COLOMBIA HEALTHY HABITS FOR LIFE PROGRAM > PROJECT PARTNERS
CHILDREN’S CARDIOLOGY FOUNDATION
Since its very beginnings over 43 years ago, the Children’s Cardiology Foundation has evolved and become a reality for the benefit of countless persons that come to its services searching for a solution to their health problems.
Being aware of the main goal set by its founders “providing integral health to children with scarce resources and cardiovascular problems”, FCI has made every reasonable effort for the Children’s Cardiology Foundation – Cardiology Institute to achieve excellence in hospital institution. Therefore, for the purpose of evolving to a different healthcare model, focused on the patients and their relatives, FCI has undertaken to reach the goal to ensure that patients have unique clinical experience, from the work with all medical disciplines to cure the disease, correct and prevent the causes generating it and to provide a health and well-being area in their new Torre de Especialistas, a modern building that has been dedicated to the service of all Colombian and foreigners.
FCI has become more than an ally and has assumed a reliable commitment based on their philosophy of helping patients and the responsibility with the Colombian population. Therefore, in this new stage of institutional development and evolution FCI decided to use simple, precise and stable processes, where human resources will be given the greatest value to reach our goal.
F. MARIO SANTO DOMINGO
The Mario Santo Domingo Foundation (FMSD) is a non-profit organization created in 1953 in Barranquilla, Colombia, by Mario Santo Domingo, father of Julio Mario Santo Domingo, a Colombian visionary and entrepreneur. Although initially its focus was Barranquilla and the Atlantic region in Colombia, it then expanded its scope reaching Bogotá and Cartagena, where it now has branches. It has also supported a series of initiatives in other regions of Colombia and the world at large. During its early years (60s and 70s), the FMSD promoted technological and technical education in the country through donations, kicked off its micro finance operation, and was one of the main founders of the Universidad del Norte.
In its next stage, the FMSD promoted the Carnaval de Barranquilla Foundation, created the Santo Domingo Arts and Skills School in Bogota’s historic center, and carried out a series of education and health projects, including establishing the first hospital on the Barú islands. Recently, it launched the Primero lo Primero alliance, which focuses on early childhood development, supported the reconstruction and construction of more than 10.000 houses in the city of Barranquilla and the Atlantic region for families affected by the 2010-12 floods, and since 2007 has been coordinating 2 of the largest housing projects (macro projects) in the cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena to address the main bottleneck of poverty reduction in Colombia.
In the above-mentioned housing projects the FMSD implements its own model of intervention known as Integrated Development for Sustainable Communities (DINCS is its Spanish Acronym). Its aim is to empower the community via community participation in management of the project, encourage good governance, provide social coaching or capacity building for the community, and develop an exit strategy for the FMSD. Profits associated with the construction of the houses are channeled through a social fund, which the community can access for its own projects and to ensure the sustainability of current initiatives.
Together with the Social Investment Bank (BIS) and other Colombian partners, the FMSD promotes innovative mechanisms for collective impact. During the last years it developed a financial instrument that allows low-income families access to a new house without needing a down payment and with monthly payments not higher than their current rent costs. The so-called Arriendo con Opción de Compra (ACOC) has been recently embraced by the Colombian government, as a sustainable and market based mechanism to tackle its housing deficit.
MOBILIZARTE SOCIAL
Mobilizarte Social was founded in Bogota, Colombia, in February 2014. Mobilizarte designs and develops projects with a high social impact in areas such as health, education and culture with public and private partners. Since 2014 Mobilizarte locally manages Program SI! Colombia in representation of Dr. Valentin Fuster and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital. In the Program, Mobilizarte is responsible for the complete Program in Colombia and coordinates with its International partners.
PLAZA SESAMO
Broadcast throughout the Americas and produced locally, Plaza Sésamo production reaches millions of kids at an age when they’re most receptive to healthy influences. The long-standing show and its lovable Muppets have gained enormous trust and popularity in the region, leading to an alliance in 2006 with Dr. Valentin Fuster, director of the renowned Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.
Dr. Fuster is the driving force behind an ambitious campaign to promote cardiovascular health education in the developing world. Together, Sesame Workshop, Dr. Fuster, and a powerful consortium of on-the-ground partners, such as Colombian NGOs, government agencies, and Fundación Cardioinfantil, are working to make heart-healthy habits part of everyday Colombian life, starting with kids.
The lovable Muppets of Plaza Sésamo give Dr. Fuster’s message lively expression, modeling positive behaviors in ways that engage children — such as in a song about tasty fruits that feed ”big boys” and “smart princesses,” or an energizing video about fun-filled adventures. Healthy lessons such as these enliven Plaza Sésamo episodes, many drawing on Colombia’s native foods, festivals, and dance traditions, as well as a one-hour television special, featuring the First Lady of Colombia, Maria Clemencia Rodriguez de Santos. Watch a Plaza Sésamo video.
Powerful educational outreach materials reinforce the learning in schools and community centers.
Popular Plaza Sésamo Muppets appear in storybooks, posters, and (a favorite of teachers) a game that gets the whole class moving and kids’ hearts pumping. As key influencers in children’s education, the teachers in the program get training directly from cardiologists, pediatricians, and health educators.
Families take this education to heart, a fact confirmed by some astonishing research. In one study led by the Mount Sinai Medical Center, children’s scores on habits related to healthy nutrition and active lifestyle improved by 27 percent after an eight-month intervention.
The program’s impact continues to grow. Colombian government organizations are encouraging more physical activity in preschool and making low-fat, nourishing meals part of every school day. The project will be a model of children’s health education for other communities worldwide –– great news for kids developing habits that will follow them for life.
SESAME WORKSHOP
Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street and so much more. Sesame Workshop’s mission is to help kids grow smarter, stronger, and kinder.
Our recipe for success is combining a curriculum that addresses children’s critical developmental needs with the sophisticated use of media and a large dose of fun. Our work promotes learning with real, measurable results, a fact borne out by numerous studies and sustained through our research-intensive process.
Beyond ABCs and 123s, our programs deliver crucial lessons about health, emotional well-being, and respect and understanding to help kids grow up healthy, happy, and at home in their world.
It began as a simple yet revolutionary idea in the United States: to teach kids through television. 40 years later, it’s grown into a worldwide educational phenomenon, reaching millions of children in more than 150 countries.
Our international programs are tailored to the unique needs of children, their country, and culture, created with local educators, advisors, and puppeteers. This often results in a fully local Sesame Street with its own name, language, curriculum, and Muppets.
Since our start on TV, we’ve become a multimedia pioneer, using everything from radio, books, and videos to the latest in interactive media and technology, efforts that are enhanced through collaborations with our colleagues at the ground-breaking research and through on-the-ground outreach efforts, we bring our lessons directly into the homes and classrooms of particularly vulnerable communities, where they have a dramatic impact in kids’ lives.
Generous support from like-minded partners — foundations, corporations, individuals, governments, and others — has been critical to our mission for more than four decades and continues to make new projects possible.
