It’s no secret that education opens our perspectives and creates new opportunities that previously did not exist. Through this vision, the Talent Foundation of Altos de Menga created the project “Come Read,” to strengthen the reading, writing, oral, and life skills of fifty children in the Altos de Menga neighborhood in Cali, Colombia thanks to international cooperation of the LEO Fund.

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According to the 2022 PISA tests (The Program for International Student Assessment), 51% of Colombian students do not reach a basic level of reading. This results in challenges for these children and adolescents to continue learning in higher levels of school, appropriately integrate into society to become active citizens, and to develop critical thinking skills, all of which put their future growth and learning at risk.  

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At the end of 2019 through the beginning of 2021, The LEO Fund worked cooperatively with the Talent Foundation Altos de Menga in a project to strengthen life skills and educational strategies for 43 children and adolescents living in a community under supported by city services. As a result of this project, the participants improved their attendance in school, and increased their competencies in math, reading and writing. Additionally, a focus was placed on life skills, such as the prevention of teenage pregnancy, the consumption of illicit substances, improvement in family relationships, and their knowledge of gender equity. In total, thirty families in the area were positively impacted by this work, but there is still more to achieve in this vulnerable sector of Cali during 2024-2025. 

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According to the report, “The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2020 Update,” 70% of children living in low to middle-income countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as Colombia, demonstrate difficulty understanding simple text, leading to an educational crisis.[1] This is referred to as learning poverty, which has increased by a third following the COVID-19 pandemic.

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According to Lonis Murillo, the legal representative of the Talent Foundation Altos de Menga, complex problems exist in the education of children and adolescents as demonstrated through the diagnostic measures used in her foundation. Murillo agrees that “of the 51 minors she works with, 55% are behind scholastically. One of the main deficiencies is a significant lack of reading and writing skills.

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Reading skills are fundamental in childhood development to understand the world in which one lives. Together with writing skills, these abilities increase opportunity, such as access to and permanence in higher education. These basic skills can have an impact on the country’s economic development by engendering more equitable access to economic resources, escaping the cycle of poverty, closing gender gaps, better understanding of the use of technology and science, and improving overall health conditions.

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The “Come Read” strategy being developed by the Talent Foundation Altos de Menga began in June of 2024 with assessments in reading, writing, and oral skills of the participants.  This strategy includes training workshops focused on these 3 areas for 33 children, along with the involvement of their parents. For the 17 teenagers participating in this project, additional workshops will provide psychological support and life skills. The initiative will last 10 months, the same as the school year cycle.

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This strategy will include the promotion of reading in conjunction with the La Campiña (the Countryside) public library, urban music workshops to strengthen writing and psychosocial support for the prevention of intra-familial violence, which can impede the educational advancement of a population.

 

[1] This report was published by the World Bank, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the United Kingdom's Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.