On October 23rd, 2017, the Vidanta Foundation presented its eighth annual awards, recognizing outstanding contributions to reducing poverty and inequality in Latin American and the Caribbean.
Financed entirely by the Vidanta Foundation, these honors work to support and sponsor original, far-reaching projects aimed at countering systemic disadvantages and discrimination.
At the local level, they provide direct funding to expansive new project initiatives. At the global level, they also work to spread knowledge: to influence policy-making decisions, to generate and mobilize awareness of pressing issues, and to promote solidarity and humanitarian values amid the greater population—a population to which Vidanta aims to concretely contribute, not simply coexist alongside.
Every year, the Vidanta Foundation selects three exceptionally inspiring organizations for monetary awards to support the applicants’ work and extend their positive reach. Candidates are evaluated based on project innovation, measurable impact, capacity for long-term implementation and/or growth, and environmental sustainability. In this view, hospitality works hand in hand with care for the surrounding population, which in turn promotes care for one’s environment. This year, out of 89 esteemed candidates, these three stood apart:
Third Prize: Dignidad y Justicia en el Camino, A.C.
Rafael Alonso and Bernardo Semadeni accepted on behalf of Dignidad y Justicia en el Camino, A.C., an interdisciplinary non-profit providing humanitarian, medical, and legal assistance to migrants in transit.
Second Prize: IDEAS, Información y Diseños Educativos para Asociaciones
Florencia López and José Esteban Pérez Rodríguez accepted on behalf of IDEAS, Información y Diseños Educativos para Asociaciones, an organization devoted to fostering the development and welfare of indigenous young people in Chiapas, from reproductive education to conflict management.
First Prize: Cinco Panes y Dos Peces, A.C.
Alicia Valdovinos Septién accepted on behalf of Cinco Panes y Dos Peces, A.C., a vulnerability management project which seeks to protect marginalized mountain communities in five Mexican states. Since 1992, this organization has improved communication and threat identification in over 650 at-risk communities, directly benefitting at least 320,000 people.
The Vidanta Foundation is proud to actively maintain Corporate Social Responsibility efforts, in order to promote Vidanta’s core values—including equality, environmental responsibility, and the fight for human rights—in the surrounding, but also extended, community. Congratulations to this year’s winners! And for more information about the Vidanta Foundation’s work year-round, visit fundacionvidanta.org.
