Food insecurity in Colombia is a result of internal conflict, impact of migration from Venezuela, climate change, hyperinflation, and the long-term impact of COVID-19. Heavy rains have impacted harvest. Flooding damaging crops in the growing season. Localized violence with internally displaced and transit migration with high food needs and specific vulnerabilities. High inflation has impacted access to basic food, even if food is available, it is too expensive. Local churches have worked with Compassion to address these needs. Families are trained to grow a variety of crops and farm animals, providing food to eat and other to sell. Some children and caregivers began a small business for additional income and more than 4 thousand food packs were provided to families and migrants from Venezuela.

Child protection is a key priority for our country. We aim to build a culture focused to protect every single child at a time, prevent harm or exposure to risk and intervene when needed. Our survival and early childhood strategy allows us to begin as early as possible with pregnant women and babies to grow and develop healthy. Targeted response interventions complete our program with a holistic approach addressing medical needs for indigenous children literally saving lives in very impoverished areas. Our positive development strategy will reach more than 25 thousand teenagers and youth that participate in the program. The main educational need is to keep children at the schools, leveling and supporting special needs. We are mobilizing local resources to address these and other contextual needs.

We see God´s provision in many areas that He is at work, such as families getting together to share food and the local churches mobilizing locally to provide not only to registered children but all families and children to complete at least two or three meals a day in a lot of cases. A migrant like Dammy, a mother of three coming from the border through a trial from Carabobo, Venezuela, only with their clothes looking for shelter and food talking to Pastor Jaime from a church partner. They provided her and the family food, a place, and their children into the program.

1. Compassion's ministry through sponsorship is key for the children to be known, love and above all protected, treated with care, respect, and dignity.
2. It´s allowed the promotion of child protection campaigns for churches, families, and communities to mobilize locally for their basic rights. Children are literally saved from being abused thanks to Compassion´s information and follow up of the case management process.
3. Juan, an 18-year-old young man from Cúcuta, musician, plays the clarinet with the children and youth symphonic orchestra, participant of the program; Came to Bogotá on August 4th of 2022, as part of a selected group of 14 youth nationally with UNICEF, to bring ideas from the regions before the new elected national government to include in the national children action policy.