The Golden Colombia Foundation is a Norwegian non-profit, politically and religiously independent, organization, founded in 2006 by Øystein Schjetne with the aim to contribute to social and economic development in the country.
For several years, we have worked with cultural exchange between Norway and Colombia. We have established the Centro Cultural La Provincia in Cartagena on the Caribbean coast, where we organize activities and courses related to Colombian culture, both for Colombians and tourists.
One of Colombia’s major problems is the international cocaine trafficking, and Golden Colombia is working on alternative development in the country to strengthen the opportunities for marginalized people to find work in the legal economy. One of our initiatives is Albalab Juvenile Innovation Centers for marginalized youth, where we also welcome international volunteers.
Since 2010, Golden Colombia has worked with drug prevention in Norway with grants from the Norwegian Directorate of Health with a special focus on informing about the problems drug traffic causes in the production and transit countries. The organization has also presented its work in Colombia to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in 2017 and 2018.