Imagine the homes of some 42 million people Mexicans out of a population of 103 million: most have dirt floors, walls and roofs made of castoff objects, including wood, cardboard, metal and plastic sheeting, and neither sanitation nor electricity. For Global Philanthropists Circle member Alfredo Achar, this situation is unacceptable. Three and a half years ago he created Fideicomiso ProViVah (www.provivah.org), a nonprofit organization that has already built hundreds of homes using quality materials in areas that are well-located and have electricity and sanitation. ProViVah offers a model for home ownership that targets the nation's poorest citizens.
What distinguishes ProViVah from other charitable initiatives, asserts Mr. Achar, is its use of strategic partnerships. Rather than acting as another stand-alone initiative, ProViVah has forged linkages with national, state and local governments, and with the private sector, to get the job done. In the short time since its formation, ProViVah has had major impact not only in getting houses built but also in creating a charitable prototype for a country in which, says Mr. Achar, needs more examples of business leaders who are socially engaged.
Innovators in this area include not only Mr. Achar, who is CEO of Comex, Mexico's largest paint manufacturer and distributor, but also such others as GPC member José Ignacio Ávalos Hernández (profiled in Global Giving Matters, December 2002-January 2003), who has created several projects that involve philanthropic alliances linking government and the private sector. But more needs to be done. "In my opinion," Achar says, "This problem is a result of having just one political party ruling us for 70 years. People felt that government could resolve all the problems with health, housing and education."
But government efforts hardly came close and when the ruling PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) fell out of power several years ago in an upset election, the arrival of new leaders paved the way for business owners to take initiatives in social welfare without having to assert political loyalties.
Mr. Achar's plan for ProViVah focused on housing. A government housing development entity called Vivah (whose name approximately translates into housing and savings) served a model for ProViVah, but Mr. Achar felt it wasn't making the headway it could. From the outset, he was determined to bring this emerging model to scale and at the same time ensure that his philanthropic initiatives were apolitical.
Partnerships with government, which operate on the national, state and local levels, have enabled ProViVah's ability to expand in a short time. "We work on a theme of co-responsibility," says Mr. Achar, who notes that ProViVah has projects under way in metropolitan areas in several Mexican states. On the national level, through the Secretariat for Social Development, the government contributes US$1,100 per house and does all the required paperwork. The state governments and municipalities together contribute the land and provide the infrastructure for sanitation and water as well as electricity, or the houses cannot be built. ProViVah contributes a further US$2,100 for each home.
ProViVah insists that the locations for housing must be what Mr. Achar describes as "appropriate." Too often, he observes, poor people end up living in the least desirable areas -- remote hillsides, locations near waterways that are prone to flooding, or in rural areas far from transportation or services; ProViVah won't accept such properties. And each ProViVah development also includes at least one clinic, training center and school. As with the housing, the government provides the land and services for these facilities while ProViVah builds them.
A strong board of directors plays a vital role in the success of ProViVah. Invited by Mr. Achar, each director brings specific skills in different aspects of business and law as well as financial wherewithal. For example, board member Elkan Sorsby is a major homebuilder in Mexico, "so he helps evaluate the land the government is offering us," says Mr. Achar. Alexis Rovzar, a prominent lawyer in the Mexico City office of the international law firm of White & Case, provides free legal support.
A key theme of ProViVah and other charities with which Mr. Achar is involved is that donations go directly to projects and not for overhead. "We're one hundred percent transparent," he says proudly. In fact, because of Mr. Achar's leveraging skills, ProViVah has only one salaried employee, based at Mr. Achar's company, who oversees construction, while members of the 10-person board -- known as the Technical Committee -- donate all their time.
Partnerships with local and international businesses are also key, and ProViVah has been successful in mustering significant support from the private sector. The ProViVah website includes advice for corporate donors seeking to become involved. (The donors prefer not to have their names listed.)
Since its founding, ProViVah has completed 1,300 houses; 700 more are under construction. Homes are allocated to families through a lottery process that requires them to prove that they earn less than the minimum wage. The homes are not free; families must pay the equivalent of US$750 for a home. In addition, the new homeowners are charged monthly fees for electricity and water. In the past, notes Mr. Achar, "People had been used to getting handouts," so the imposition of utility payments is instilling a cultural change among ProViVah beneficiaries to take more responsibility for their welfare.
Unlike some models of low-cost housing development, ProViVah does not require sweat equity, i.e. the direct involvement of families in building the homes as a form of partial payment. Rather, families receive a finished home that includes one "multiple use room" (which combines kitchen and living room), one bedroom and a complete bathroom. They also receive a plan that shows them how to enlarge their homes. But they must take on this task entirely on their own.
To date, ProViVah has partnered on some projects with nonprofits groups, mostly small Mexican organizations, but discussions are currently under way about some form of cooperation with Habitat for Humanity, the international NGO that uses extensive sweat equity to help build houses for a similar target population. "President Carter is coming to Mexico on October 10," says Mr. Achar, "and we may have an announcement to make at that time."
It's not surprising, given Mr. Achar's approach to housing, that his philanthropic efforts go beyond providing shelter. He is also involved with three other social initiatives, two of which directly affect Mexico's poor. Fundación ProEmpleo Productivo offers a four-week training program to help people create their own micro-enterprises -- very small businesses, usually with a handful of employees (often family members) either as vendors or individual manufacturers, to help them generate income and become self-sufficient.
The first week of the 80-hour course provides an orientation that includes a human development curriculum aimed at strengthening participants' self-confidence. The next three weeks consist of training in general business practices, including sales, marketing, costs, management, and legal concerns. At the conclusion of the program, participants have a business plan in hand, either to start a new business or improve an existing operation. At that point, the participant receives individual counseling that focuses on specific needs. He or she also attends conferences every two weeks in order to continue training.
In addition to providing training, the foundation subsidizes most of the course, which costs about US$300 per person, but requires each participant to pay just US$40. Courses are currently offered in Mexico City and several other cities in Mexico, with expansion plans already on the drawing board.
Fondo Nacional de Becas Crédito provides scholarships to low-income youth to pursue technical careers; important Mexican companies also participate in this initiative. Fundación Activa (www.fundacionactiva.org.mx) provides a range of services, including training, employment opportunities and legal advice, to Mexico's Jewish community.
Mr. Achar, who is 62, says that becoming so active in philanthropy has been natural for him. One of 11 children born to Syrian immigrants to Mexico, he says his philanthropy aims to acknowledge and thank the many people who helped his own family achieve success. He and his siblings have all done well and are involved in various charities themselves, and he attributes their ability to succeed not only to their own hard work but also to the many opportunities provided by people and organizations along the way. The younger generation is involved as well: Mr. Achar's son recently served four years as president of Mexico City's Children's Museum, a state-of-the-art facility that's just eight years old.
Despite his criticisms of Mexico's current philanthropic landscape, Mr. Achar sees real progress being made as more companies and business leaders are becoming hands-on in their efforts. "It is clear that every day more companies are taking on more of a philanthropic culture," he says. "But they face the problem of not knowing how to do it nor how to decide which projects to participate in." He believes more attention to the economic and social benefits of corporate philanthropy might inspire more leaders to become more hands on -- and ProViVah is living proof of the difference it can make.
He also believes that the practice of philanthropy in Mexico should be more professional. "Every day there seems to be more and more projects underway, but many don't offer the standards of quality and efficiency social development of the country," he says. "That's why we're starting to see more efforts [within the philanthropy community] to ensure that all resources designated to these activities are properly deployed."