Global Compact International Yearbook 2012

Best Practice
Human Rights
Medcom
The Children First
By Lilinés Urriola Herrera
In the past year, Panama has made some important and positive headlines worldwide. The
country was awarded an investment grade credit rating by both of the globally renown ratings
agencies, Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor’s. Also, the New York Times named Panama as
the number one travel destination in 2012. The country also had economic growth of 8 percent
from 2006 to 2010, and in 2011 the country’s economy grew 10.6 percent, making it one of the
fastest-growing economies in Latin America.
Despite all the good news the world is
reading about Panama, the isthmus is
currently encountering a series of severe
problems regarding malnutrition
and extreme poverty. The number of
Panamanian children suffering from
low birth weight and stunted growth
surpasses the numbers of most of the
poorest countries in Central America.
Figures depicting chronic malnutrition
reach 62.0 percent in indigenous communities
and 10.5 percent for children
in urban areas. The infant mortality rate
is 1.3 percent, according to the country´s
National Institute of Statistics and Census.
According to the United Nations
Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean, Panama is also facing
an economic inequality problem.
In 1996, RPC Television, a television network
owned by Corporación Medcom,
proposed the project “Los Niños Primero”
(The Children First) to Nutre Hogar, a
nongovernmental organization that has
been helping with assistance, recovery,
and prevention of child malnutrition
since 1988. Nutre Hogar was founded by
Monsignor Romulo Emiliani, who had
also founded various apostolates and
social projects that still benefit the children
of Panama. His seal of approval gave
confidence to the people regarding these
types of projects. The main idea of the
project was to help an NGO that involved
civil society with the economic support
of two of the corporation’s clients as
sponsors (Petróleos DELTA and Super 99).
Our medium created a triangular alliance
with sponsors to accomplish the project,
which focused primarily on creating a
public awareness campaign about child
malnutrition in Panama, along with
national food drives. Corporación Medcom
offered its multimedia platform to
assist in the spread of publicity for the
campaign at no cost by donating its main
product, which is airtime. In 2011, our
corporation donated $348,676 in free
airtime in addition to volunteer time
from our media teams to produce news
coverage, radio and television interviews,
reports, and live feeds to promote the
campaign. The corporation also coordinates
monetary donations made by
the two sponsors – the donations are
targeted solely for the construction of
new recovery centers. Our corporation
offers sponsors a competitive marketing
plan that includes news coverage as
well as reports about and promotion of
their brands and products in exchange
for donations for Nutre Hogar. In 2011
the commercial packages ran for a net
investment of $18,000, which returned
$78,771 in total airtime to each sponsor.
The campaign and food drives are supported
by more than 2,000 volunteers,
who offer their time every year to make
this the most important campaign and
food drive in the country. The first campaign
was created to build a recovery
center for malnourished children in
Los Valles de Cañazas in the Veraguas
province. The success measures for this
first project were not only the amounts
of money or donations that were to
be received for the construction and
maintenance of the center, but also the
way in which the center would become
entirely self-sustainable. It is important
to mention that each of the centers is
self-sustainable and is, in fact, managed
by all the members of the community
with the help of Nutre Hogar.
Los Valles de Cañazas was the first community
to receive a recovery center, due
to the severe child malnutrition and
extreme poverty rates in that area. Despite
all this, the community was wellorganized
and had previously made a
formal request for help to Nutre Hogar.
This happened before RPC Television
proposed the project to all the parties
involved. The community in El Valle
de Cañazas not only benefitted from
the construction of the center, but due
to the exposure they received through
our media platform, they were able to
improve their infrastructure with new
streets and highways. It used to take
about two hours to get to Cañazas from
the closest city – today it takes about
30 minutes.
In 2012 the project “The Children First”
marked 16 years of uninterrupted success.
Thanks to the annual food drives
and donations, it has built 8 community
centers and 42 sub-centers nationwide.
The food collected in the drives serves
as back-up to feed all the centers and
sub-centers nationwide. Corporación
Medcom’s efforts and commitment
to execute the campaign have been
directly involved in the construction
of centers in the following places: El
Copé de Olá, Quebrada Guabo, Las Pipas
de los Pozos, Ballestilla, Chiriquí Viejo,
Divalá, Buenos Aires de Ñurum, and
the first center in Los Valles de Cañazas.
It is also responsible for the construction
of the sub-centers in the following
places: Tolote, Orema, Huacas, Cerro
Ortiga, Suiche, Los Guarumos, and
Lajero Abajo.
Susy de Varela, National Director of
Nutre Hogar, describes “The Children
First” as “a project model of successful
development, which can be used as an
example for other countries because it
is very broad through its emphasis in
primary childhood, but is also directed
to the entire family nucleus.”
Our best practice example project fulfills
most of the eight Millennium Development
Goals because it helps eradicate
extreme poverty and hunger; promotes
gender equality and empowers women;
reduces child mortality; improves maternal
health; and ensures environmental
sustainability. Also, it is important to
mention that the following community
centers have been declared malnutritionfree:
Los Valles de Cañazas, El Copé de
Olá, Las Pipas de los Pozos, Quebrada
Guabo, and Ballestilla. The centers are
operated entirely by the inhabitants of
the communities where they are located.
They are self-sustainable because the
food served in their dining halls, which is
not from the food drives, comes directly
from local farms in each center. They are
also conscious of the environment because
the stoves have “Eco-Tec” technology,
which reduces the average amount
of firewood used by the burners by 35
percent. The centers also have waste
incinerators to prevent the pollution
of rivers and they also offer orientation
for the beneficiary families.
By 2011 Nutre Hogar’s community centers
had 37 operating dining halls; they
have served 5,044 communities; benefitted
2,800 families; and have educated
3,947 people on topics like health,
nutrition, production, and community
organization and stimulation. Corporación
Medcom, as a socially responsible
organization, is proud to have been the
creator of the project “Los Niños Primero”
(The Children First) and hopes to be an
essential part of it for many years to
come.
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