Lumos has announced that it is now officially registered in Colombia and has launched a programme to support vulnerable children regain their right to a family life. Lumos is delighted to be backed by strong political will in Colombia to support family-based care and to guarantee the protection of children’s rights.

Lumos has been working closely with the Colombian government to develop key partnerships to guarantee the protection of children and ensure that they can be raised in a nurturing family. As such, Lumos is delighted to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Colombian Ministry of Education and the Bogotá District Secretariat of Social Integration.

Lumos will work with both government entities to support family-based care, child protection and inclusive education in Colombia. The organisation is also in the process of finalising new partnerships with other key government departments to forge commitments towards children’s rights and to ensure Colombian children can access the services they need to thrive.

Lumos has also signed partnership agreements with pioneer institutions undergoing the process of transitioning to family-based care. Lumos signed Memorandums of Understanding with the institutions Club Michin and Fundamor, which operate in Bogotá and Cali, respectively. Both of them are currently working to reunite children with their families and place children in foster care and will receive Lumos’s technical advice in the process.

Lumos' Director of International Expansion, Sharon Petrie, says:

“For us, working in Colombia offers another perspective into the situation of institutionalisation in the Latin America and Caribbean region, a perspective very different from Haiti, where Lumos established its first country programme in the region to reunite families separated by natural disaster and poverty. Colombia, an upper-middle income country which has successfully emerged from a conflict setting, is now on a path towards stability and peace. However, as a result Colombia faces new challenges and the needs of vulnerable children should be assessed according to this context."

This is just the beginning for Lumos' work in Colombia; Lumos will prioritise working in partnership with the government to ensure Colombia becomes a leading champion for the protection of the most vulnerable children.