Jesus was one of the coordinators from the charity I worked with when I volunteered in Colombia in 2017 for a charity called Emerging Voices. We worked on a number of different projects together from caring for children in cancer care homes, helping ex drug addict teenagers from high risk backgrounds as well as teaching English in various communities. Around the time I was leaving Colombia he had just started university which is a massive achievement considering the area of Cartagena he is from where there aren't many opportunities. He was working/volunteering 5 days a week and then going to university on top of this.To say the coordinators are paid a miniscule amount is an understatement so for him to do this and study at the same time shows how committed he is to his education, supporting his family and contributing positively to the community, especially the projects we worked on which were in extremely underprivileged areas and often with children/teenagers who were from tough upbringings. Unfortunately the university fees have increased massively in the last year so Jesus is really struggling to pay for his studies and potentially might have to drop out.

He is a very talented young man and full of positive energy which is why he deserves a helping hand with his studies so he can continue to be a great influence in his community. Whilst many people in Cartagena are just as deserving because of the poverty and lack of opportunities in some of the neighbourhoods I genuinely believe that Jesus can go far in this world because of his intelligence, personality, good heart and thirst for knowledge. With these assets he can help make others lives better. He is studying business management and whilst it isn't something we ever discussed I would like to think with his experience he can start his own project in one or many communities in Cartagena having himself come from one of the neighbourhoods called Nelson Mandela which the charity helped out in.

Jesus has also recently become a father and unfortunately cannot get any work to fit around his studies as the charity work changed meaning during the last semester he couldn't combine the two. This is even more reason to help him out! He makes bracelets and sells them to tourists but this is currently his only income unless his rap career takes off! He genuinely is a talented rapper as well.

This is a crowdfunding effort and all the donated money will be paid directly to his university (Colombo International University Foundation UNICOLOMBO) for the yearly fees. It might be that I do a second round of fundraising depending on how this goes and how things are for him with his studies/work the following year. If we go over the target ive set then thank you so much for contributing and we can make sure that the additional money goes towards next year's fees. The amount of £550 is roughly equivalent to the 2.2 million peso cost of his course.

Whilst I want to raise as much money as possible for Jesus' cause and would love for you to share this with friends or family I need to ask that you do it privately as many of my other friends and Jesus' friends in Colombia may not understand why I am helping him and not helping everyone.

I will also be planning some fundraising initiatives and will keep you updated with how these go.

Thank you!

Sean