MEXICO CITY — The Fundación Amistad Británico-Mexicana held its annual meeting Tuesday at the British Embassy residence in Lomas de Chapultepec, Mexico City. British Embassy Chargé d’Affaires Olivier Evans presided over the meeting as honorary chairman in the absence of Ambassador Duncan Taylor.
Treasurer Armando Nuricumbo gave a report of Amistad’s finances for 2015. In spite of a bad economic situation with the devaluation of the peso and low oil prices, Amistad was able to break even for the first time in 2015.
Colin Stabler, who has been president of Amistad for the past four years, gave his final annual report as president of Amistad.
Amistad’s main project in 2015 was building a cafeteria at the Secondary Technical School (EST) 80 in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, which was made possible by a grant from Fomento Económico Mexicano (Femsa), the largest bottler of Coca-Cola products in Mexico.
“The kitchen and cafeteria that we built will allow students to eat a meal during the day, which may be their only substantial meal of the day, and allow them to better focus on their studies,” said Stabler.
In 2015, Amistad also used funds from HSBC to help rebuild schools and clinics in the Center for Integral Community Development (Cideco) housing development in Acapulco, which had been damaged by Hurricane Manuel in 2013.
After giving the annual report, Stabler handed over the presidency to Treasurer Armando Nuricumbo. Sergio Ducoing will take Nuricumbo’s place as treasurer.
THREE DECADES OF AID TO MEXICO
Amistad was founded by members of the British-Mexican community in September 1985 after Mexico City was hit by a devastating earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people and left many more homeless. Early on, Amistad decided to focus on long-term aid instead of emergency relief, choosing to fund rebuilding projects and expansions to schools and clinics. Since Mexico City began to recover from the 1985 earthquake, Amistad has funded and organized rebuilding projects to help communities recover from natural disasters and built schools and clinics for disadvantaged areas in general.
“According to Amistad’s bylaws, we are to focus on three areas: response to natural disasters, education and health,” said Nuricumbo. “Over the last 30 years, we have played an extraordinary role in these three areas.”
According to Nuricumbo, Amistad promotes ideas of corporate social responsibility, and hopes to become “the social responsibility arm of the British government.”
Looking forward, Amistad sees itself moving away from natural disaster relief to find other ways to help.
“If there are no more natural disasters, and I hope there aren’t, I think we need our sweet spot. We need to find a niche of some kind, some area where we can help more effectively than any other charity in Mexico,” said Nuricumbo. “For example, we could try to build a partnership with our friends at the British Council and the Anglo-Mexican Foundation to build the best program for training English teachers in Mexico. We all know the difference it makes, when learning English as a second language, to have a good, well prepared teacher.”
Amistad also hopes to help Britain build its soft power apparatus. Nuricumbo noted that according to the Soft Power 30 index, the United Kingdom is second only to the United States in terms of soft power, and it had the most soft power until 2016.
“It’s an enviable position for Britain, having so much soft power,” said Nuricumbo. “Amistad can help Britain build even more soft power here in Mexico.”
Nuricumbo concluded his remarks with a reflection on corporate social responsibility.
“Those of us involved in civil associations, and not only those of us who are business executives, need to involve ourselves directly in building a better country,” he said. “We can’t leave it to the government.”
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