The winners in other categories are the dental NGO Turma do Bem, the Organization of American Firefighters (OAF), Fundación EHAS and the University of Pennsylvania.
Her Majesty Queen Sofía will preside over the prize-giving ceremony for these international awards today in Madrid.
Fundación MAPFRE announced the winners of its 2017 Awards, which are international in scope and seek to recognize the work of those institutions and individuals who through their day-to-day work improve the life of society in areas related to social commitment, research, health, accident prevention and insurance.
The overall endowment of these awards totals 150,000 euros and they will be presented on June 14 next, at a ceremony presided over by Her Majesty Queen Sofía that will be held in the Casino de Madrid.
This year, 844 submissions were received for consideration, with entries from Europe, the United States and Iberian America, from which the following institutions and individuals have been declared winners:
Vicente del Bosque González: José Manuel Martínez Lifetime Achievement Award
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Fundación MAPFRE has presented this award to the 68-year-old ex-footballer and ex-manager in recognition of his outstanding and flawless sporting career, which was characterized by his transmitting important values such as humility, generosity and effort, both on and off the pitch.
The award also recognizes his charitable side, in that he has supported and given visibility to those groups most in need of attention. Throughout his life, the ex-coach of the Spanish football team has worked tirelessly with children living with some form of disability. Since 2015, the winning Spanish World Cup coach has participated in the summer sports camps that bear his name, in which more than a thousand children aged between six and 15 play sports, develop healthy lifestyle habits and learn essential values related to friendship, integration and fellowship.
O Dentista do Bem (The Good Dentist) project, from Brazilian NGO Turma do Bem: Best Social Action Initiative Award
O Dentista do Bem (The Good Dentist) is the largest specialized volunteer network in the world, and the flagship project of Brazilian NGO Turma do Bem (TdB), which was created at the end of the 1990s by Dr. Fábio Bibancos.
The goal of the organization is to enhance social inclusion for children aged between 11 and 17 from families with limited financial resources, by ensuring they have access to free dental care, via a network of more than 17,000 member dentists working across 14 countries. The treatments provided cover curative, preventive and educational aspects, and are carried out in public schools, on the premises of voluntary organizations and in the participating dentists’ own clinics. The organization also goes to great lengths to get families involved in the project, and diligently monitors all cases.
Healthy Pregnancy project, from Fundación EHAS: Best Health Promotion Initiative Award
Fundación EHAS, which has its headquarters in Spain, carries out its Healthy Pregnancy project in Guatemala, with the aim of contributing to reducing maternal and infant mortality in rural areas of the country with little or no available health care services. The Spanish NGO trains nurses who work with isolated communities in how to use a portable prenatal attention kit, which contains an ultrasound unit, a blood and urine analysis system, as well as software that compiles the health information generated by these prenatal checks This makes it possible for gynecology specialists to remotely validate the diagnosis, supervise the quality of care and evaluate the impact on the patient’s health.
Thanks to this project, the foundation has attended to the needs of more than 16,000 pregnant women in the Guatemalan departments of Alta Verapaz and San Marcos over the course of just five years, and has trained more than 50 rural nurses in using the prenatal attention kit, which has without doubt contributed to ensuring that pregnancy risks are minimized to the greatest extent possible in isolated communities. The organization, in conjunction with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the NGO Engineers Without Borders, has now begun similar programs in other countries such as Peru and Equatorial Guinea.
Organization of American Firefighters (OAF): Best Accident Prevention Initiative Award
Fundación MAPFRE presented this award to the world’s largest organization for international cooperation among firefighter associations, which since 2006 has carried out programs in Latin America to develop awareness-raising programs related to the importance of fire prevention, as well as professionalizing local fire departments. The ranks of the OAF now number more than more than one million firefighters, with the majority of them serving on a volunteer basis in 65 percent of the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
In its almost 12 years of existence, the institution has trained more than 20,000 firefighters in 37 countries. The organization’s work has been essential in the standardization of fire prevention and emergency rescue protocols throughout the region.
The OAF has a long tradition of collaboration with Fundación MAPFRE, with which it carries out numerous activities, such as Fire Prevention Week, in which more than 730,000 children have been instructed on how to act in the event of a fire. The two organizations also collaborate closely in holding the largest annual fire-related convention, which has for a number of years been held in Latin America.
Policy Incubator project, from the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center of the University of Pennsylvania (USA): Julio Castelo Matrán International Insurance Award
Fundación MAPFRE has recognized the Wharton Risk Management and Decision Processes Center, of the University of Pennsylvania, USA, for the development of a policy incubator, through which experts and researchers from different disciplines convert innovative ideas into real solutions that help communities at the greatest risk of suffering the consequences of a natural disaster.
The Policy Incubator stands out for its being a distinctive project that brings ideas to fruition, and for tackling a need that is of relevance to society in general and the insurance sector in particular. The project is currently being applied to a set of significant insurance-related issues, among them narrowing the natural disasters insurance gap, linking risk reduction and risk transfer, equitable resilience, flood insurance reform and coastal erosion risk policy.