BBVA - Press Room

 

• The BBVA Group allocated €85.3 million to fund social action initiatives in 2008, 24% higher than in 2007
• “Niños adelante” granted scholarships to 47,104 children throughout Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, Panama and Puerto Rico during 2008, a 163% increase on 2007
• In Mexico, the “Por los que se quedan” (For Those Who Remain) Integration Scholarship Program forms part of the BBVA Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility Program and offers scholarships to children in primary and secondary education living in migrant areas of the country
• The documentary “Los que se quedan,” directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman and sponsored by the BBVA Bancomer Foundation, gives an intimate insight into the lives of family members of individuals who have migrated to the United States in search of better opportunities
  

BBVA has presented the “Niños adelante” Program today, which is the cornerstone of the BBVA Group’s community investment programs in Latin America. The purpose of the program is to facilitate the social integration of the most disadvantaged children through education, with a common and coordinated approach, adapted to the specific socioeconomic circumstances in each of the countries in the region in which it is implemented. In Mexico, the program is called “Por los que se quedan” and offered 10,600 scholarships to children during 2008. This figure will reach 15,000 this year. The program is especially aimed at children of families living in communities that are particularly hard hit by migration to the United States.

This afternoon, BBVA’s Chairman, Francisco González, presented the documentary “Los que se quedan” in the Prado Museum, along with the two directors of the documentary and various public figures from the world of culture.

The presentation of the project to the media was attended by BBVA Bancomer’s Chairman, Ignacio Deschamps; BBVA’s Director of Communications & Image, Gregorio Panadero; and the two creators of the documentary “Los que se quedan,” Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman, who subsequently presented the documentary which presents the testimonies of the main characters of this project which BBVA initiated in 2006.

BBVA’s Community Investment Plan in Latin America

The BBVA Group allocated €85.3 million to fund community investment projects during 2008, 24% more than in the previous year and representing 1.7% of profit generated last year.

The BBVA Group’s main contribution to society is its activity as a financial institution offering products and services that have a positive impact on society in general and at-risk groups in particular. In addition, the Group has a strong community support policy, through which it channels specific non-profit initiatives aimed at contributing directly to social welfare and meeting basic human needs.

“Niños adelante” Scholarship Program

The purpose of this program is to facilitate the social integration of children from disadvantaged communities through education. It is implemented through scholarships, i.e. direct financial support, while school supplies and, in some cases, food are also provided. The program attends to specific local community needs, whereby different groups can benefit and different scholarship award criteria are applied depending on the circumstances in each of the countries in the region in which BBVA has rolled out the program.

This project is a joint initiative involving the combined efforts of schools, public bodies, foundations, NGOs and civil society organizations who have become BBVA’s allies by adding value and contributing to increasing the community impact of the program. In 2008, the program had 2,552 volunteers who selflessly worked alongside the children in the scholarship program in each country.

Furthermore, in some countries such as Mexico, an innovative approach has been adopted to provide the children with a financial education, in that the scholarship is received through a debit card called the “Por los que se quedan” card. BBVA hopes that this method will help develop the self-esteem, responsibility and financial education of all the beneficiaries of the scholarship program.

In 2008, the “Niños adelante” Program granted scholarships to 47,104 children throughout Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Uruguay, Paraguay, Panama and Puerto Rico, 163% more than in 2007.

“Por los que se quedan”

In Mexico, the “Niños adelante” Program is known as the “Por los que se quedan” Program, which refers to the priority beneficiary group comprising girls and boys of disadvantaged families living in areas severely affected by migration, especially to the United States.

BBVA Bancomer is the leading financial institution in Mexico, with a network of 1,840 branches and 5,857 ATMs, accounting for 18% and 19.7%, respectively, of the Mexican banking system. It is the main payer of remittances sent by Mexicans in the United States to their families in Mexico, with a market share of over 40%.

The population of first-generation migrants residing in the US is currently 11 million, equivalent to 11% of Mexico’s resident population and 64% of the Spanish-speaking labor force in the US. These immigrants contributed 3.7% of the US’s GDP and 57.7% of Mexico’s GDP in 2006. BBVA transferred ,000 million (40% of the market) in 2008.

BBVA Bancomer is aware of the tremendous human capital which Mexican migrants represent and, based on its conviction that education is fundamental to improving social welfare and development, it decided through its Foundation to link the issue of education with migrants’ home communities through the “Por los que se quedan” Integration Scholarship Program.

The objective of the program is to grant a scholarship and assign a volunteer to each student and his or her family to ensure the child can continue his or her secondary education. Since its roll-out in 2006, the program has significantly extended its reach and the number of its scholarships and volunteers.

“Los que se quedan” documentary

The BBVA Bancomer Foundation’s commitment to society is why it decided to give “Los que se quedan” documentary its backing. The documentary was made by the movie directors Juan Carlos Rulfo and Carlos Hagerman and gives an intimate insight into the lives of family members of individuals who have migrated to the United States in search of better opportunities.

The “Los que se quedan” documentary will be shown at a number of international movie festivals and won an award at the Guadalajara (Mexico) International Movie Festival for Best Mexican Documentary. It also received the First Prize of the Jury in the Documentary Reporting Competition of the Madrid International Documentary Festival.

“Los que se quedan” will start its rounds of Spanish movie theaters at Casa América, where it will be shown free of charge from July 8 to 11 and from July 15 to 18 at 20:00.