Initiatives
Medellin Children's Foundation partners with and empowers community run projects in Medellin. These projects help combat malnutrition, promote education, offer health care and provide safe spaces for the children living in Medellín’s poorest neighborhoods. Below you will find the projects that we support.
Fundacion Acarpin
Location: Copacabana, Antioquia
Partnership with Help Colombia
Founded in 1935 by Father Bernardo Montoya, Acarpin is an orphanage that is home to 61 children. Located in Copacabana, a town just north of Medellin, children typically enter the orphanage because of difficult situations at home, with the most common drivers being sexual abuse, physical violence and abandonment. Acarpin becomes the children's new home, where they receive world-class care and plenty of affection from a nurturing staff of counselors, teachers, cooks and volunteers. Acarpin provides everything for their children: a school for them to learn at, friends for them to play with, healthy meals for them to grow up on and a safe place for them to rest their heads at night.
Past Initiatives
Comedor Comunitario Infantil Emmanuel
Location: Medellín, Antioquia
Santo Domingo native Sneider Zapata started Comedor Comunitario Infantil Emmanuel, a children's soup kitchen, in 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the poorest neighborhoods in Medellin, Santo Domingo was hit particularly hard by the pandemic as working class jobs were lost and overcrowded schools were shuttered during the lockdowns . Comedor Comunitario Infantil Emmanuel started off feeding a handful of children a couple times a week. Today, it provides one nutritious meal to over 100 children every day. The soup kitchen also serves as a classroom, where foreign and local volunteers teach English, and a safe space where the children from the community can gather and play.