Kell

¡Hola! My name is Kell. I am 45, originally from the Netherlands, but living in Colombia now for 1.5 years and loving it here. I am very lucky to have a job that allows me to work from anywhere with an internet connection.

I chose Colombia because it really is an amazing country. It has everything, especially amazing people. But as any country, it is not without flaws. And one of its flaws is the high poverty rate, which is very obvious when living here. So I wanted to help improve Colombia in that aspect, so I started to help teach English to kids in the poor neighborhood of Moravia with a different NGO (Help Colombia). I also started doing events with Help Colombia for kids in difficult situations, such as orphanages, homes for abused children etc. This was all before meeting any of the awesome people of Intercambio. I am still involved with Help Colombia as well, since their classes is on Saturdays and don’t interfere with the classes of Intercambio

I truly believe that teaching English to kids is something that can change their lives, especially when they are from poor families. It is much easier to get a good job in Colombia when speaking English. So when I read on Reddit that Alex was looking for people to present their country to kids from another poor neighborhood in their English class, I reached out. Long story short, I fell in love with the kids and now I am part of Intercambio.

My roles and responsibilities with Intercambio are diverse. I am lucky that I am able to live in Colombia, close to the neighborhood where we teach English. This allows me to have weekly interactions with the kids, and be their trust person. Volunteer teachers will rotate every few months, but I will always be available to them. This also allows me to be a substitute teacher. I can cover in case the volunteer teachers are unavailable. I will also be the trust person for the volunteers. Help them get started, answer questions about Colombia, introduce them to the kids etc. And I will help define strategy for Intercambio.