As if Mexico didn’t need more support of its own, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador chose to bring social programs to Honduras and El Salvador to reduce migration to the United States.
The government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador awards 11,184 scholarships for Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro and Sembrando Vida (Young People Building the Future and Sowing Life) in various communities in Honduras and El Salvador so that they do not migrate to the north of the continent in search of the so-called American Dream.
“With the Youth Building the Future Program, we seek to support the professional training of young people who do not study and do not work through their training in a public, private or social work center, to enhance their talent and skills in Honduras and El Salvador”, reports the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation (Amexcid).
Young people are provided with the financial support of $ 180 per month and at the end of their training, the participant will receive a training certificate that accredits and describes the training received and the skills developed, says the body led by Laura Elena Carrillo Cubillas.
“As of December 31, there is a record of 6,538 young people in Honduras and El Salvador , who receive the Young People Building the Future scholarship,” the Agency detailed.
Some 2,538 young people with scholarships from the Mexican government live in Cortés, La Paz, Francisco Morazán, Santa Bárbara, El Paraíso, Atlántida, Comayagua, Choluteca, Colón, Copán, Gracias a Dios, Intibucá, Lempira, Olancho, Valle and Yoro in Honduras .
More than 4,000 young beneficiaries of the Young Building the Future scholarships, the social program emblem of the Andrés Manuel López Obrador government, live in San Salvador, Cabañas, Cuscatlán, La Libertad, La Paz, La Unión, San Miguel, San Salvador, San Vicente, Santa Ana, Sonsonate and Usulután, says Forbes Mexico.
“The Sembrando Vida Program seeks to enhance the social welfare of the rural population by creating jobs, encouraging the production and self-consumption of food, as well as the marketing of surpluses,” adds the document.
The program provides economic support of 250 dollars, of which 25 dollars are used to save agricultural inputs, as well as in-kind support such as tools, fertilizers, and technical support are provided to 4,646 tree planters in El Salvador and Honduras.
The 4,079 beneficiaries of the Sembrando Vida scholarship in El Salvador live in Usulután, La Paz, San Miguel, and La Unión, as well as another 567 grants were for Hondurans who live in the towns of Cortés and Comayagua, adds the Mexican Agency for International Cooperation.
Amexcid used 885 million 661 thousand pesos from the Mexico Fund, a trust that finances energy, transportation, telecommunications, commercial facilitation, food security, environment, housing, and health projects, to pay the Young Building the Future and Sembrando Vida scholarships in Honduras and El Salvador.
The donation of money to finance López Obrador’s flagship programs in Honduras and El Salvador was approved on September 20, 2019, by the Technical Committee of the Mexico Fund, which is chaired, operated, and administered by the Ministry of Foreign Relations (SRE), presided by Marcelo Ebrard.
Nelson Eduardo Fuentes Menjívar, Minister of Finance of El Salvador, and Rocío Izabel Tabora Morales, Secretary of State at the Honduran Finance Office, signed in November 2019 the delivery of money for the “Young People Building the Future” scholarships and salaries of the Sembrando Vida program.
On July 27, 2020, Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, President of Honduras, signed in Minatitlán, Veracruz, a letter of intent for Mexico to donate 30 million dollars to curb migration and stop poverty in the country of Central America.
One of the intentions between Mexico and Honduras is to carry out joint efforts in order to implement international cooperation initiatives for development aimed at the achievement of projects, actions, and social programs to counter the causes that generate poverty, as well as achieve greater integration. social and welfare of the inhabitants of both countries.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador laid the basis of understanding from the first day of his government to build a Comprehensive Development Plan, which would promote the development and opportunities of the Northern Triangle of Central America.
The president’s plan is to work with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras in the prevention of migratory flows, as well as to attack the structural causes that drive their inhabitants to seek to migrate to the United States.
One of the donations authorized to the government of Honduras is for 381 million 920 thousand pesos (around 20 million US dollars) to detonate Sembrando Vida, a project that seeks to conserve the environment by planting timber and fruit trees.
The government of Honduras also authorized a part of 210 million 056 thousand pesos (or 11 million dollars) for the payment of scholarships of Young People Building the Future in Honduras, a social program that provides employment for a few months to young people interested in working in formal companies. Meanwhile, the government of Mexico gave 293 million 685 thousand pesos (or 15 million 500 thousand dollars) to launch the Youth Building the Future program in El Salvador.
From 2012 to June 2018, the Agency has provided 134.8 million dollars in financing to countries in Central America and the Caribbean.
From that bag came money for a program for the Prevention of Unaccompanied Migration of Girls, Boys and Adolescents (NNA) in Communities of Origin of the Northern Triangle of Central America.
Source: Forbes Mexico