Pereira & Quibdó, ColombiaOfficial impact figures as of August 16, 2026
Help a family reopen their business after the earthquake
100 micro-entrepreneurs in Pereira and Quibdó lost their tools, stock and storefronts. Your donation puts them back into trade — zero debt, real training, direct mentorship.
Every week a local business stays closed cuts its long-term survival rate by 15%.
€200 funds one entrepreneur seat
100 seats · 50 Pereira / 50 Quibdó · no loans, no debt, no paperwork
€0 raised of €20.000 base target
0% funded
Base target €20.000Stretch €25.000€30.000+ cohorts
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Stand With Small Businesses in Crisis: Your Support Rebuilds Livelihoods
The skill survived a devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake. The tools, the stock and the trading cycle did not. Emergency aid covered the first response; what happens next depends on us. Donate today to fund the tools and inventory they need to trade again.
Luz Marina Mejía
Boutique Lov store — Retail & fashion, Pereira
What was lost
Storefront, full inventory, display units and tools. She now trades at a limited scale from a relative's home to keep the business alive.
What €200 unlocks
Restocks key product lines and replaces basic equipment to resume independent operations — debt-free capital toward re-establishing a physical retail space in Pereira.
Yuliana R.
Street food vendor — Quibdó
What was lost
Her painted food cart, gas burner and the working capital she keeps as daily inventory.
What €200 unlocks
Trading again within 10 days: cart repair, restocked inventory, and pricing and margin training so daily income is predictable.
Don Efraín
Neighborhood bakery — Pereira
What was lost
Oven damaged beyond repair and a shop front closed since the M7.4 earthquake, with two employees stood down.
What €200 unlocks
Oven repair plus a reopening plan that restores two local jobs — debt-free, so every peso earned stays in the business.
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Profiles represent actual merchant cohorts in Pereira and Quibdó.
The numbers behind the two cities
Two very different local economies. Every figure below is published with its source and its “as of” date.
Physical commercial reactivation
Pereira Commercial Core
Pereira's downtown is a dense grid of small storefronts. The buildings can be repaired; the trading cycle behind them restarts only if the merchant has stock, tools and a plan.
~70%
of central commerce affected by the earthquake
Source: El Colombiano, as of 15 Aug 2026
~34%
of establishments fully closed
Source: El Colombiano, as of 15 Aug 2026
6,300+
business units across the three central districts
Source: Confecámaras / press reporting, Aug 2026
79
deaths recorded in Pereira
Source: La Patria, as of 16 Aug 2026
46
firms per 1,000 inhabitants (firm density)
Source: Infobae, 2026
7,000+
commerce jobs lost in the year before the quake
Source: Press reporting citing Fenalco, 2026
Sources: El Colombiano (UNGRD figures, 15 Aug 2026), La Patria, Infobae, Confecámaras via El Heraldo. Figures are official or press-reported and carry their own “as of” date.
The invisibility argument
89.5% of Colombian micro-businesses operate outside official chambers of commerce. They do not appear in the registries that government relief is distributed through — so the fastest pathway back into trade is direct, debt-free activation delivered person to person.
Source: Confecámaras via El Heraldo, 2026. 93% of the business fabric in the affected departments is microenterprise (250,628 firms).
Methodology & partners
Training that pays for itself in week one
Rebel Business School Colombia
Execution partner co-founded by Daniel Ángel. €0 debt model, no formal business plans, sales generated from week one of the program.
CEMS MIM graduate students from CEMS Club Bogotá provide strategic business guidance to each merchant cohort.
Undergraduate mentors — UniAndes CEFA
CEFA student volunteers deliver operational support, digital tools setup and local execution mentoring on the ground.
Role of the student organizations
CEMS Club Bogotá and CEFA act solely as good-faith promoters and advocates. They do not perform formal financial reviews or statutory accounting reviews. All funds go directly to Rebel Business School Colombia.
Start your business. Control your finances. Build the life you want. Rebel runs free, hands-on programs where people build a real trading business during the course itself — without debt, business plans or startup capital.
Full cohort graduation in the town square — entire communities trained at once.
Certificates with Mercy Corps — global partners, local delivery.
Corporate-backed cohorts: shopkeepers trained in scale programs.
With the International Rescue Committee — training for displaced entrepreneurs.
Coastal Chocó: workshops delivered wherever the merchants are.
Interactive classrooms — no lectures, only applied practice.
Graduates trading debt-free from week one.
Every cohort ends with a real, running business.
Rural producers turning harvests into income.
Community-level training across the Pacific coast.
Start a business with what you already have
Free, practical workshops that get people trading in days: no debt, no formal business plan, no upfront capital — just skills applied to a real business from day one.
Sales, pricing and marketing from week one
Daily sessions cover finding customers, pricing for margin, low-cost marketing and selling face to face, so participants earn while they learn.
Control your finances
Cash-flow basics, record keeping, tax and pricing discipline — so the money earned stays in the business and the household.
Build the life you want
Confidence, mindset and peer accountability. Graduates leave with a trading business, a network and a plan they own.
A globally proven model, delivered locally
The Rebel Business School model has been delivered to tens of thousands of people across the UK, Europe, Africa, Latin America and beyond, in partnership with global organisations such as the International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps. Rebel Business School Colombia brings that same worldwide playbook to Pereira and Quibdó — adapted to Colombian merchants, run by local trainers, backed by international experience.