Sueños y Huellas (Dreams and Footprints)

What Sueños y Huellas does

Sueños y Huellas ('Dreams and Footprints') is a small foundation in central Medellín, Colombia. It works with families living in inquilinatos: poorly run rooming houses where a whole family often rents a single room and uses it for cooking, sleeping and studying. The foundation focuses on children aged 6 to 12 and young women aged 16 to 22. It offers psychosocial care for them and their parents, educational projects, and help finding jobs and internships.

Lorena Vásquez, an accountant who grew up in inquilinatos herself, founded it in 2014 with Yeinny Yanira Castro. The foundation reports that it currently works with 98 children and 98 young women. It also runs a project supporting more than 110 members of the Indigenous Emberá community in Medellín, and since 2022 it has hosted international volunteers. It says it has no fixed government funding and relies on donations, company partnerships and its own fundraising. In July 2026, Telemedellín reported that thieves broke in through the roof and took laptops and a camera used in its programs.

The foundation's stated annual goal is about COP 600 million (roughly US$147,000) to cover a year of psychosocial care, so individual gifts go a long way. Donations are not tax-deductible in the US.

Key facts

• Founded in 2014 by Lorena Vásquez, an accountant who grew up in Medellín's inquilinatos, and Yeinny Yanira Castro (suenosyhuellas.org/quienes-somos)
• Currently works with 98 children aged 6–12 and 98 young women aged 16–22 (suenosyhuellas.org/en)
• Annual fundraising goal of COP 600 million (about US$147,559) to fund a year of psychosocial care for children, young women and their parents (suenosyhuellas.org/en)
• Its Casa Embera project supports more than 110 people from the Indigenous Emberá community living in the city (suenosyhuellas.org/nuestros-proyectos)

Before you give

• International donors: the easiest option is the foundation's PayPal donate link (https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=FH2XMKCSMBGCL), which is linked from its donate page. Wompi and Bold are Colombian payment checkouts. The bank transfer is to a Bancolombia account and suits donors in Colombia.
• To get a donation certificate, the foundation asks donors to email the payment receipt to financiera@suenosyhuellas.org.
• No US 501(c)(3) 'Friends of' entity or fiscal sponsor was found, so gifts are not US tax-deductible. The donate page is in Spanish.
• Monthly sponsorship ('Plan Padrino') is set up through a Google Form linked from the donate page.