Context
In Colombia, almost a third of the population lives on less than $2 a day, and 6.9 million people have been displaced by violence (UNHCR, 2016).
In 2015, the National Administrative Department of Statistics reported that 28% of the population in Colombia was living below the poverty line, of which about 8% in “extreme poverty”.
FXB in action
Opened in 1989, FXB Homes are based on the concept of Tender Loving Care: the belief that children who are orphaned, HIV-positive or suffering from AIDS will have a better and longer life if they are cared for in a family setting, surrounded by tenderness and benefiting from appropriate care.
FXB Homes offered more than just medical care. From babies to the teenagers who lived there, most were orphaned or abandoned and could not count on the support and love of their parents. The team that surrounded them had all the medical and human skills necessary for their well-being. FXB House was their family, the setting for their lives as children.
FXB has implemented this Tender Loving Care concept in Colombia, Brazil, Thailand and the United States.
The FXB House in Barranquilla was, at the time, a significant statement in the fight against stigma and discrimination against people infected with HIV. It also represented an alternative for access to palliative care for young patients.
With the advent of antiretroviral on the market and the consequent possibility of prolonging the life of parents, FXB House has been transformed into a day centre, open to the community. It offered services tailored to the needs of children and their families such as nutritional support, medical care and HIV treatment, psychosocial support, education and after-school support, HIV prevention and testing. Rebuilding the social fabric of orphans who had been reintegrated into their biological families or foster families was an integral part of FXB’s mission.
As an expert in the field of pediatric HIV/AIDS, FXB Colombia has also conducted important programs for the prevention of HIV and mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT), particularly in the departments of Atlántico and Guarija.
In 2011, FXB Colombia launches its first Poverty Eradication Program FXBVillage in an extremely underprivileged neighbourhood in Barranquilla. It will then be replicated in another suburban area of this city as well as in Bogota. Malnutrition, disease, unsanitary housing… the poorest people living there face a variety of complex challenges. It would have been a mistake to address only the issue of income! Partial aid, which only addresses one cause of poverty, is not a sufficient solution to overcome it.
Thus, our Community and Economic Development model FXBVillage has enabled us to provide, in three years, a comprehensive response to the root causes of their poverty by simultaneously acting on its predominant factors. It was also about fighting gender discrimination and balancing gender relations so that women, who are more exposed to poverty, can have access to the same economic and social opportunities.
