Our day began with a breakfast in downtown Guanajuato hosted by the Bajio Community Foundation. The BCF's board, composed of local philanthropists and private sector leaders, welcomed our group and presented an overview of their institutional mission and strategic approach. Adriana Cortés, Executive Director of the foundation, presented specific program activities of the foundation as a critical framework for understanding the different site visits we were to make that day.

Following breakfast, the group visited several different project sites. The first site was the Albergüe Infantil, a home for children that provides integrated social services to children in need. At the Albergüe, representatives of the foundation presented their work related to the issues of drug and alcohol abuse and treatment. During the presentation, 11-year old GPC Member David Taylor, son of GPC Founding Member Ralph Taylor, decided his time would be better spent playing football with the children living in the home -- proving that a common language is not necessary to build bridges across cultures. As we departed for our next site visit, David demonstrated his own personal philanthropic commitment by giving his football to his new friends.

GPC members including Amir Farman-Farma, Guillermo Donovan, David Brewer, Ann Mai and Peggy Dulany, with mothers, children and supporters of Albergüe Infantil, outside a community kitchen during a site visit organized by the Bajio Community Foundation. Also pictured are Judith Hernstadt, William Foote (an advisor to GPC Founding Member Ralph Taylor), and Synergos staff members David Winder, Jim Brasher and Philip Walsh.

The group then traveled to San Juan de Retana, in Irapuato, where BCF is collaborating with the municipal government and the private sector to create a community-based development model for marginalized communities. There the group visited a newly constructed school where parents are implementing a self-sustaining, volunteer-coordinated school lunch program that is meeting critical nutritional needs for youth in the community. Finally, the group visited a residential treatment home for drug addicts in one of the most marginalized communities of Irapuato.

Julio Velasco, President of the board of the Bajio Community Foundation and his wife, Angelica Ortiz, also a member of the board, then hosted the GPC group and the other members of the foundation's board for a lunch at their beautiful home in Irapuato.

In the evening, the GPC members were treated to a unique cultural experience in Guanajuato -- the callejoneada, a musical tradition imported from Spain featuring local university students dressed as troubadours leading the people through a song-guided tour of the beautiful colonial streets of the city.

 
© 2002 The Synergos Institute