ALAS Foundation

ALAS (Fundacion América Latina en Acción Solidaria) is a movement dedicated to the children in Latin America. The non-profit organisation is founded by Latin America's most influential artists, intellectuals and business leaders, and strives to launch a new social movement that will generate a collective commitment to comprehensive Early Childhood Development programs for the children in Latin America.

One of the well-known faces and founder of ALAS is the Colombian singer and UNICEF ambassador Shakira. Other known artists are Juanes, Alejandro Sanz and Miguel Bosé, among others. Honorary President is Nobel prize winner Gabriel García Márquez. Shakira's ex-fiancé Antonio de la Rúa is one of the Vice Presidents. De la Rúa recently rebutted the allegation that artists are leaving ALAS because of mismanagement.[1]

Objectives

Latin America has 54 million children age 5 and under and no less than 32 million of them are currently living in poverty. A catalyst for change, ALAS will work to improve the children's lives by creating a social movement that delivers effective health, education and nutritional programs during their most influential years of development through comprehensive Early Childhood Development.

Mega Concerts

On 17 May 2008, for the first time, two concerts were held simultaneously in Argentina and Mexico. Shakira, Alejandro Sanz, Calle 13, Paulina Rubio, Gustavo Cerati and others artists performed in Buenos Aires, where 150 thousand people gathered. In Mexico City, Miguel Bosé, Ricky Martin, Chayanne, Lucero and Diego Torres were some of the artists on the stage list. Juanes did not participate in either concert. The Mexico concert was attended by no less than 200 thousand people. Both concerts were completely free and their only goal was to make the public aware of the problems around poverty of Latin-American children.

Problems with ALAS

ALAS has changed leaders and missions since its inception on December 12, 2006. Its third executive director, Carlos Clemente, was indicted on corruption charges[2] alongside Shakira lawyer/ALAS founding director José María Michavila.[3] Its original mission including providing funding to programs that helped needy children.[4] Its stated mission now is to be a social movement that does not fund programs.[5] As a result, it has received millions of dollars from its funders for events like the May 2008 concerts[6] but has not funded any programs.

Antonio de la Rúa has recently been answering charges that disappointment in the organization has caused many of the original artists to leave ALAS[7] and that ALAS has not delivered on its promise to fund programs in Buenos Aires.[8]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Perfil
  2. ↑ El Tiempo
  3. ↑ El Prensa
  4. ↑ ALAS Press Release
  5. ↑ Website ALAS Foundation FAQ
  6. ↑ Perfil
  7. ↑ Perfil
  8. ↑ El Argentino

External links

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