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Friday, April 11, 2008
Volunteering - Casa de la Chinca
La Casa de la Chinca is a non-profit organisation founded in 1961 with the aim of protecting girls and who have been abandoned by their families or whose life may be in danger. All the girls admitted to “La Chinca” are referred to by Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar, ICBF, the social services office in Colombia.
The patron saint of Colombia is Nuestra Señora de Chiquinquira (Our Lady of Chiquinquira). The name Chinca is the local abbreviation of Chiquinquira and this is how Casa de la Chinca got its name.
Today we ventured into the south western part of the city looking for “La Chinca”. Even though we went there by bus, the journey was without any incidents (for Colombian standards 
) except for the fact that we got a bit lost. We managed to find our way again and found the place before the daily afternoon shower.
At “La Chinca”, we met Lina who showed us around the place and introduced us to some of the girls. We also discussed the schedule and type of activities we will be doing during our time with them. We will start by making post cards with all the girls in the center which, we will take back to Tokyo for postage from there. More later…
Categories: volunteering
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