David Guzmán, born in Cali, a lawyer from Santiago specializing in development projects at the Higher School of Public Administration; leads strong social processes in favor of the development of the Strengthening of the folk dance group estampas de mi tierra, dedicated to the care and well-being of the elderly who reside in commune 10 within the Cristóbal Colon neighborhood.
His story is inspiring, since he is ‘vice president of the community action board’ he came to reach out to several grandparents in the midst of a pandemic.
Currently, his dance group benefits more than 50 elderly people who receive technical advice, psychosocial support and physical therapies.
The team is made up of volunteers who support their social actions, professionals who are in charge of programming the activities and providing everything necessary for these people to enjoy their cultural gathering.
My process began with the youth, I was a youth representative in the Comuna 10 Planning Committee, I represented my city Santiago de Cali before the National Youth Platform and the National Youth Council as a youth leader, always defending and contributing to community action, now serving as Vice President of the Community Action Committee of the Cristóbal Colón Community, contributing to the processes and leadership of my community, community equity services for the community, activities for youth, health corps and now strengthening processes for the elderly through the Social Management Foundation.
Older adults have benefited from participating in this sociocultural process – Photo: Courtesy
For five years, the Social Management Foundation has fulfilled a very important social function in the area, especially in commune No. 10, strengthening the business force, now accompanied by the development process of the elderly. In this case, Christopher Columbus found that it was important for the community to develop cultural, sports, entrepreneurship, health fairs, etc…, with the group of older adults, and that it was important to value older adults because we learned a lot of wisdom from them.
Activities are carried out to strengthen their abilities and skills, provide them with quality time, crafts, carry out a learning process about medicines and more.
According to David, all this began as a dream, his vocation for social issues has led him to be involved in community affairs, citizen participation in which he became involved with youth processes within the national youth platform and finally he dedicated himself fully to meeting the needs of the elderly.
Written by Cristian Botina