Protection of children and adolescents.

The commercial sexual exploitation of children and adolescents is a crime under Colombian law and a grave violation of human rights. Corazón Colombia rejects it absolutely. We will not facilitate it, tolerate it, or look away from it, and we will report it.

• We do not promote, offer, arrange or facilitate any service involving the sexual exploitation of a minor, in any form, at any price, for any client.
• We train every guide, driver, coordinator and office employee to recognise the indicators, and we tell them explicitly that reporting is expected and protected.
• We report suspected cases to the Colombian authorities — the Policía Nacional and the Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar — and we cooperate fully with any investigation.
• We terminate immediately, without notice, any employee, guide, driver, supplier or accommodation partner involved in or facilitating exploitation.
• We refuse and cancel bookings, without refund, where we have reasonable grounds to believe a guest intends to exploit a minor, and we report them.
• We include this obligation as a contractual term with every supplier we use.

If you see something on one of our trips, or anywhere in Colombia, report it. In an emergency call 123. To report child exploitation specifically, contact the ICBF on 141, or the Policía Nacional. You can also tell us directly at hola@corazoncolombia.co and we will act on it and pass it on. You do not need to be certain, and you will not be asked to justify yourself.

Beyond the legal minimum, we apply the following rules to everything we publish and everything we run. They are also set out on our donation programme page.

• We never publish photographs or video in which a child is identifiable. Every image on this website relating to children’s programmes shows places, objects or adults.
• We do not run visits to children’s homes, orphanages or residential care as a tourist activity, and we never will. The evidence that orphanage tourism harms children is settled, and the visitor demand is part of what sustains it.
• We do not introduce a guest to a child as “the child you are helping”. Children are not proof of purchase.
• We do not solicit or facilitate volunteering with children by guests. Short-term volunteering with vulnerable children causes measurable attachment harm.
• Partner organisations must hold their own written child-protection policy and have vetted their staff before we transfer any money to them.

Travellers under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Colombia applies strict exit requirements for minors, which can include notarised parental authorisation. Tell us in advance and confirm the current rules with Migración Colombia.

This code is reviewed annually and whenever the underlying law changes. Staff training is refreshed annually and on induction. Records of training are kept.