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Remittances to Impact Rural Education
La Prensa Gráfica
July 9, 2004
Francesca Falcón
Translation by PADF
Close to 12,000 children in different rural areas of the country will have a different school year in 2005 as a result of an innovative project that which will last one year and which seeks to combat school desertion in the country.
The implementers of the program are the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), Banco Agrícola, the NGO World Vision, and FEPADE (Corporate Foundation for Educational Development).
“Two thousand mini scholarships will be distributed which will impact 12,000 children in 40 schools,” explained PADF’s deputy director, Amy Coughenour.
Banco Agrícola’s contribution to the cause ($25,000) is part of the institution’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) platform.
This amount was not randomly chosen by the bank, since it is part of the transnational development fund for El Salvador, created with PADF.
To bring this instrument to life and make it sustainable, Banco Agrícola contributes 25 cents for each remittances sent through one of its wire transfer agencies in the Unites States, regardless of the size of the transaction.
“We are taking out these 25 cents from the commission that we charge for each transfer,” explained Ernesto Magaña, Banco Agrícola’s manager for businesses abroad.
The investment that the program plans to make per child is $40 in cash for family assistance, $7 in kind, and approximately $10 for shoes; nevertheless, the deputy director explained that the amount could vary depending on the need of each student.
The addition of uniforms to these packets is still being considered.
Aside from the 12,000 beneficiaries, the alliance between the private sector, multilateral organisms, and NGOs will benefit 40 schools with $2,400 scholarships. Representatives of these organizations are currently evaluating which of communities have the greatest need, so that they can best allocate the funds.
Coughenour pointed out that she expected the program to become sustainable by adding more donors to the alliance and she mentioned that she is plans to make the proposal to 10 national corporations, always using the corporate social responsibility framework.
“We really want to have an impact on school desertion in the country, but we also need funds,” she pointed out.
Currently, Banco Agrícola is also in alliance with PADF to implement another project which involves the direct participation of Salvadoran communities living in the United States.
Compatriots Design the Plans
This coming July 21, 10 projects designed by the strongest Salvadoran communities living in the United States, will pass the final exam in Washington D.C. to determine the funds they will receive. The communities who chose to work in rural development are located in California, Washington, and New Jersey, where practically 80 per cent of total remittances will be channeled through Banco Agrícola.
“The first step was to train the communities to design their projects, and now we will choose the ones that will receive funds,” pointed out Dale Crowell, PADF’s remittances program manager.
This is a new development of “Manos Unidas por El Salvador.”
This program, for which an agreement was signed in Washington last February, provides a green light to a $300,000 dollar fund, where 50 per cent has been contributed by Banco Agrícola and 50 per cent by the Pan American Development Foundation (PADF), the social arm of the Organization of American States (OAS).
As part of the agreement, Banco Agrícola agreed to sacrifice 25 cents from the commission that it charges for remittances.
“Each time that a Salvadoran sends a remittance through Banco Agrícola, they will be making a contribution to the country’s development,” mentioned Ernesto Magaña, the institution’s manager for businesses abroad. Currently, the bank transfers close to 60,000 transactions each month through its five agencies.
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