COMMITMENT| 16.06.2021
Fundación MAPFRE kick-starts various actions in Argentina to alleviate the socioeconomic crisis caused by Covid-19
This year, the Foundation extended its extraordinary budget in Latin America to 10 million euros. In Argentina, its projects include: Launching the Fundación MAPFRE Food Box. Providing support for vulnerable women. Implementing an educational support program. Integrating visually impaired people into the workplace.
In light of the worsening social and health crisis caused by COVID-19, Fundación MAPFRE has allocated an extraordinary budget of 10 million euros for Latin America in order to address the situation in 2021.
The company aims to use this funding to launch a total of 47 projects in the region as a whole, with which it hopes to help some 168,000 people.
In Argentina, the initiatives that the organization will carry out are aimed at reducing malnutrition and social exclusion, as well as promoting employability and education. These will be carried out in collaboration with the Foundation’s volunteers and various social organizations.
Ensuring basic nourishment and nutrition
The COVID-19 pandemic will bring about an unprecedented food crisis affecting more than 85 million children in Latin America, according to the FAO. Fundación MAPFRE wants to help alleviate this crisis by distributing nutritional supplements to ensure that babies and children up to the age of five receive basic nutrition.
In Argentina, this aid will be carried out in collaboration with Fundación CONIN (the CONIN Foundation). Food bags, that also contain educational materials for children, will be provided to the recipients on a fortnightly basis for three months. It is hoped that this project will reach nearly 1,300 malnourished children.
Teaching women to help give them more opportunities
Fundación MAPFRE will also contribute to the financial recovery of vulnerable women whose economic situation has been particularly affected by the pandemic. To that end, in collaboration with the Jesús María Community Center run by the Asociación Pro-Cultura F.C de Jesús María (a community initiative supporting families in the town of Tres Isletas, Chaco province), Fundación MAPFRE will help these women generate a real income that will enable them to contribute to their families’ finances.
Educational support
The Foundation is also tackling the challenge of providing education in Latin America during the pandemic. To this effect, it will expand the number of teachers and volunteers in Argentina with a view to carrying out an educational support program, while also acquiring educational materials and resources so that classes can be taught to children.
This is being carried out in collaboration with the Fundación Uniendo Caminos (Connecting Paths Foundation).
Integrating visually impaired people into the workplace
Integrating people with any type of disability into the workplace is another objective that Fundación MAPFRE set itself for 2021. These people, who are among the most affected by the pandemic in Latin America, live in places where there are hardly any social programs to help them. In Argentina, and in collaboration with FOAL (Fundación ONCE para América Latina — a foundation supporting blind people in Latin America), it will provide a three-month training course for visually impaired people. It will also provide eight intern scholarships at local companies to help facilitate their integration into the world of work, and will adapt job positions for those interns.
Equipment for Hospital General de Agudos José María Penna
In collaboration with COAS (Cooperadora de Acción Social — an Argentinian social action cooperative), Fundación MAPFRE will donate nine electric beds for patients with COVID-19 admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Hospital General de Agudos José María Penna.
Antonio Huertas: “No one can stand in the way of solidarity”
“We hope things will change and for the better. No pandemic is going to stop us from keeping our commitment to social progress,” said Antonio Huertas, President of Fundación MAPFRE, who described this extraordinary provision of 45 million euros over two years as a “plan aimed at saving as many lives as possible and protecting the most vulnerable in society, and those fighting the coronavirus on the front line.” He also noted that the Foundation, which in 2020 encountered the “greatest challenge” in its 45-year history, is also supporting research and helping to prevent an increase in poverty and inequality caused by the social consequences of the virus. This is all with the help of its volunteers, who will provide their support once again in this endeavor. “When it comes to solidarity, once the ball gets rolling, there is no stopping it,” he said.