend the Institute's thirteen technological careers, seven engineering programs and one specialization, all of which are needed by Colombia’s productive sector. This in turn makes ITM an essential part of Medellin’s educational program. ITM also has basic and medium adult education for adults who have missed educational opportunities when they were younger, including female heads of households and single mothers. It is to these programs which Developing Opportunity donated.

Audio/Visual Vocational School
There is a tremendous need for audio/visual schooling in Medellin, Cartagena and other Colombian cities as the Spanish TV market grows everyday. Steve has done extensive research on this issue and has developed relationships in the public and private sectors, which support and want to expand on helping such schools. In some cases, audio/visual students, upon graduation, are assured of job placement at a number of Colombia's television stations. This type of vocational training would prepare students to perform technical and other relevant aspects of this exciting industry, including the making of videos, documentaries, television and radio programs, and commercials, among other multimedia projects. Steve has already received an understanding that if Developing Opportunity donates the equipment and supplies, a Colombian government entity will take steps to pay for teacher salaries, and Medellin's Metropolitan Technological Institute has already promised to provide space. All we need is your donation to make this fantastic opportunity a reality!

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