AMBASSADORS FOR CHILDREN
give hope to at-risk preschoolers
CARTAGENA DE INDIAS, COLOMBIA
The key to ending poverty is to create a global network of connections that reach from impoverished communities to the very centers of world power and wealth and back again.
—Jeffrey Sachs, author of The End of Poverty and director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University
17 Tourists flock to Cartagena, Colombia, for its quaint plazas, cobblestone streets, colonial churches, and art museums. But just beyond the thick-walled colonial city that UNESCO designated a World Heritage site in 1984 are tens of thousands of children who live in poverty.
Ambassadors for Children (AFC), an Indianapolis nonprofit that sends volunteers to serve children around the world, recently added Cartagena, Colombia, to its arsenal of good works. AFC founder Sally Brown noticed that, like many overseas tourist destinations, this Caribbean treasure was divided into two worlds—a bustling city of four-star hotels for the wealthy on one side and makeshift, flimsily constructed homes for many of the local families on the other. Brown and her team quickly stepped in to help, sending volunteers to work in two preschools and at a children’s hospital.
More than 20,000 people live in La Cienega de la Virgen, a Cartagena barrio with no running water, let alone an infrastructure that can provide a good education. Mabel Penas, a social worker who started a school in this area with money from her own pocket, relies on the good hearts of volunteers to help her feed and educate a hundred children who attend Sueños de Libertad (Dreams of Freedom). For some of the students, the two meals they are fed at school each day represent the bulk of their diet.
As a volunteer with AFC, you’ll distribute shoes and school supplies at Sueños de Libertad, teach English, plant trees, and update the library by building new shelves or painting the walls. At Villa Gloria, the other preschool where AFC sends volunteers, you’ll teach English, help build a playground, and help stabilize this beachside school that suffers continuous problems with standing water during the rainy season. You might work on building or fixing fences or even constructing an addition to the school.
At Casa del Niño, the children’s hospital, you’ll interact with the young patients, dress up in costume to entertain them, and possibly paint murals or landscape the garden. Representatives from the Fundación Cartagena Global will introduce you to children suffering from cystic fibrosis, and their medical team. In the United States, people with cystic fibrosis live on average to be more than 35 years old, but in Cartagena, the life expectancy for a cystic fibrosis patient is 14 to 16 years. Then, you will take some patients on an outing to the botanical garden.
AFC plans a full itinerary on this weeklong volunteer trip, equally balanced between working with children and partaking of Cartagena’s rich bounty.
MUD IN YOUR EYE
They call it the Volcano of Youth. Colombians who make the trip to soak in Volcán del Totumo, a volcano that spews warm mud, not hot lava, fill bottles with the ooze to take home. They swear by its medicinal properties.
Located between Cartagena and Barranquilla, this spewing cone of mineral mud is formed by decaying plant material and stands about six stories high. While there, most people opt for simply floating around in the thick muck that looks an awful lot like melted chocolate, and perhaps having a massage. Locals provide bodywork and will also take pictures for you, among other services. Then you descend to rinse off the mud in the lake below (with the enthusiastic help of local women known as bañadoras, or bathers).
There’s a small fee to float in the soothing mud of Volcán del Totumo. An exfoliation scrub, massage, or other bodywork while you’re bobbing along is well worth an additional small fee, paid as a tip, or la propina. In fact, all the helpers at the volcano work for tips, but a tour from Cartagena—including ample tipping and sometimes lunch—costs about $30 to $40. A tiny price to pay for muddy bliss!
Founded in 1533 by Spanish conquistadores as a port to ship gold, Cartagena is a historical treasure on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. Sir Francis Drake looted the city in 1586, stripping it of ten million pesos, a giant emerald, and the bells from the cathedral. Shortly thereafter, construction began on a fort, massive walls, and ramparts 50 feet thick. Today, those 10 miles of walls—plus flower-filled balconies, courtyards, and the type of aristocratic residence that author Gabriel Garcia Márquez, a part-time Cartagena resident, writes about—make this a popular stop for cruise ships. And because the city is situated right along the Equator, the temperature is a perfect 85 to 95 degrees year-round.
You’ll visit the San Felipe Fortress, the historic Central District, the Gold Museum, and the major cathedrals. You can also soak in a volcanic mud bath and take dancing and cooking lessons. A one-hour boat ride will take you to the Rosary and San Bernardo islands, a group of about 30 islands that Colombia’s government declared a marine national park in 1977. The Parque Nacional Corales del Rosario y de San Bernardo includes an environmental trail and an ocenario, or open-water aquarium, with dolphins, sharks, turtles, and a host of other reef creatures.
This AFC volunteer trip runs $1,200 for double accommodation at Hotel Costa del Sol, a four-star hotel on Cartagena Bay, and 14 meals.
HOW TO GET IN TOUCH
Ambassadors for Children, 40 Virginia Avenue, Indianapolis, IN 46204, 866-388-3468 or 317-536-0250, www.ambassadorsforchildren.org.