In my function as new president of Fundación Educación, in 2015 I visited all countries where our foundation is active. In December, it was my turn to visit Colombia. My wife, Susana, accompanied me during my first visit to this wonderful country.
This „Primeur“ was certainly beyond my expectations. Overall, I was highly impressed with the country program in Colombia. The local committee very well and efficiently organized our visit; we were always picked up on time, and all our meetings started as scheduled (which, in consideration of the heavy traffic in Medellín, is quite an achievement!).
Equal to other visits, the program comprised meetings with representatives of our local committee (Alirio Jaramillo, Norckzia Navarro and Sandra Valencia), our partner schools (EAFIT, Instituto Pedro Justo Berrío), and our scholars and alumni.
It is a fact that we can learn a lot from this country program (after Perú our second oldest and second largest). Key success factors are the strong composition as well as the high motivation and dedication of the local committee, the very close relationship that all scholars and alumni maintain to this committee, the strong relationship between our local committee and our partner schools, and, finally, the motivating job of “CESE”, the alumni association in Colombia.
Finally, we experienced how Colombia, once one of the world’s most dangerous countries, has developed to one of the most flourishing nations of Latin America. In this respect, the transformation of Medellín, is breathtaking. This development should serve as an outstanding example for many other countries and cities of Latin America!
For any further information, I gladly refer to the very good country visit report of my colleague Ivan Adamovich, our country responsible for Colombia, who also visited his program in 2015.
