Giving Back to Medellin - Ep 39 with Joe Volgey

The Colombia Podcast - A podcast by Colombia Podcast

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Most visitors and ex-pats in Medellin will stay/live in the El Poblado, Envigado, Laureles, and Sabaneta neighborhoods. However, there are many other 'barrios' in the hills that most of us will never visit. It's there that the minimum wage, unskilled, day workers live. Most of the people you see working as maids, garbage men, recyclers, flyer distributors, window cleaners - that's where they live. They go to the more affluent neighborhoods in the city to work and then return to their barrios at the end of the day. As a result of the Covid-19 lockdown in Medellin, many of these people have been without work for nearly 3 months. Pre-COVID, they 'survived' paycheck to paycheck or day-to-day. Joe Volgey has been visiting Medellin for about 4 years now. To us, his name is synonymous with giving and charity. He's always doing something to help orphans, the homeless, and other marginalized groups. Over the past month, we've been heavily involved with a few groups whose aim is to feed the most vulnerable (poor) people in the city. It's through these initiatives that we've reconnected with Joe on a deeper level. In this special episode, we talk about:- The different initiatives that we're involved in - Our first-hand experiences in barrios - How others can help - A whole lot more....