Chairman's Report 2025 - 2026

Chairman’s report, In Ministry to Children 2025–26

Life in Colombia never seems to get any easier for those on the edges of society. Poverty – fuelled by criminality, climate, inequality and injustice – is deep, and in some cases deepening, in the areas where IMC works. Even in less marginalised communities, insecurity is very real, whether that’s extortion threats or electricity being rationed. All this means that the tiny IMC team in Colombia face an uphill struggle in the face of overwhelming need. And yet, despite all this, IMC supported 548 children and 286 adults last year.

The context

Colombia went to the polls yesterday (Sunday 31 May 2026) in the first round of voting to elect a new president. All three main candidates, across political divides, have pledged to tackle poverty and get tough on criminality. All agree that something radical needs to change.

Nationally, poverty overall is declining – albeit slowly – especially in urban areas. But DANE, Colombia’s version of our Office for National Statistics, reports that ten per cent of the population still live in extreme poverty – and this in an upper-middle-income nation.

The inequalities are geographical too: the poverty rate in Bogotá is only 2.2 per cent, while in the Caribbean coast region (where La Guajira is situated), it is 19 per cent.

And heartbreakingly children are still being recruited into armed groups.

Our priorities

In 2025, IMC supported three main project areas. These are, in order of spending priorities:

• La Guajira, a rural indigenous area in the far north of Colombia
• Fusa, an urban area about an hour’s drive from Bogotá, and
• Los Alpes (‘The Alps’), a hilly informal settlement outside Bogotá

In each setting, IMC continues to work closely with one or more local churches who have earned their communities’ trust over years and who know where the need is greatest. While the churches provide children and families with spiritual input, IMC focuses on:

• Nutritious meals, snacks and food parcels
• Psychosocial support for families – including parenting training to help families live more harmoniously
• Educational support, including school materials, learning support, book donations, sports equipment
• Training programmes, from breadmaking to agricultural projects
• Alliances with partner organisations and institutions

All this is underpinned by spiritual support, from mentorship to youth groups. IMC’s goal is to ‘create protective families that are emotionally, spiritually, and financially strong’ in the face of deep social problems.

Our projects

La Guajira on the Caribbean coast is home to the reservation of the indigenous Wayuu people. It is a very poor and insecure area, beset by criminality and natural hazards such as flooding and drought. It is also home to 50,000 Venezuelan refugees and migrants.

The official rate of children under five dying from malnutrition in La Guajira was nearly eight times the national rate in 2023, according to government statistics. And lack of clean water means that children and adults often have to resort to drinking stagnant, dirty water, which makes them ill.

This is why 31% (about a third) of IMC’s spending in 2025 went to La Guajira where we work with families in several rancherías or settlements, alongside the Upper Room and Maranatha churches.

IMC provides healthy snacks for children at two schools, in El Brasil and San Pablo. It also continues to support a breakfast club for waste pickers’ children in Riohacha. Their families live in the settlements. We’ve also supported schools with sports equipment this year.

The church building in El Brasil that was completed last year, thanks to the generosity of one of our supporters, also doubles as a community centre where training can now take place.
The national training body, el SENA, has trained families in San Pablo to cultivate communal kitchen gardens in the hope they can feed themselves and have enough left over to sell a small amount too.

We’ve received pictures of melon plants, yucca, squash, beans, sweetcorn and herbs, all growing well. Rains earlier in the year have allowed crop irrigation, but water shortages remain an issue. Ideally, San Pablo needs a well. They’ve also had training in entrepreneurship with the hope of supporting small businesses such as their handcrafted bags or mochilas.

In Fusa, where IMC spent 30 per cent of its budget last year, it partnered with two churches – the Good News Church and the King of Israel Church.

The churches have been running Sunday services (for IMC families and the wider community) and offering discipleship for young people and children, which includes encouraging them to serve in the church. This all happens in the same building where IMC runs its activities, and IMC pays the rent.

IMC has provided lots of different kinds of support to about 50 children in Fusa this year, including homework support and school materials, arts activities and sports.

A key support this year has been training through different organisations who recognise IMC’s credibility and experience locally.

Through el SENA, women have learnt breadmaking and baking skills which have enabled them to start small businesses, selling birthday cakes, for example. IMC has provided the venue and equipment needed.

A local university is also starting to partner with IMC (as of 2026) to provide families with first aid training and preventative health training through medical students on placement. Again, IMC is the convenor and organiser of these activities. IMC also organises training on parenting and social issues such as drug awareness.

IMC’s faithful team member, Sofía, has continued to serve the children healthy snacks such as sandwiches, as well as meals for special celebrations.

Los Alpes is an informal settlement on the outskirts of Bogotá which has high rates of criminality and deprivation. Nancy reports that extortion rackets here – as in other parts of the country – are widespread: people setting up small businesses have been threatened with violence and made to pay protection money. Many have been forced to close their businesses… so poverty has grown.

We have been running a community hub here in Los Alpes for several years now and last year it supported 45 children and accounted for 14 per cent of IMC’s spending.

In 2025, the IMC team was partnering with the Oaks of Righteousness church in Los Alpes. IMC provided food for children and families, school materials, books for a community library, plus activities and training for children and families. This was along the same lines as the work in Fusa, though on a smaller scale.

And finally… Nancy reports that Granja Peniel, the residential home that IMC UK funded, is still on the market. It is now being promoted by estate agents in the US too and we pray that a buyer will come forward soon now. This would free up much-needed assets that would allow IMC Colombia to be much more self-sufficient.

Our year in the UK

Our amazing supporters and donors are the reason why IMC exists and why it endures. Without them, their fundraising, and their regular and one-off donations, we could do nothing and many children’s lives would be very much the poorer. We are so grateful for your faithful, generous support.

As you have heard already (in our ‘Fundraising report’) it’s been another busy year for our fundraisers – and we are hugely grateful to them.

As trustees, we’ve been busy communicating with Nancy, trying to raise awareness of the Colombia team’s work and ongoing needs, doing the admin and accounting that goes with running a charity, as well as fundraising ourselves. We’re all volunteers – like our fundraisers – and it’s perhaps important to stress that, as fundraising costs rise across the UK charity sector.

We must also mention and thank a few individuals:

Firstly, our longstanding editor, Martin Plowman, who we are very sad to report died in April. He had edited our newsletter for 25 years exactly when he contacted us last December to say that he needed to step down for health reasons. His brother, Stuart, read a tribute to Martin from IMC at his funeral on the Isle of Skye. There is no doubt that Martin’s faithful service was key to sustaining prayer and financial support for the work in Colombia. We miss him.

Special mention also goes to:

• Michael and John Arnold of Life Church Petersfield for their administrative support, and the Petersfield team who stuff envelopes with newsletters and post them out
• Lesina and Robin Ashfield who host our Summer Serenade at their home near Petersfield
• And last but not least, our patron, Joan, for her continuing enthusiasm, encouragement and the way she keeps in touch with her ‘IMC boys’ on social media

And we continue to be in awe of our Colombian colleagues, especially Director Nancy Centeno. Her team now consists of Yancarlos, IMC’s Deputy Director, and Jennyfer, the IMC administrator, who are both based in Bogotá; and Sofía, who continues to serve in Fusa despite serious health challenges which require dialysis.

If we want to see God’s faithfulness, we need look no further than the IMC team in Colombia. Despite all the challenges, they’re people who continue to show God’s love, to walk alongside communities, to inspire hope in places where hope is in short supply.

Hope is the best antidote to poverty because it says that things can change. We thank God for sharing his vision for Colombia with Joan and Terry, and for all the change he’s made possible through IMC over more than 30 years. Thank you all, too, for sharing and sustaining our hope that even more, even deeper change is possible yet.

Posted on the 29th June 2026 at 6:09pm.