Soacha Colombia Community Center Structure Nears Completion!

Our Soacha Community Center Structure nears completion! Host Club Rotarians from the Bogota Laureles Club visited the construction site Saturday May 13th and were pleased with the progress. Next step – windows, doors, roofing to “dry in” the 4,500 square foot structure and allow for secure completion this summer.

Our Soacha Community Center will house Community Peace, Basic Child Education and Nutrition Programs for this transient community near Bogota. We will help 500 in the Peace Program and 250 at a time in the Basic Education Program. Thousands will benefit over the project life. Bogota Rotarians are constructing the structure, financed from Personal and Club Funds, separate from the Rotary Grant. Together this is a $250,000 project – equipping a Community Center from a vacant lot!

soacha-center

Please remember this project – and especially the kids of Soacha, who (a limited number) continue to study in rented facilities nearby, – they are still hopeful – and deserve a future to continue these smiles! Following are photos from the quick May 13th visit, as reported by our Rotarian friend Udo Rungeler:

Dear Rotarians:

This morning a group of Rotarians of our Rotary Club Bogota Laureles went to Soacha to see for themselves the progress in our project. We are just putting the roof on the last floor (third floor) and you will also notice the amount of iron we put in on the roof, since two water tanks go on top and the approximate weight of tanks and water is in the neighborhood of ten tons.

Some of the kids, future beneficiaries of this community center, entertained us with folklore dances and music from their homeland (Chocó close to Panama), during our brief stopover at the rented school.

Well, we have come almost to the end of our funds as you can imagine and the finishing of this Global Grant depends now on when we receive the money from the grant.

Best regards, Udo

Next Steps

We expect a summer 2017 trip to Colombia to observe the completed structure and request the initial grant draw for furnishing the building. If interested in traveling, please contact me!

For Rotarians who wish to help fund our project: Go to your My Rotary Account. Click “Take Action”, then “Give Now”, then scroll to bottom of page under “Give to a Foundation Approved Project” Click “Give Now” Our seven digit Grant Number is 1642035. As of May 14 we need $6,000 to complete the project! Thank you for your interest and support!

For those not in Rotary, we have a Go Fund Me Account

Photo Credit: All photos were shot on site during the May 13th site visit but Bogota Laureles Club – Thank You!