Our organization, "Cultura de la Vida Humana" (CVH-"Culture of Human Life"), is the affiliate of Vida Humana Internacional, HLI's Hispanic Division, in our country: Colombia. The main purpose and mission of CVH is to raise public awareness about the intrinsic worth and inviolable character of human life, and to defend and promote human life and all those conditions that guarantee it, protect it and dignify it. We plan to accomplish this goal by developing those attitudes and behaviors that are at the service of life, in order to build the Culture of Life, fruit of love and truth. We want to generate a change of attitudes in our society viz-a-viz the attacks perpetrated against human life.

CVH fulfills its mission by educating on the right to life, from conception to natural death; by developing educational programs for life, love and the family; by strengthening the family as the fundamental unit of society and the first and foremost educator of the human person; and by helping pregnant women who lack moral and/or economic support. We also try to facilitate the unity and collaboration of all those people, as well as national and international organizations, which work for these same goals.

Our services include seminars, workshops, courses and talks whose purpose is to offer participants a global vision of reality viz-a-viz human life, love, the family, human sexuality and interpersonal relationships. They also include orientation and formation for parents, teachers and leaders of civic organizations who are interested in building the Culture of Life in a world filled with challenges. Our services also consist in training leaders who will educate others, so that we can generate an ongoing process of formation, with an ever deepening reflection on those issues related to human life, the dignity of the human person and fundamental human rights and values. Those services also include the publication and distribution of educational materials, such as books, videos, brochures and posters. Finally, we also serve women and young people in difficult situations, at the individual and community levels.

We are now planning a national seminar for next October 5-8. The purpose of this seminar is to train activists who will specialize in opening and running crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) in every parish in Colombia. The seminar has already received the support of His Excellency Pedro Rubiano, Archbishop of Bogotá and Primate of Colombia. We have sought the help of Comité Nacional Pro-Vida in México, where there are now over 20 CPCs that have saved over 20,000 babies and their mothers from abortion. According to Jorge Serrano, Comité's president and the pro-life leader who spearheaded those efforts, he was trained and motivated at an HLI-U.S. Hispanic conference over 10 years ago.

Besides planning the above mentioned seminar, we have signed a contract with the Dean of the School of Education of the Gran Colombia University to give 20 similar workshops to parents and teachers in 10 schools of the State of Cundinamarca, where Bogotá, the capital of the country, is located. The topic of these workshops will be domestic violence. Likewise, we have been able to reach an agreement on another project with the Secretary of Education of the City Hall of Bogotá, to put on 20 other seminars on domestic violence to parents.

We thank, from the bottom of our hearts, all HLI donors who have made possible all these efforts. Please, pray for us that we may be able to convey effectively the Gospel of Life and Family to the people of Colombia.