A few weeks ago, our Product Manager, Adriana Gomez, visited La Boquilla community, located 15 minutes from the city of Cartagena, to live the experience of the drums workshop which we will describe later.

Flanked by our local ally, who has worked in this community for more than 10 years, Adriana was able to enjoy a small party full of color, music and musical instruments. The worshop was coordinated by Batambora artists , a project led by young entrepreneurs of the afrodescendent community of La Boquilla, committed to human and economic development aimed at rescuing and preserving the cultural traditions of the African heritage.

Besides enjoying this experience, she witnessed the challenging situation the inhabitants of La Boquilla are living. Their main source of income is fishing and tourism but due to COVID-19, they have faced an important crisis and a shortage of medical, school supplies and basic food products.

Colombian Journeys has decided to become a communication link to make this situation known and to obtain donations for the people of this community, helping the ones that most need it and have been affected by the pandemic. Through VAKI platform we want to collect funds for this community that has always received us with a smile and now need our help to continue growing. The collected money will be used to buy food every week, to give support to sustainable projects of micro businessmen, more internet access for children and young people so they can receive education, to buy school supplies, cover transportation expenses and pay teachers who have been working without charging money. We also want to support the projects of Lactating Pregnant Mothers and the Association of the Elderly.

We invite you to listen to the song “Ponte en mi lugar” (Put yourself in my place) which is a way for this community to defend their rights and equality: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zClfzZztsU4