The social arm of CMI is the Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez . It was founded in 1985 and is committed to social work, upholding the ideas of solidarity and community service that the CMI pillar embodied. After the sensitive death of Doña Isabel Gutiérrez de Bosch, her nephew and businessman, Lisa Juan José Gutiérrez Mayorga, is the one who directs the foundation.
The objective of the Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Foundation is to improve the living conditions of many people, particularly the most vulnerable. From children suffering from chronic malnutrition; women of childbearing age, pregnant and lactating; prevention of teenage pregnancies. In addition to providing opportunities for young people with limited economic resources to pursue university studies.
The Education and Health programs of each of the CMI companies are managed and organized through the Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez.
Initiatives promoted by the Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez
Scholarship Program of the Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez
It supports talented young Guatemalans who, due to lack of economic resources, see their dream of obtaining a university academic degree cut short. They are supported financially and through a Coaching program so that they take advantage of their own potential and join in the productivity and development of the country.
In 2020 there were already 165 scholarship recipients and 159 young Guatemalan scholarship recipients who were studying.
Nutrition Program of the Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez
It aims to bring about a generational change by fostering a new way of doing things in undernourished Guatemalan communities. Follow the concepts of Food and Nutrition Security through family change.
It trains mainly women of reproductive age, pregnant women and nursing mothers. It contains new techniques, such as weight and height control for babies from 0 to 5 years old. It provides healthy food to communities and the opportunity to generate income through inclusive companies linked to export chains to improve people’s quality of life and develop self-sustaining communities.
As a preventive program, it aims to reduce the current rates of chronic malnutrition through the accompaniment and monitoring of the entire population.
Among its achievements to date, more than 150 women entrepreneurs have increased their income by 200% thanks to this initiative and more than 500 women have received training in breastfeeding.
Similarly, by 2020, the rate of chronic malnutrition in children from 0 to 12 months was reduced from 77% to 31%, a decrease of -46%. As well as a 13% reduction in the prevalence of chronic malnutrition in infants aged 0 to 24 months, and a 15% reduction in the prevalence of chronic malnutrition in children aged 2 to 5 years.
My Health… My Responsibility Program
It is a comprehensive training program of the Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez for the prevention of pregnancy in adolescents between 10 and 19 years of age.
It began in the department of Jalapa in 2008 and eventually spread to Sacatepéquez, Chimaltenango, Alta Verapaz, Baja Verapaz, Quetzaltenango, Totonicapán, San Marcos, Sololá, Escuintla, Suchitepéquez, Retalhuleu, Izabal, Petén and Guatemala.
This program is developed through a process of personal empowerment in which tools are provided that will help you develop a life project. In addition to strengthening your self-esteem, reinforcing your right to say NO in risky situations, making informed and responsible decisions, developing your critical thinking through case studies, and learning about sexual and reproductive health issues.
Its methodological plan includes ten face-to-face and virtual workshops in the first phase, followed by three in the second. They are taught to teachers and adolescents in public education establishments. Since 2008, 111,414 young people and 13,627 monitors have been trained.
The General Directorate of Accreditation and Certification (DIGEACE) of the Ministry of Education certified the Fundación Juan Bautista Gutiérrez Program in 2013.
