Casa Kolacho

Known during the 1980s and 1990s as the most dangerous city in the world due to its central position in an urban warfare between rival drug cartels, Colombia's Medellín has changed beyond recognition since then. Once one of its most notorious neighborhoods, Comuna 13 has since been pacified, thanks in part to Casa Kolacho and its community outreach work, partnering with young people to provide graffiti and hip-hop tours to international travelers. While many graffiti tours have sprung up in Comuna 13, Casa Kolacho, located in the San Javier district, is a community-based project that provides young people with an alternative to drugs and crime through tourism and training, while also giving them an opportunity to be proud of their music and art. With drug prevention workshops, a hip-hop school, musical space, cultural festivals and sightseeing tours, Casa Kolacho tells the story of violence and reconciliation in Medellín while at the same time promoting street art and hip-hop culture. Accompanied on walks through Comuna 13 by young people from the area now working to create change within the community, travelers have the opportunity to discover the role graffiti and hip-hop have played as alternatives to violence and crime in Medellín over the last decades and to hear personal stories of reconciliation and survival.

The VSocial Foundation supports this project by supporting the management of its tourism project and bringing the international market closer to the project. That is, it takes tourists through the alliances that the foundation has with several international agencies seeking that the organization be a sustainable project through tourism.

At Casa Kolacho we have a direct impact on 20 associates and their families, in addition to 40 children and young people who are part of the artistic school.