The El Rio Foundation

we are the charity arm of Rio hostel BURITACA. we provide educational, sporting, environmental AND WELLBEING proGRAMMES to positively impact our local community.

To help children in a post-conflict zone who still have huge gaps in their education due to nearly two years of no school during the Covid pandemic, in 2024, we have ten lead community programmes. Please click HERE to read a more in depth overview for each programme. They are:

1.       Academic Tutoring – We provide 24+ hours of tutoring each week to improve the education of 70+ children from five communities. Please click HERE to read our Impact report from 2023

2.       El Rio Games – We provide fun, free, inclusive and impactful sport activities for 300+ young people. Our aim is to find every child in our local area an activity they love and can play regularly. All activities have a big focus on team-work and FUN!

3.       Art – We provide six hours of Art classes each week to 60+ children from 4 communities.

4.       Dance – We run sixteen hours of Dance clubs each week to strengthen children’s dancing skills, as well as improving self-esteem, confidence and wellbeing. Please click HERE to see our dance groups performing at Carnaval in Santa Marta in February.

5.       Football - With the support of Fifa, we provide eight football sessions a week to 120+ children (60 boys and 60 girls). Through the sessions we empower girls, create a strong sense of belonging and improve the wellbeing of all participants.

6.       Community English – We improve the level of English of 400+ children and 40+ adults in our local area every month by providing 60+ hours of English lessons.

7. Indigenous Community programme – We have a full time English teacher working in the primary and secondary schools in Quebrada del Sol. Every 3 months, we also organise a large community Sports/Arts/Environmental festival for 150+ children.

8. Environmental education - To address the huge gaps in environmental knowledge in our local area, we would like to teach environmental education to inspire positive and pro-active climate action from 500 young people and their families. We are currently in the process of looking for a funding partner. Please read our full project plan HERE.

9. Little Kids’ Activities - We will provide tailored 15 hours of educational and wellbeing support each week to 10+ 3-5 year olds in our local town.

10. Child Safeguarding and Wellbeing - We will ensure safety and wellbeing of all participants on our programmes and ‘do no harm’ with an extremely pro-active implementation of our ‘Children First Child Protection Policy’.

We are now looking for funding partners for all of the above programmes for 2024/25. If you are interested in any project in particular, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. If you would like to volunteer with us, please talk to reception or email foundation@elriohostel.com. We now have volunteering activities every day!

If you would like to donate to, on-site, you can do so via your wristband and by cash or by card at the reception or the bar.

We welcome donations of any size and/or sports/art/educational materials :) 

You can ALSO donate by clicking THE BUTTON BELOW!

For the latest news and updates about the Foundation, please follow us on instagram @elriofoundation 

To read last year’s Annual Review, please click HERE

N.B. To fund our Foundation, which provides FREE, fun, Inclusive and Impactful activities for 600+ local children every week, a $1.30 donation (COP$5,000) will be added to the bill of everyone who stays at El Rio. If you would like to remove it from your bill or you would like to donate more, please talk to reception.