By Sergio Cortez

True Identity Volunteer Member / Bogotá, Colombia

““He who saves a life, is as if he saved an entire universe”

(Mishna, Tractate Sanhedrin, 4, 5)

The answer is in your nation's schools. Surely you have asked yourself, what is the inside of a school like in 2024? I want to tell you that the answer is very shocking! We all know that young people are the future of our country, the new generations are the ones who will decide the destiny of our nation, if we think about this carefully we will understand that we are shaping our future with these kids between 13 and 18 years old. They are educated with school days from 7 am to 3 pm from Monday to Friday, but what do they really experience outside of the academic day?

Throughout this year, with True Identity, we have been able to learn first-hand about the context of nearly 2,000 young people who live their school stage between grades 8 and 11 (Secondary or High School in many Latin American countries). In their context, we find the reality of our society: Substance addiction, teenage pregnancies, criminal gangs, depression, anxiety, lack of fatherhood, domestic violence and much more.

Each of them expresses the stark reality of an environment plagued by unresolved social problems by our government. If we look at it from this point of view, it looks pretty bleak, but there is hope.

By knowing their problems and weaknesses, we can also know their abilities, dreams, and qualities. In them, we find young people with a lot of talent and many problems without help. As an NGO, TRUE IDENTITY, made up of young leaders, we focus on helping teenagers who had the same problems as us. We seek to strengthen their identity based on ethical values and one-on-one support. It is very useful to provide food, clothing, toys, supplies, and many other things that foundations provide today. However, for us, the time we invest in each of them is equally or more valuable, advising and looking for possible solutions to their problems, as well as many other solutions or alternatives that we can provide them.

There is nothing better than giving your life for another. Our society will not change if we focus only on the macro, our society can change if we focus on one-on-one. We will be able to notice the great value of one if we dedicate our time to listening and helping. I have left my normal life to help Kevin, Santiago, Esteban and Brayan, for them and many more to come, this organization makes sense, it is valuable to give everything you are to those who need it. Let's do more for our future, let's do more for our youth.