Location – Buritaca, Colombia
The Project – The LATA Foundation was delighted to start working with a new project in Colombia in 2021, El Rio Foundation, which operates in a jungle area of Buritaca, near Santa Marta and the Tayrona National Park.
It was born from a desire of the El Rio Hostel to give back to the local community by offering educational support and community sports opportunities, as well as reforestation and waste management projects. LATA Foundation funds concentrated on providing an English language and tutoring programme across some of the communities in this area.
Our Support – From February 2021, the LATA Foundation helped to support the continuation of English language classes, covering a programme of teaching and materials to help 12 children and 10 adults. Hostel staff could also benefit from the volunteer community English teacher, as the hostel matched our funds to allow staff education in a parallel initiative.
In 2022 and 2023, we supported the development of more educational facilities and teaching, including a new initiative in one of the local Indigenous communities. For this new programme, El Rio sent a teacher once a week to reach 300 children in the more remote areas, who have no access to an English teacher.
For 2024, the LATA Foundation is delighted to continue supporting this project, funding academic tutoring for 15+ children in Buritaca with coaching offered in English, Spanish, and Maths, alongside support with their homework.
We are delighted that a volunteer from our Projects team in the UK was able to visit this project during March 2023, to see El Rio’s wonderful work in action.
Instagram: El Rio Foundation (@elriofoundation)