Health & Nutrition

Healthy Eating

Nutrition

To maintain and increase food coverage and hoping to improve the wellbeing of children, youth, women, elderly people, people with disabilities and their caregivers, we provide healthy and nutritious meals

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34,800 community lunches distributed annually to 145 children and youth.
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26,622 snacks delivered to 690 children and youth over 11 months.
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6,660 lunches for 75 elderly adults, equivalent to 30 daily meals, over 11 months throughout the year.
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500 families received food packages during the year.

We have supported more than 3,500 people in Colombia and other countries.

Salud2

Health Services for the Community

Health & Wellbeing

In collaboration with parents, and thanks to psychosocial work, therapies were implemented to prevent and overcome bullying.

Professionals and students from Colombian universities: Javeriana, El Bosque and Minuto de Dios, among others, provide medical and dental services to the community.

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More than 55 children with learning difficulties
Received care in psychology, speech therapy and psychopedagogy, creating favorable conditions for their retention and better results in the educational system.
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123 families received psychological support.
Parents and educators improve emotional management, self-confidence, and resilience in the community, thus strengthening more assertive and respectful family relationships.

Let's Help Families Get Basic Nutrition

Invest in futures

Alimentacion

Hermana Norma Inés Bernal Velez

Founder

Originally from Antioquia, Colombia, she pursued higher studies at Colegio Santa Clara in Bogotá and attended Universidad Externado de Colombia, where she earned her degree in Social Work. She began her professional career with the Christian Youth Association, leading a program for children living on the streets. She also directed the welfare department at Florameria, a flower company, where she was part of the professional team that established a network of entrepreneurs in southwestern Cundinamarca, covering municipalities such as Madrid, Mosquera, and Funza.

At 40, she joined the Community of the Auxiliary Sisters of Purgatory. As a nun, she worked in Mexico for four years with indigenous communities. Upon returning to Colombia, she worked with displaced people, farmers, and populations affected by armed conflict in Barrancabermeja, where she also directed the Community Training School, serving 23 municipalities within the Diocese of Barranca.

Later, she moved to Bogotá and began working in the Cristo Sacerdote Pastoral Zone, assisting displaced populations as coordinator of Social Pastoral and staff at the School of Peace and Coexistence. She also led the social pastoral at the Archdiocesan Food Bank in coordination with Father Daniel Saldarriaga.

In 2004, alongside a group of lay friends, she founded the Codo a Codo association, where she has served as president and legal representative for over 20 years. Through this role, she has worked in vulnerable communities, primarily in Altos de la Florida, in the municipality of Soacha near Bogotá. The efforts there have provided opportunities to dignify the lives of children, youth, women, and seniors living in extreme poverty with significant personal and community needs. This work has been coordinated with the Codo a Codo International Organization in Chicago.

In 2005, she moved to San Sebastián, Spain, where she worked with prisoners and migrants. In 2007, she returned to Colombia and coordinated the Justice and Peace Commission of the Conference of Religious in Colombia, championing issues of peace and reconciliation.

She then joined the Colombian Communication Service (SERCODES), where she contributed to the design, planning, and execution of the "Helping to Help" project, traveling to the most violence-affected areas of the country to work with rural, displaced, and indigenous women who were victims of the armed conflict.

She was a co-founder of women’s collectives with an ecumenical perspective, bringing together female leaders working for peace, including the Collective of Thought and Action for Women, Peace, and Security, as well as GEMPAZ, the Ecumenical Women’s Group for Peace, a national organization with branches in various cities and municipalities.

One of her guiding principles has been: “With you and your people, from justice and mercy.”