La Corporación PRESENCIA Colombo Suiza is the dream of Swiss national Andreas P. Hauri and two Colombians, Consuelo Gutiérrez de Restrepo and Ángela Echavarría Toro, who believed it possible to start a project around the education of the boys, girls and adolescents of Medellín, Colombia. The initiative began on 9 of April 1983 in the neighborhood of La Iguana.

During these past twenty-five years, the area of education has welcomed 20,609 beneficiaries and their families through our different programs and services, from expectant parents, new mothers and preschoolers to Plan Padrino, a mentorship which is the principal program of the Corporation that accompanies students through school and life.

In the area of work training, 8,339 youths from the metropolitan area of Medellín have trained in the two work-training centers in the neighborhoods of Antioquia and Robledo, allowing for hands-on work experience and work-placement for the majority of the students. The Barrio Antioquia Youth Training Center (CCJ Barrio Antioquia) contributed to the process of coexistence and improvement of the poor in the neighborhood of Trinidad. While the Robledo Youth Training Center (CCJ Robledo) has implemented the program of Learning Production (Aprender Produciendo), it has permitted graduates of the program to realize the formation of their own small businesses.

Since 2004, PRESENCIA has offered social and nutritional education to the community, oriented towards the adoption of healthy eating habits and of socially acceptable behavior.  245,274 students in primary and secondary education, parents, community mothers, committees of occupational health and business personnel (operating and administrative) were trained in nutritional and social health, recognizing them as fundamental elements for their social and physical development. 

PRESENCIA is the only social organization that provides accompanying programs through all stages of life, from first infancy until the end of higher education and the entrance into the labor force, becoming participants in their own development and realizing their capacity to find worthy life alternatives for their own benefit, as well as that of their families and communities.