On Wednesday, March 21, 2007 we officially inaugurated the newly constructed Nicole Lyn Anderson Community Center in Barranquilla, Colombia, in the community of Soledad.The center is designed to provide services and benefits to at least 5,000 sponsored children – many of whom represent generations of the poor here in Soledad. The word soledad means “loneliness” – but it is lonely no longer. Happiness and hope arrived in the form of an incredible community center, which will serve children and families in need for decades.
Children International was not alone in its dedication to this project. Agency director Hermelinda Guarín succeeded in obtaining many local donations including building supplies, installation of electrical and water services and more. Of particular note, the Rotary Club donated a 99 year lease on the property.
An important feature of the center is its library. The library has been dedicated to a life long member of the Children International family: Dorothy Koch, who retired just a few months ago after 41 years of service!
Dignitaries, invited guests, children and their families arrived late in the afternoon while the sun was still hot, but the wind provided a breeze to keep everyone cool. The center has a large area in front of the main entrance paved with donated brick and the labor of volunteers. Hundreds of white chairs were placed under a large tent to shade the guests. The festive air was completed by the Navy band who treated the crowd to a very lively musical set complete with horns and percussion.
Also in attendance were several Children International staff from Kansas City including President Jim Cook. Representing Children International’s Kansas City board were Larry Lee and Joan Horan.Make sure to visit us again next week to learn more about the woman the center is named after, Nicole Lyn Anderson, as her family shares their experience from this overwhelming and emotional event.
Brian Anderson, husband of Nicole Lyn Anderson, poses with their three sponsored children.
9 comments:
Very cute the photo of the guy with his three sponsored girls. I wish I could get a photo of myself with my nine current sponsored children, but that's next to impossible.
You're making an incredible difference in the lives of those nine children!
Thank you for sponsoring them :)
Thank you for sharing the inauguration of this great center, I am sure it will make a huge difference in the lives of all the sponsored and non-sponsored kids that live in Barranquilla as well as their families.
One of my three sponsored children lives in Barranquilla, so hopefully she will be able to use this facility. It looks great from the outside, perhaps a brief video could be done at some point, once the building is in regular use so that those of us from afar could see how it is helping the kids in this area.
At Anon...
Thanks for the comment! We'll most likely have a slideshow or video on children.org in the coming weeks. We'll make sure to post a link here on the blog.
hola!! me encanta que hayan abierto uno en barranquilla, yo soy colombiana entonces me alegra mucho saber que en mi pais hay personas como uds que ayudan a la infancia de mi pais. Tengo una niña adoptada en Barranquilla entonces eso tambien me hace muy feliz! deverdad los felicito!
im so happy!! i´m from colombia and things like this makes me realize how many wonderful people there exist in the world!! and that want to help children arounf the world and in my country. I have a sponsor child in Barranquilla so i hope that she would be able to use all tha facilities as well the other children.!
things like this makes me proud!! next time i´ll go to Barranquilla definetly i´ll visit it!!!
:)
Hola María. ¿Adoptada? Perdona pero para mí un niño adoptado viene a ser hijo de uno mismo. ¿Es eso a lo que te refieres? ¿O es al apadrinamiento de niños a lo que te refieres? Acá mucha gente llama “adoptados” a los niños que apadrino y se refieren a ellos como si fueran mis hijos. ¡Ya quisiera yo! Por eso pregunto. :-)
Oh, I'm sorry Maria, I see that you already cleared it up at your English post. It's a sponsored child, not an adopted child. :-) Sorry for the confusion.
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