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The front of a house in Quibdó marked with the words «NO HABITABLE» — unfit for habitation — spray-painted in orange on the turquoise wall, below a cracked concrete slab.

Non-governmental organization — community-based NGO

We are Yaruma Negra.
We are repairing 6 homes and a community house.

We stand with the families hit by the earthquake of 10 August 2026. We have already delivered more than 100 metric tons of relief. Reconstruction comes next, and that is where your donation goes.

Donate nowSee Phase II

“We don't just bring aid. We bring presence and dignity.”

Education
Educational pathways built with the community.
Culture
We strengthen our identity and our roots.
Memory
We recover, value and honor our history.
Community action
We work together for communities that don't give up.

Chocó, Colombia · NIT 902.068.579-7

About us

We work where we live.

Yaruma Negra is a community-based organization working in Chocó, Colombia, alongside families affected by the humanitarian emergency caused by the magnitude 7.4 earthquake of 10 August 2026, with its epicenter in San José del Palmar, Chocó.

From day one we mounted a coordinated response with volunteers, donors and the community, with a direct presence on the ground. Our work has concentrated on Quibdó and its corregimientos — the outlying rural districts — and has extended to four more municipalities in Chocó: Río Quito, Tadó, Medio Baudó and Alto Baudó, as well as Vigía del Fuerte, in the Urabá region of Antioquia, on the banks of the Atrato river and also hit by the emergency.

With Yaruma Negra, opportunity does arrive. You only have to take the first step.

Yaruma Negra's banner set up on a street in Quibdó, showing the logo, the NIT and the four pillars: education, culture, memory and community action.
Institutional banner in Quibdó: the name, the NIT 902.068.579-7 and the four pillars we work with.

Our impact

What we delivered during the emergency.

+100 metric tons
of humanitarian aid delivered
+20,000 people
reached
+20,000 people
served by community kitchens

These figures cover humanitarian aid (food, water, hygiene kits, among others) and hot meals — lunches and dinners — delivered during the emergency in Quibdó, Chocó.

A woman from the community stirs a large pan over a wood fire with a ladle, during a community kitchen in Quibdó.Food being cooked over a wood fire at a community kitchen, among smoke and wooden planks.A steaming pan of rice over stones and embers, at one of the community kitchens during the emergency.

We donated 2 wheelchairs and 1 pair of crutches to people with reduced mobility and to older adults left more vulnerable by the earthquake.

Territories

Where we have worked.

Quibdó more than 20 neighborhoods

  • Las Palmas
  • Niño Jesús (Cabí)
  • Cabí Nuevo
  • Jazmín
  • San Vicente
  • Valencia
  • Obrero
  • Suba
  • Reposo
  • Casa Blanca
  • La Fe
  • La Esperanza
  • Parque de la Gloria
  • La Victoria
  • Alfonso López
  • Futuro 1 y 2
  • Guayabal
  • Villa España
  • Poblado
  • Buenos Aires
  • Simón Bolívar
  • Samarcanda
  • Horizonte
  • Paraíso

Corregimientos of Quibdó rural districts

  • Pacurita
  • Las Mercedes

Other municipalities in Chocó

  • Río Quito
  • Tadó
  • Medio Baudó
  • Alto Baudó

Urabá, Antioquia

  • Vigía del Fuerte, Antioquia
A member of the Yaruma Negra team, seen from behind in the organization's vest, walks through a home marked «NO HABITABLE» — unfit for habitation.
Door-to-door survey in Quibdó. The spray-painted mark is left by the habitability assessment.

The context

The scale of the emergency.

According to official figures from the Government of Chocó and the UNGRD — Colombia's national disaster risk management agency — the magnitude 7.4 earthquake left thousands of homes destroyed or damaged and hundreds of schools collapsed or structurally compromised.

  • 65%

    of the population of Chocó did not have enough income in 2025 to afford a basic food basket. It is the poorest department in Colombia.

    Source · DANE (statistics office)

  • 811

    schools collapsed nationwide, and close to 3,100 left with structural damage.

    Source · Ministry of Education

  • 267

    schools affected in the department of Chocó alone.

    Source · Government of Chocó

The inside wall of a home blown open by the earthquake: a hole reveals the next room, its bed covered in rubble.The living room of a house with the outer wall fallen onto the furniture, filled with concrete blocks and dust.A bedroom with a split wall and the bed buried under chunks of concrete, a plastic chair knocked over.A fractured interior column with its reinforcing steel exposed, above a living room covered in rubble.View from the yard of a home with its wall punched through by the earthquake and vegetation growing in through the hole.A crack running across the ceiling and tiled wall of a house, propped up with a wooden beam as a stopgap.

Homes assessed in Quibdó after the earthquake of 10 August 2026.

Phase II · Reconstruction

6 homes and a community house.

It is already under way. After the earthquake we assessed 50 damaged homes and identified whether each one needs rehabilitation, reconstruction or repair. We are starting with these seven projects.

Housing

6 homes

From the 50 homes we have already assessed

Each home gets the work its assessment calls for. We need funds, materials and hands to finish them.

Scope

  • Rehabilitation, reconstruction or repair, as assessed
  • Construction materials
  • Work days on the ground

Community

1 community house

A shared space

Alongside the homes, we are repairing a space that belongs to everyone: the community house, where the community meets and organizes.

Scope

  • Repair of earthquake damage
  • Construction materials
  • Work days on the ground

How we choose

These projects come from the house-by-house assessment we carried out after the earthquake. We are still assessing the homes that have not yet been evaluated.

Pallets of brick and construction material stockpiled in Quibdó next to the Yaruma Negra team.
Construction material stockpiled in Quibdó with the team on the ground.

Dignity policy

Dignity is a basic need.

We believe dignity is a basic need. As a matter of policy we protect the integrity of the person: we do not publish photographs that identify the people we deliver food parcels, dignity kits or hygiene kits to.

That is why you will not see the faces of the people who received aid on this page. You will see the territory, the materials and the work.

Donors

We have not done this alone.

21 donors have already given food, kits, medicine, mattresses, money and time to keep the response going on the ground.

13
individuals
7
organizations
1
company
+96
tonnes of donated materials

Figures from Yaruma Negra's donor register, as of 5 October 2026. Out of respect for their privacy we publish totals; a name only appears here with the donor's permission.

How to donate

Your donation goes to work today.

Any donation can be earmarked specifically for repairing the homes and the community house, or given more generally to the reconstruction phase in Chocó and Urabá, Antioquia.

Bancolombia

Savings account

  • Account number

Bre-B

Colombia's instant payment key

  • Key

After donating, send us the receipt over WhatsApp at 311 357 3439 and we will confirm we received it.

Would you rather talk to us first? We're on WhatsApp at 311 357 3439, or at yarumanegra@gmail.com.

Account holder: Corporación Yaruma Negra · Non-governmental organization — community-based NGO · NIT 902.068.579-7

Contact

Talk to us first, if you like.

We're glad to answer any technical, financial or oversight question before you get involved.

The Yaruma Negra team, in the organization's vests, in front of its banner on a street in Quibdó.
Part of the team in Quibdó. We don't just bring aid. We bring presence and dignity.