Juan Bautista Gutierrez Foundation

The Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation is a Guatemalan philanthropic entity that belongs to the "Corporación Multi Inversiones (CMI)".[1] Juan Bautista Gutiérrez was one of the founders of "Corporación Multi Inversiones". The Foundation was established in 1974 and has since helped several national crises such as the 1976 earthquake, Hurricane Mitch in 1998 and the hospital crisis of 2015.

History

On 3 October 1974, Guatemalan businessmen Dionisio Gutiérrez and Alfonso Bosch died when they went by plane to support the victims of Hurricane Fifi-Orlene in Honduras.[2] The plane was carrying a shipment of medicines that had been collected by the Rotary Club of Guatemala but was crashed by weather conditions and cargo near the village of Las Nubes.[3] The descendants of the deceased, owners of companies such as Pollo Campero, Avícola Villalobos and Empacadora Toledo created the "Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation" to centralize a series of social projects that they had carried out for several years.

Earthquake of 4 February 1976 in Guatemala

On 4 February 1976, a 7.5 magnitude earthquake that shook Guatemala destroyed a third of the City and Guatemala and entire villages were reduced to rubble. Approximately twenty-three thousand people died, seventy-six thousand were injured and there were more of one million victims.[4]

After the 1976 Guatemala earthquake, the Foundation took over the reconstruction of the school in the municipality of San Cristóbal Totonicapán, which the inhabitants baptized under the name of the "Juan Bautista Gutiérrez" School; in fact, the Foundation has been active in the operation of the school since then.

Famine in Camotán and Jocotán

On 3 August 2001, the municipality of Jocotán declared "yellow alert" in the municipality, having knowledge of the situation in the communities of the rural area of Corredor Seco.[5] The triggers of this situation were, on the one hand, the decrease in rainfall, and on the other, the lack of income from agricultural wages; this caused a situation of nutritional food insecurity that was evidenced by the increase of malnourished girls, boys and women. The government of President Alfonso Portillo decreed a state of public calamity to mobilize international aid; officially forty-eight fatalities were recognized, but there were rumors of a much higher number.

During the food crisis that has been recorded in Jocotán, Camotán and Olopa, Chiquimula, many private organizations joined the common cause of help. One of them was the Juan Bautista Gutierrez Foundation[6] who generated sources of support for these communities.[7]

Hurricane Mitch

As in the rest of Central America, Hurricane Mitch caused heavy rains that caused landslides and severe flooding, which destroyed six thousand houses and damaged another twenty thousand, forcing the evacuation of more than one hundred thousand people; In addition, floods caused severe crop damage while landslides destroyed arable land throughout the country.4 Transport infrastructure was also damaged, as 1,350 km of roads were destroyed or damaged. In total, the hurricane caused two hundred and sixty-eight deaths in Guatemala.

To help the victims of the hurricane, the Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation provided eighty thousand bags of food in Guatemala, and thirty thousand in Honduras.[8]

2015 Hospital Crisis

On 27 May 2015, in the midst of the acute administrative and political crisis caused by the corruption cases of "La Linea" and "IGSS-Pisa[9]" discovered by the International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala, the deficit became evident that affected national hospitals and that prevented the acquisition of food, medicines, payment of services and acquisition of surgical material.

The necessary budget for the proper functioning of the hospitals was four hundred and eighty-three million quetzals, but the budget allocated by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance of Guatemala for 2015 was only two hundred eighty-two million quetzals; They also indicated that it was urgent for the Ministry of Health to pay the debt of one hundred and thirty-three million in 2014, which increased the deficit to 54%[10]

At the end of 2015, the Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation promoted the #GuatePorElRoosevelt movement together with Pollo Campero and Corporación Multi Inversiones (CMI) to make a contribution and reduce the hospital crisis in the country.[11][12]

Educational programs

The Foundation maintains several educational programs, among which are:

References
  1. "Corporación Multi Inversiones – Inversión, empleo y desarrollo – Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation". cmi.co. Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  2. Díaz, Marcos González (14 May 2019). ""El éxito casi nos destruye": la historia de Pollo Campero, la millonaria empresa que exporta uno de los sabores más emblemáticos de Guatemala". Retrieved 3 September 2019.
  3. "HISTORIA EMPRESARIAL EN GUATEMALA, POLLO CAMPERO UNA MULTINACIONAL DE ALIMENTOS" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2017.
  4. "The Guatemala Earthquake Disaster of 1976" (PDF). Web archive. Archived from the original (PDF) on 24 July 2011.
  5. Orgaz, Cristina J. (15 May 2019). "¿Qué es el Corredor Seco y por qué está ligado a la pobreza extrema en casi toda Centroamérica?". Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  6. "Crisis de alimentos: Amplio apoyo – Prensa Libre" (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  7. International, Rotary (March 2003). The Rotarian. Rotary International.
  8. "HISTORIA EMPRESARIAL EN GUATEMALA, POLLO CAMPERO UNAMULTINACIONAL DE ALIMENTOS" (PDF). Web Archive. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 February 2017.
  9. "Caso IGSS PISA". Prensa Libre.
  10. "Médicos: Hospital General San Juan de Dios está a punto de colapsar – La Hora". La Hora (in Spanish). 27 May 2015. Archived from the original on 28 May 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  11. "Se recaudaron más de Q2 millones para el Hospital Roosevelt | Soy502". www.soy502.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  12. "Mejoran atención en la pediatría del hospital Roosevelt – Prensa Libre" (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  13. "El Educador del Nuevo Siglo Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez 27 de agosto, ppt descargar". slideplayer.es. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  14. ""Apoyando a Quienes Apoyan" entrega Q2 millones a organizaciones | Soy502". www.soy502.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  15. "Estos requisitos deben cumplir los estudiantes interesados en una beca de la Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez – Prensa Libre" (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  16. Peinado, Paula. "¡Atención estudiantes! Se abre convocatoria para becas universitarias completas". Publinews (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 September 2019.
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