Prosowa Foundation

Sustainability project for wayuu communities

The Sustainability Project for Wayuu Communities, PROSOWA, with the support and fiscal supervision of Caring for Colombia, serves as an international platform and non-profit entity for developing, promoting, and seeking out adequate resources to contribute to improving quality of life for Wayuu and other vulnerable communities in La Guajira, Colombia.

The foundation was born out of a commitment to service by a group of Colombian professionals residing in the country and abroad, particularly in the New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey areas. PROSOWA’s driving objective is to create programs and alliances with different public and private entities at both national and international levels to solve issues of ethnicity, gender, and health and promote sustainable development and education as a contribution to the community of La Guajira.

Our mission

To develop, promote, and seek out resources that contribute to improving quality of life for Wayuu communities in La Guajira and surrounding areas. Programs developed and newly formed or preexisting alliances with different private and public entities at the national and international levels look to promote ethnic, gender, and health equity, social development, and education as a contribution to the community of La Guajira.

VISION:

A community of Colombians living abroad with a social promise to La Guajira
To construct projects from the outside with heightened sensitivity for the indigenous experience in La Guajira.
To serve as a social platform within the international framework that fights to solve social issues among Wayuu communities; to develop social and environmental protection of La Guajira, with emphasis on education and ethnic sustainability within the region.
Within the developed projects, the following is a summary of the foundation’s work agenda.

Meet The Team

Pilar Verú

Founder and Director

director@prosowa.org

Political scientist and educator by profession. She served as Vice-Chancellor of the East Side High Bilingual Education Program at Newark Public Schools for five years. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Prosowa Foundation.

María Teresa Egurrola

Industrial Engineer--Specialist in corporate social responsibility

Born in San Juan del Cesar, at 17 years old she won the title of Miss Colombia, which led her to achieve goals aimed at benefitting vulnerable communities. She has been connected with companies such as the Port Society of Barranquilla, Hotel InterContinental, RCN TV, and Club El Nogal. Since 2014 she has been working for communities in need through the Prosowa Foundation, of which she is a co-founder and board member.

Martha Duque

Business Administrator

Martha currently serves as business administrator at the University of Medellín. She worked as a regional sales manager for Abert Textile Trading in New York City for 15 years and as hospital administrator of Good Samaritan Hospital in Long Island for 10 years. in the last five years, she has dedicated herself to being part of the Prosowa Foundation, volunteering her time for the Alta Guajira and participating in health brigades that have been carried out in conjunction with other organizations.

Leonardo Castillo

Business Administrator

Leonardo currently works as business administrator at the University of Rosario in Colombia. He holds an Executive MBA from EADA in Barcelona and Master's in Global Business from the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. He is co-author of the book The Strategic Process and has more than 20 years of experience in different industries and countries including Canada, the United States, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, and Colombia with companies such as Arthur Andersen Deloitte and Touche and Terpel. Since the start of 2014 Leonardo has served as the General Leader of Vlixes. He is a professor in various areas at the Universities of Javariana, Rosario, Externado de Colombia, Santo Tomás, and UNAB, among others.

Esteban Neiva

Marketing and International Business

Esteban is a marketing and international business professional with an emphasis in PNL, has extensive commercial experience, and is an expert in digital and social marketing. He is a member of Prosowa in Colombia and volunteer since 2015.

our advisors

Pedro Quijano samper

Philosophy

Colombian entrepreneur; director and executive manager of La Sierra Coffee Roasters.

juan carlos arango

Attorney

Specialist in administrative law with a Master's in Administrative Law. He has served as the Public Officer, Head of the Legal Advisory Office, and Human Talent Coordinator at Coldeportes International and Technical Manager for the Transformation of Coldeportes into an Administrative Department. He currently works as a litigation attorney.

Volunteers

Alejandro samper

Volunteer

Civil Engineering and Architecture student at Columbia University in New York. He currently serves as president of the student group Columbia for Colombia, through which academic, cultural and philanthropic events are organized to support different efforts of the Colombian community in New York.

Isabella canal Delagado

Volunteer

Isabel has passions for research, nutrition and public health. She studied Biochemistry and is now completing a Master of Science in Nutrition at Columbia University in New York. Her research focuses on creating an animal model of anorexia nervosa to understand how brain circuits contribute to the disease in hopes of finding a cure. When she is not in the laboratory, Isabella, as a member of Columba University's Columbia for Colombia student group, is dedicated to bringing the Colombian community abroad together through academic, cultural, and social initiatives.

Juan josé guzmán ayala

Volunteer

Juan José studies Economics and Sustainable Development at Columbia University in New York. Originally from Bogotá, Juan José focuses his work on promoting and taking advantage of the opportunities that exist at the intersection of economics, finance, and sustainability.

Corporate alliances

Our sponsors

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