Webinar featuring Fundación Alvaralice Highlights How COVID-19 is Impacting Youth in Latin America

Posted 11 September 2020 in EMpower News, Grantee Partner News   |   Share

This week, EMpower celebrated the 8^th annual launch of the Citi e for education campaign! To note the occasion, EMpower and Citi e for education presented a webinar called “A Working Future”, featuring grantee partner Fundación Alvaralice, speak about the impact COVID-19 has had on young people throughout Latin America.

Fernanda Mitri, Managing Director Citigroup Global Markets, introduced the e for education campaign, which EMpower has been a proud beneficiary of since its inception in 2013. Kristen Woolf, Vice President of Programs at EMpower, shared details about the challenges COVID-19 poses for the global communities that EMpower works with, and how Citi’s funding has impacted EMpower programs. Thanks to the support of this partnership, EMpower has directly impacted more than 110,000 young people, including 63,000 girls, through our education-focused grants!

The discussion between Fundación Alvaralice’s Executive Director Juan Camilo Cock Misas and EMpower’s Senior Program Officer for Latin America Daniel Parnetti highlighted the challenges for youth that have been exacerbated due to the pandemic. In the area where Alvarice is based more than 1 in 3 young people are unemployed. These rates are even worse for young women. Fundación Alvaralice works to combat these challenges by offering job training and education to the most marginalized young people in Cali, Colombia. With a focus on youth and girls from internally displaced populations, Alvaralice provides education, psychosocial, job training and job placement support to enable young people to access stable jobs and brighter futures.

Karen, a 22 year-old participant of Alvaralice’s program, shared her experience learning job skills and how her studies were impacted by the pandemic, which had to make a quick shift to a digital program. Karen shared that before participating in the program “I had a lot of anxiety and could not speak in public. Thanks to this program, I was able to work on those traits and strengthen those skills and many more aspects of my life… Because of the program, I have greater expectations and hopes for the future. I hope to continue with career training so that I can establish a career and get a job.”

The webinar provided insight into the profound impact education programs have on youth. Read more about EMpower’s grant to Alvaralice here.

Watch the webinar “A Working Future: How COVID-19 is impacting Youth in Latin America” below!