• The SURA Foundation in Colombia shall be celebrating half a century of charitable work with actions focused on the building appropriating and delivering knowledge applicable to social management.
•  Over the past year, the SURA Foundation increased its social investment by COP 26,064 million (USD 7 million), a record outlay in the Foundation's 50-year history. During the year, it supported various initiatives that improved the conditions of 280,000 people and 2,563 organizations.
•  This additional effort was the result of having activated its Humanitarian Assistance line to mitigate the consequences of the pandemic, which benefited 76 thousand people and 131 organizations that were covered by this program.

The SURA Foundation, in keeping with its purpose of creating well-being and sustainable development through capacity-building skills, plans to invest COP 16,555 million in 2021. These resources will be directed mainly at helping schools to reopen safely, strengthening institutions within the cultural sector, helping people to better exercise their citizenship while continuing to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in all those communities where the Foundation is present.

 This year the SURA Foundation commemorates its first 50 years of charitable work, through different actions that seek to leverage the articulation of public and private actors to the initiatives it champions and supports as a social agent.

 "We recognize the value of social management and for decades we have provided our support to carrying out initiatives that provide a true social impact. "Now that the SURA Foundation is preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary, we wish to give greater value to the lessons learned in conjunction with others, while collating knowledge that shall allow us to make better decisions with regard to people’s well-being and quality of life", stated Maria Mercedes Barrera, Executive Director of the SURA Foundation in Colombia.

 An example of this are the Foundation's priorities for this year in its Quality of Education line, focusing on supporting and providing capabilities to public educational institutions now that these are starting up again so that they can receive their students in an organized manner and with the necessary biosecurity protocols, for a controlled return to the classroom.

We will also continue to help strengthen institutions and democratic processes for enhancing our social fabric. With this line, the Foundation seeks to enable people to exercise better citizenship, based on knowledge and conscious and informed decision-making. With this aim in mind, in 2020 support was provided to a total of17 institutions and think tanks focused on reflecting on democracy, autonomy and peace, among other topics. This year, talks will be given with the aim of exercising responsible citizenship, which will be reflected in decisions that allow us to move forward and build society.

In the Cultural Promotion line, we continue to support the Promotora Cultural de Antioquia, a joint initiative in conjunction with other public and private organizations led by Proantioquia, aimed at enhancing the sustainability of our beneficiary entities.

In addition, we shall continue with the Música Lab initiative, which provides training to 150 artists from Colombia, Mexico and Chile in digital skills applied to the music sector. The third phase of the Urabá Cultural Entrepreneurship project will also be developed in partnership with Comfama, Colombia´s family welfare institute and the Corporación Interactuar, which supports 22 cultural entrepreneurs in this region of Antioquia.

Finally, regarding SURA's Corporate Volunteer program spearheaded by the Foundation, this year the virtual experiences and mentoring for social organizations will be expanded through the transfer of knowledge, which last year resulted in 3,247 hours of community work benefiting 1,165 people.

2020 performance in figures

"Last year we faced an extraordinary situation where we had to rethink the Foundation's work plans. Some initiatives became more meaningful and consequently we activated the Humanitarian Assistance line as an act of deep respect for human beings. That is why we recorded a significant increase in our initial budget in helping a total of 280,000 people and 2,563 organizations," added Maria Mercedes.

Likewise, part of the contributions from the Cultural Promotion line were aimed at strengthening the sector's institutional framework so that cultural organizations could continue during the pandemic. In this regard, COP 1,472 million of additional contributions were allocated. In total, 121 organizations and more than 157,000 people received support.

In this sense our efforts in 2020 were aimed at ensuring continuous and long-term educational programs staged on-line. Here, the Foundation invested a total of COP 6,634 million, benefiting 2,161 organizations and 8,806 individuals through the different initiatives carried out.