Since 1999, the Global Education Fund has had the good fortune of working with Raul Velez, an attorney from the Commonwealth International Adoption Agency. After legally assisting in more than six hundred adoptions from Colombia, the first of which was his daughter, Raul moved with his family to the United States to help Commonwealth with all their Colombian adoptions. Raul is truly dedicated to the well-being of orphans in Colombia and is tremendously respected by the orphanage community.
There are eight private orphanages in Colombia. The Global Education Fund is working with five of these orphanages to identify specific book needs for the children. The orphanages with the most significant need for books have been identified through the help of the Commonwealth Adoption Agency. They include two orphanages in Medellin, one in Cali, one in Bogota, and one in Quibdo, Colombia. All five of these orphanages house about 45 children each.