Success Story
by Paola Paternina Chicre
Tanager works with corporations, foundations, government institutions, and farmers around the world to co-create projects to improve social and economic outcomes. In 2015, DIAGEO Colombia and Tanager joined forces to develop a job skills training and employment project for at-risk young people in the cities of Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín, Colombia. Malory Ríos is one of the 750 participants taking part in DIAGEO’s Learning for Life Program Phase 3, implemented by Tanager in Colombia.
Malory is 30 years old and from the Comuna 6 in Medellín. Malory’s mother has always been a strong role model in her life. From an early age, she taught Malory the importance of being persistent and working hard towards a better future for her family. Malory has taken this to heart, passing on these strong core values to her own daughter.
The road to success has not always been easy for Malory and her family. Before joining the Learning for Life project, steady work was hard to come due to the lack of opportunities to access education.
In February 2019, Malory first heard about the Learning For Life project from a family member. She was told to go apply at the Centre Ciudad Don Bosco, where the Tanager-supported team offer free work skills learning opportunities for young people. After going through the selection process, she was accepted to the post-secondary education program. For seven months she learned marketing and sales at Ciudad Don Bosco.
During the classes, Malory improved her skills for managing her feelings and emotions, learned assertive communication, how to manage interpersonal relationships, and received an education on the use of computer tools. All of these skills transformed Malory into an attractive employee in the field of marketing.
Thanks to the project, she got her first formal job at the wine and liquor distribution company, Dialsa. There, she has applied the theoretical knowledge into practice, further improving her communication and marketing skills.
“Accessing higher education allowed me to putting my life together; I feel valuable, now I recognize my skills and want to improve every day.” Malory says, adding, “the program helped me to know how to face the difficulties to go to the world of work, always identifying opportunities for change”.
“The Learning for Life project is important to me because many young people need to be seen, heard and attracted to classrooms … the world changes by education and equal economic opportunities.”