Plan Padrino is a YMCA sponsored program that helps fund the education of Colombian youth who might not otherwise be able to afford to attend school. Public education is not a right in Colombia like it is in the United States. The program pairs the needs of Colombian students with the generosity of donors like Model UN delegates. In years past, we have been blessed to have students from the Plan Padrino Project travel to Nashville to meet the students who have made it possible for them to attend school. The Plan Padrino Students travel to our Model UN every other year, and they were in attendance for Model UN 2016.
In the summer of 2018, we were able to take 4 CCE students and 3 advisors on an 11 day trip to Ibague, Colombia to learn more about the Plan Padrino program and help where needed. This trip compliments the current exchange program we have where students from the Plan Padrino program in Colombia come to Nashville every other year to our Model United Nations conferences to learn more about us and the United States. We plan to continue to our trip every other summer with a few of our programs alums.
The YMCA Center for Civic Engagement strives to incorporate service learning into all its conferences, and Model UN is no exception. For the past nine years the MUN conferences have partnered with the Ibague, Colombia YMCA to raise money for Plan Padrino. In the first year, Tennessee students raised enough money to pay the yearly tuition for 10 Colombian youth. The next year, Model UN delegates raised enough money to continue sponsoring those 10 and begin sponsoring 10 more. Now, annual contributions by Model UN delegates total nearly $7,600 — enough to sponsor 40 students in the Plan Padrino program. This year’s goal is to raise $8,000 in order to continue to sponsor 40 students and purchase school supplies for these students.
Throughout the weekend, your conference officers will be asking you, their fellow delegates, to give generously to support the Plan Padrino Project. Please give generously and understand how important your donations are! We are confident that we will be able to raise enough money to continue sponsoring 40 students! If everyone just donates $10, we can meet our goal!
Department of Public Information 