Basic information
Experience
Do
Impact
Start collaboration:
2019
End collaboration:
12
Directly impacted families:
12
Project description
Known during the 1980s and 1990s as the most dangerous city in the world due to its central position in an urban warfare between rival drug cartels, Colombia's Medellín has changed beyond recognition since then. Once one of its most notorious neighborhoods, Comuna 13 has since been pacified, thanks in part to Casa Kolacho and its community outreach work, partnering with young people to provide graffiti and hip-hop tours to international travelers. While many graffiti tours have sprung up in Comuna 13, Casa Kolacho, located in the San Javier district, is a community-based project that provides young people with an alternative to drugs and crime through tourism and training, while also giving them an opportunity to be proud of their music and art. With drug prevention workshops, a hip-hop school, musical space, cultural festivals and sightseeing tours, Casa Kolacho tells the story of violence and reconciliation in Medellín while at the same time promoting street art and hip-hop culture. Accompanied on walks through Comuna 13 by young people from the area now working to create change within the community, travelers have the opportunity to discover the role graffiti and hip-hop have played as alternatives to violence and crime in Medellín over the last decades and to hear personal stories of reconciliation and survival.
Involvement of V Social
Since partnering with Casa Kolacho in September 2019, VSocial has funded training and workshops at the school and provided travelers to take part in tours through Comuna 13, allowing Casa Kolacho to build a long-term tourism strategy and for more young people to find employment. Since 2019, more than €1500 has been donated to the project.
Start collaboration:
2019
End collaboration:
12
Directly impacted families:
12
Your impact
Medellin
Country: Colombia
Casa Kolacho directly supports 21 young people and their families, who work with more than 200 young people and their families, who in turn benefit indirectly from the project. Through training, employment and drug prevention work, the impact Casa Kolacho has is far-reaching, keeping the young people involved, both directly and indirectly, alive and out of jail. It's estimated that the project indirectly impacts around 3000 people in and around Comuna 13.
Their story
