Metrofriends

Metrofriends started anew. The Company carries out an education program to promote values and good citizenship through games and recreation. Thus, it disseminates the Metro Culture through workshops geared towards children and youths living within the system’s areas of influence. This year, the program will be executed in close partnership with the Conconcreto Foundation.

There are additional activities –such as educational entertainment sessions, recreational vacations, celebrations of Children's Month, movie presentations, children's theatricals, and tours of the system– which are open to the community. They include visits to places of interest such as Parques Biblioteca, Parque Explora and Jardin Botanico, among others.

This year’s novelty entailed the expansion of the Metrofriends program to include the entire system and not just its areas of influence.
 
 

Fairs

Metro de Medellin supports commercial exhibitions that usually count with active participation by businessmen from the Santo Domingo Savio and La Aurora sectors. These commercial exhibitions are supplemented with educational, cultural and recreational activities for all audiences, which aim at fostering the economy and stimulating tourism. They include:
•         “Mingo” Festival, in the environs of Santo Domingo station, on every last Saturday of the month. Organized by the “Visión Nororiental” Committee.

•         “Nuevo Occidente” Festival, at La Aurora station on Line J, jointly with Nuevo Occidente’s Interinstitutional Work Board.

•         “El cielo florece” Fair, held in August as part of the “Feria de las Flores.”

•         Christmas fairs in Santo Domingo and La Aurora.

This proposal was implemented thanks to our strategic alliance with the Mayor’s Office of Medellín, CEDEZO, INDER, private entities like Confiar, Antioquia Presente, and representatives from the communities within the system’s areas of influence. Approximately 20,000 visitors attended these events in 2008.
 

Cleanliness Brigades

Jointly with the city's maintenance board, the system’s areas of influence are cleaned during conservation campaigns in order to improve those spaces intended for healthy recreation, gatherings of people and coexistence in the city. These take place in several downtown areas, including carrera 80, carrera 76 sector Belen, el Pesebre, Quebrada la Madera, Pablo Sexto, Santo Domingo Savio, Parque Lineal La Herrera, Acevedo and San Juan con la Avenida Oriental, among others. In addition, partnerships were established with shop owners along Bolivar, between Prado and Berrio, in order to maintain optimal occupancy conditions for these spaces.
 

Community Christmas

During the “Community Christmas Program,” 11 activities took place in the plazas of the Santo Domingo, Popular, Andalucía, Acevedo, Bello, San Antonio, Itagüi, San Javier, Juan XXIII, Vallejuelos, and La Aurora stations. These include an assortment of Christmas shows and caroling for people of all ages. As part of these activities, 45 organizations within the community gave 5,000 corporate Christmas presents (school backpacks) to youths in the system’s areas of influence.

Meetings with the community. In addition to the social function, more than 90 meetings were arranged with interinstitutional work-groups, organizations, and representatives from the system’s areas of influence. The purpose of these meetings was to build relationships based on trust and to agree upon actions that lend themselves to the improvement of quality of life; approximately 4,000 people attended these meetings.