FUNDACION CARVAJAL
A Social Enterprise

  

The Carvajal Foundation is the main shareholder in the Carvajal Organization.
 
The Carvajal Foundation is independent from the organization and its social objective is
that of working to comprehensively develop and transform the poorest sectors of the society.

Aware of the commitment that companies have with the critical social needs of Latin America, in 1961 the Carvajal family donated an important part of the company’s shares, which today amount to 23.02% of the total, to create and consolidate the Carvajal Foundation, a non-profit entity whose main goal is to work towards the development and social transformation of the poorest sections of the city of Cali, where the headquarters of the organization are located.

Fundación Carvajal also has as its goal to share and transfer its experience and programs to other companies and community organizations in Colombia and Latin America.

Fundación Carvajal concentrates its efforts in deepening its knowledge of social conditions, seeking to satisfy the common welfare, having both internal and external end users in mind. It aims toward the permanent improvement of the quality of life, encouraging communal leadership, teamwork, organizational communication, and progress management, while stimulating the responsible and sustainable use of natural resources, believing in the importance of honesty and the better distribution of income and opportunities.

To accomplish its aims, the Foundation turns its resources into effective and dynamic processes, encouraging participation as a vital element in democracy; interacting with governments, the private sector and the society at large through clear, flexible, effective and fair exchanges. And beyond providing services, it seeks to insure its own institutional development and future sustainability, hoping to generate revenues that will be reinvested to the benefit of the whole society.

As a social enterprise, it stimulates social management, fostering new schools of thought and action that can lead to a new and better society.

The basic source of Fundación Carvajal’s success comes from the permanent dialogue with the communities with which it works, from encouraging confidence building community action, the laying out of clear rules and the construction of networks and mechanisms for daily interaction; as well as the weighing in of the intellectual capital and capacities of those with whom it interacts.

www.fundacioncarvajal.org.co

Programs:

Low income Housing and Urban Environment Program
Primary Health Care program
Educational Program
Basic Community Services Program
Small Business Development Unit
Radio Broadcasting Program

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Low income Housing and Urban Environment Program

Its aim is to help communities in the design, planning and execution of self-building plans for housing and the development of its surroundings.

Fundación Carvajal understands house building as being a community building process and a generator of social development.

It aims to create housing through processes that will allow people to build social development strategies and actions based on everyday experience, framed within the culture of the community and its peaceful coexistence. With integrated processes that revolve around the house, whole families take part in the program.

The program includes: technical assistance workshops, production of construction materials by the community, development of appropriate techniques suited to geographic and environmental condition of the neighborhoods, training in construction management so as to be able to reduce time and costs, small business development in these of credit and support of citizenship and family values.

Primary Health Care program

It seeks to strengthen health care systems by encouraging networking models and permanently fostering community participation, keeping the individual as the pillar on which society is based.

In partnership with the national, departmental and city governments; with universities, specially with Universidad del Valle, and other community and social organizations such as Coomeva, it has significantly contributed to the debate and analysis of topics that are the backbone of health care in the world and the impact that political decisions or government initiatives might have on them, as is the case of what we are living through now in Colombia, and particularly in Valle del Cauca.

Among the most important areas being developed:

  • Health Care Systems.
  • Intervention Models.
  • Social Management Models.
  • Networking Models.
  • Relations with the Business Sector Models.
  • Epidemiological Follow up and Focus Models.
  • Evaluation Models.
  • Technology Evaluation Models.
  • Community Participation Models.
  • Social Marketing Models.

 

Educational Program

Its goal is to support improvement in quality of educational services, to support the efforts of these communities and to create educational participation models that can be repeated in other parts of the country.

It directs its efforts toward participating in the construction of a more just society with better opportunities in the coverage and quality of education.

The Educational Program partakes of the orientations given by national and international experts who have identified priority areas that require attention:

  • Training in basic skills, coexistence and modern life.
  • Learning aids supported by didactic materials, books and new technologies.
  • Increase in the time allotted to learning by the implementation of complimentary schedules.
  • Broadening and improving primary education.
  • Professional improvement and updating of teaching staffs.
  • Educational and administrative management.

Basic Community Services Program

Its aim is to support integrated community improvement by promoting the economic development of its inhabitants. It fosters community information processes and provides basic goods and services in the areas of food, education, home and health care, thus becoming a focal point of economic, social and cultural development.

It operates three Basic Community Service Centers, each located in one of the three neighborhoods that make up the Aguablanca District in Cali, Colombia.

The program focuses on the creation of new jobs and the bringing together of basic goods and services that lower costs for those living within its area of operation.

It also operates a program for store owners through which they can receive training in marketing and administration, obtain loans and
have access to basic products with better discounts than they would otherwise find in the market.

This program has been adopted as a model, and has been copied in other cities in Colombia. Similarly, the “Bancos de Materiales” or Materials Deposits play a vital supporting role in home construction and improvement activities.

  

Small Business Development Unit

It aims to contribute in the development of healthy small businesses, both in urban and rural areas, promoting a social organization that will increase incomes and improve its distribution among all members of the community. It emphasizes the development of the small business owner and his family.

This program sees each business owner as an individual and encourages him to take charge of his own destiny.

It offers a series of services such as training and continued technical assistance in administration, accounting, marketing, tax law, total quality control, specialized consulting, job adaptation programs, loan programs, post-loan advice, strengthening of production lines, environmental awareness and training in ethical values.

The Foundation has carried out small business training programs in other Latin American countries and the Caribbean.

Radio Broadcasting Program

Its aim is to spread culture and promote healthy values throughout the society.

Fundación Carvajal’s radio station plays classical music and broadcasts cultural programming 24 hours a day to many cities in the Cauca Valley with the idea that art is not only entertainment but also a fundamental aspect of the development and welfare of the individual and of the community at large.

Its purpose has been to create an audience that discovers the pleasure of music as they learn to listen to it. It has a catalogue of more than 50.000 works that is now computerized to allow for maximum programming flexibility.

The use of digital technology allows it to broadcast an optimum quality signal.

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Contact Us

Roberto Pizarro Mondragón , Cheif Executive Officer
Carrera 25 # 2-01
Cali, Colombia
Email: roberto.pizarro@fundacioncarvajal.org.co
Phone: 57(2) 5542949
Fax: 57(2) 5542892

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