By MasPorTIC Team | Project Leader
Dear GlobalGiving Community,
On August 10, 2026, a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck western Colombia. It took lives, damaged homes and essential infrastructure, interrupted services, and left thousands of people facing uncertainty. For an organization born to accompany rural communities, this tragedy cannot be treated as a distant event. It is a painful reminder that resilience is built long before an emergency - through trust, local leadership, useful skills, reliable information, and places where people can come together.
The earthquake has therefore become a turning point for MásPorTIC. It has not changed our mission; it has made that mission more urgent. Digital inclusion and rural entrepreneurship remain at the heart of our work, but this moment has shown us that transformation must also help communities prepare, adapt, communicate, and recover when the unexpected happens.Our next chapter is about turning community strength into lasting capacity - and ensuring that growth reaches both MásPorTIC and the people whose leadership makes transformation possible.
From recovery to transformation
This new stage begins with listening. Emergencies expose the gaps that communities already experience: weak connectivity, limited access to timely information, fragile local infrastructure, and few opportunities to turn knowledge into stable livelihoods. They also reveal something powerful - communities are not passive beneficiaries. They are the first responders to their own reality, the keepers of local knowledge, and the leaders of recovery.
That principle has guided the Casa de Superación Campesina in Noruega Baja, Silvania. The building was completed according to the initial agreement with the community, but completion was never the final goal. The Casa is now ready to enter its most important phase: becoming a living platform for learning, community organization, entrepreneurship, digital access, cultural exchange, and intergenerational collaboration.
In this next phase, we want every activity to connect technology with the priorities of the territory. Digital skills should help a farmer communicate with customers, a woman leader strengthen her organisation, a young person imagine a future rooted in the countryside, and a community share trusted information when circumstances change suddenly.
Growth with purpose
MásPorTIC intends to grow - not simply by becoming larger, but by becoming more useful, more resilient, and more capable of accompanying communities over time. For our organization, growth means strengthening our team, governance, partnerships, measurement, and ability to adapt proven approaches to new territories. For communities, growth must be tangible: stronger local enterprises, greater digital confidence, more visible rural talent, new opportunities for young people and women, and organizations with the tools to lead their own development.
Our priorities for the coming months are to:
Deepen the rural digital transformation pathway from basic digital skills to productive use, commercial visibility, access to information, and continuous accompaniment.
Embed resilience in our programmes by connecting digital literacy with communication, preparedness, local coordination, and the responsible use of information.
Measure and share meaningful outcomes so that donor support is linked not only to activities delivered, but also to stronger livelihoods, organizations, confidence, and community leadership.
Build partnerships for responsible scale bringing together communities, public institutions, companies, universities, and supporters who believe that rural transformation must be locally led.
Growing together
The earthquake has reminded Colombia how fragile physical structures can be. It has also shown the extraordinary strength of social bonds: neighbors helping neighbors, local leaders organizing solutions, and communities protecting one another. That social fabric is where recovery begins - and where long-term transformation must take root.
As we move forward, our commitment is to grow together. MásPorTIC will grow by learning from the territories, improving how we work, and opening more pathways for collaboration. Communities will grow by strengthening their capabilities, turning local knowledge into opportunity, and taking an even greater role in the decisions that shape their future.
Thank you for standing with us during this moment of reflection and renewal. Your support helps transform uncertainty into action, community spaces into platforms for opportunity, and rural talent into a force for Colombia's future. We invite you to remain part of this new stage - one in which recovery, transformation, and growth are built together.
With gratitude,
Fundación MásPorTIC Team
By MasPorTIC Team | Project Leader
By Equipo Mas PorTIC | Equipo Mas PorTIC
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