Mi Casa Club: Kids PlayRoom in Cartagena, Colombia

Help us by donating now to realize our goals of improving this neighborhood for generations now and to come.

My name is Devin Pearsall and I volunteered with FEM (Foundation for Multidimensional Education, located in Cartagena, Colombia (http://femcolombia.weebly.com) for 5 months.. In November, we discovered the infrastructure in the picture. It is an abandoned children's center that operated for about 20 years, but abruptly closed 3 years ago. The owners of the building donated it to our foundation, and we set out to see how we could reopen it immediately, as it stands in one of the most heated and critical gang breeding parts of town. As I was leaving just a week after securing the location, two volunteers from Spain arrived, ready to take on the challenge for 2015 - Mel & Irati!

Next, we cleaned out everything, threw out the trash and produced a Toy wish list  for which we have a campaing going around within Cartagena. From our previous involvement with architecture department at the University, we found some help in redesigning the interior, and began to paint the exterior. We drew a lot of attention, and it further proved what we had assumed: this place is NEEDED.  We met with the kids around the neighborhood and made up a name for it, they chose "Mi Casa Club" (my club home)…It is looking far better...And now we need your help. Truly, just a space and dedicated volunteers would entice kids to spend time here, but we need more to make this a sustainable project, one that they can grow in and continue to be a part of.  It would be ideal to make the interior design that our friends helped create a reality. These kids are so excited to come be a part of our dream, and we NEED your support!  Please help us by donating.We hope to receive up to 300 kids between 6 and 12 years old, per month in different cultural activities such as cinema, reading, poetry, acting, games and community service.