The director of the Mi Ciudad Con Vida Foundation, Nury Buendía, is a woman with a heart from Barranquilla, a psychologist from the Universidad del Norte, a specialist in cognitive and learning disorders at the Universidad del Norte, and a candidate for the “Doctorate in Psychology with Emphasis in Neurosciences ”from the University of Maimonides in Argentina.

She has a long history in the social area. For more than 20 years, she has been working with vulnerable populations. Her efforts have been directed at reducing dropout rates by working with each of the risk factors that affect the dropout rate. Children from these populations are disconnected from an early age from the educational system, in many cases they are used as child labourers, thus increasing the risk of consumption of psychoactive substances, association with gangs, sexual exploitation and early pregnancy. Furthermore, among these factors is school failure due to cognitive disability.

One of the greatest achievements in her career is in the education sector. Coordinating projects for the last 20 years in the Lipaya neighbourhood has helped school drop out rate fall significantly. Furthermore, 3 years ago they opened the Nutritional Dining and School Support projects in the Nuevo Horizonte neighbourhood in the municipality of Soledad.

These achievements have been possible thanks to the fact that a link has been created between international donors, the work team of the My City with Life Foundation, government entities, parents and the community.

Her project has been framed in participatory leadership where each person who is part of this network is a creator of social changes. In her own words: “Being at the head of the My City With Life Foundation has been a challenge on a personal and professional level, where my motivation has always been the children of these communities.”