When Christian Living International Outreach Ministry pastors, David and Diana Ramirez and their daughter Cindy Salinas traveled from Texas to visit Colombia in 2010, they saw the absence of basic quality of life for the people of the Pacho, Cundinamarca Mountain.

The mountain’s river had shifted and restructured the land, taking homes and leaving more than 100 families with nothing. Public transportation stopped between the villages and city after the road became a mudslide causing a bus to slide off the mountain. The geographical changes forced the road to close, making it impossible for people to travel for food or for children to get to school by transportation.

Seeing these displaced people living in poverty, the Ramirez family became inspired to start the nonprofit organization Hands On Outreach Colombia Missions to help meet the immediate needs of four villages on the mountain: Veredas, Bermejal, La Huerta and Guapuchas.

Hands On Outreach provides these villages with food, shoes and school supplies.

A local contact delivers groceries monthly to families through Hands On Outreach's established food bank. Once a year, a cow is donated among the villagers. The ministry team travels to the mountain villages annually for two weeks bringing shoes and school supplies. Hands On Outreach made a pledge to four schools to supply their students with these basic needs. Each school has 25-30 students and every child is given a backpack filled with school supplies and a brand new pair of tennis shoes. The children have to walk several miles over rocky terrain to get to school. These shoes help protect their feet. 

Last year, Hands On Outreach was able to provide groceries, shoes and school supplies to more than 50 families. Their future projects include creating a water irrigation system for the villages and building homes for poor families. The villagers currently get their water supply from the river and many families live in mud houses. The ministry is also working to provide necessities such as toilets and running water for families.

While helping meet the immediate needs of these people, Hands On Outreach seeks to provide spiritual ministry. By giving hands, it is their mission to give life to the people of the Pacho, Cundinarmca Mountain of Colombia.