13 tons
of waste were collected in Tulum, Mexico through the “Puntos Limpios” program
We launched the
Caravana radiofónica
podcast to share the stories of migrant families and children in their own voices as part of “Puerto Abierto” initiative
Fundación FEMSA
Fundación FEMSA was created in 2008 on the premise that a sustainable company can only exist with sustainable communities. Today, it is an important part of the way FEMSA creates value by making a positive difference.
+US$ 240,000
invested in enabling public spaces with a childhood perspective in five countries
Fundación FEMSA was created in 2008 on the premise that a sustainable company can only exist with sustainable communities. Today, it is an important part of the way FEMSA creates value by making a positive difference.
Created in 2008, the mission of the Fundación FEMSA* is to make social investments that will have a positive impact on people’s lives and to build more solid and sustainable communities where we operate. This includes our purpose of combating systemic problems today for the health and prosperity of future generations. In 2021, we advanced the four pillars of the Fundación FEMSA’s long-term impact agenda: Water Security, Circular Economy, Early Childhood, and the Arts & Culture, which contributes to FEMSA’s Sustainability Strategy.
* Fundación FEMSA is made up of two organizations that share the same purpose: Difusión y Fomento Cultural, A.C. and Fundación FEMSA A.C.
Water Security
Our actions in support of water security for the communities where we operate include expanding sustainable access to safe water, improving sanitation conditions, and strengthening watershed conservation through applied scientific research. Programs include:
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In 2021, through the Fondo Ambiental Metropolitano de Monterrey, we launched a pilot to change the culture of water management in local communities.
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As of 2021, we have supported the access of nearly 150,000 people to water and sanitation services, and approximately 195,000 have participated in “Social Art for Behavior Change” activities.
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Through Ayuda en Acción, the local water supply and recharge areas were reinforced, strengthening water security and reducing the conditions of vulnerability of more than 6,000 families.
Circular Economy
In support of the circular economy, we focus on understanding how we can stop the post-consumption leakage of waste into the environment by identifying solutions that support a clean and healthy environment for current and future generations.
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In 2021, Fundación FEMSA undertook a series of studies to gain a greater understanding of the current state of waste disposal in five cities in Mexico.
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Early Childhood
At Fundación FEMSA, our vision is for all children to achieve their maximum developmental potential and transform their communities. To nurture crucial life skills – and help overcome inequality or other gaps arising from living environments – we invest in the physical, cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional development of Latin American youth, particularly early childhood from gestation through age five. It is in these first stages of life that children’s brains grow and develop at tremendous speed – making more than a million new neural connections per second – representing a vital foundation not only for health and wellbeing, but for the social and emotional capacities that will last them a lifetime.
Our strategy is focused on nurturing three primary areas: Care, Communities, and Policies.
Nurturing Care
Through unique educational tools, content, training, and support services, we seek to strengthen early childhood development by building socio-emotional skills and competencies for parents, caregivers, and children.
For the last four years, we have supported ¡Listos a Jugar!, a cross-platform educational program – created by Sesame Workshop in collaboration with Fundación FEMSA and other partners – to promote healthy habits in preschool children related to eating, playing, and personal care. The program uses technology to bring useful content to children in 13 Latin American countries through episodes and songs starring Sesame Street characters. In 2021, in cooperation with our network of regional allies, we focused on strengthening the program’s community component within educational and childcare centers by launching a new module to support social-emotional skills and positive parenting. Bringing together more than 30 experts from four countries, we created a new awareness campaign that reached five million people, including 150 educational centers, 750 educators, and 15,000 children and their families.
Caring in an Ongoing Pandemic
Stretching into a second year, the global health crisis has continued to bring incredible challenges for millions of families, caregivers, and schools around the world. From social isolation stemming from school closures to ensuring safe returns to classrooms, Fundación FEMSA has endeavored to extend nurturing care to the people and institutions responsible for the wellbeing of children impacted by the pandemic.
Nurturing Communities
We recognize that the environments in which children develop not only influence their own growth and development, but also impact the surrounding communities and society at large. Through this lens, we focus on promoting healthy, sustainable, and stimulating public spaces where children can feel safe and spend quality family time.
Tactical implementations allow us to bring improvements in public spaces to communities with an early childhood perspective, and in 2021 we benefited more than 22,000 people through seven interventions in Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico. For example:
With the intention of generating systemic change, we are focused on growing and stimulating a community of multisectoral leaders in Latin American cities with the tools they need to promote public spaces for early childhood. Together with the C+LAB, an initiative of the Tecnológico de Monterrey, we organized a cycle of interactive dialogues, produced an evidence-based guide of recommendations on the optimal design of public spaces for children and families in the context of vulnerability, and produced a catalog of ideas with concrete examples of interventions in public spaces with a focus on children. Through these initiatives, we have reached more than 2,000 people from multiple countries, including the United States, Canada, El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Poland, and Spain.
In 2021 we benefited more than 22,000 people through seven interventions in Guatemala, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico.
Nurturing Policies
To position early childhood on both public and private sector agendas in Latin America in a more visible way, we promote the understanding, awareness, and mobilization of both sectors through policies that put children at the center of society. For example:
As of year-end 2021, more than 112 companies had registered for the Early Childhood Guide for Business, and almost 4,000 people participated in digital events.
Arts & Culture
A fourth area of focus for the Fundación FEMSA is to engage communities and catalyze social change through art, including sponsoring unique sensory experiences and thought-provoking dialogues. Our Arts & Culture program has three clear objectives:
Strengthening the Art Ecosystem
For more than 40 years, the FEMSA Collection has sought to promote the cultural and artistic appreciation of modern and contemporary artistic production in Latin America during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Collection comprises 1,387 works from 785 artists, which FEMSA shares with diverse communities through exhibitions, a loan program, and multiple cultural activities.
Similarly, for nearly 30 years, the FEMSA Biennial has served as a vehicle to recognize, strengthen, stimulate, and disseminate artistic talent and visual creation across Mexico through a traveling platform of educational events and cultural exhibitions. The XIV edition which ran from October 2020 to April 2021 in five locations in the state of Michoacan, Mexico, reached more than 3,800 people from Mexico, Colombia, and the United States. Among its activities are the educational, public, and editorial program, as well as talks in collaboration with strategic partners.
In October 2021, the Fundación FEMSA, Coca-Cola FEMSA and OXXO sponsored the 49th edition of the International Cervantino Festival, which will run through April 2022. Two exhibitions from the FEMSA Collection were presented in hybrid format to promote a dialogue on the identities of artists across different generations.
Promoting Empathy through the Experiences of Others
In 2021, Fundación FEMSA continued to support and expand Puerto Abierto, a series of community programs aimed at using artistry and creativity to build bridges of collaboration with the families of migrants and refugees living in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. For example, on Nuevo León Heritage Day in March 2021, the FEMSA Collection presented the talk, Escribir las Fronteras (Writing the Borders), featuring migrant testimonies and remarks from four experts on migratory flow, each emphasizing in their own way the intangible heritage shared by the migrant community.
In another extension of the Puerto Abierto initiative, in August 2021 Fundación FEMSA launched the Caravana radiofónica podcast on Spotify, Apple and Google platforms to share the stories of migrant families and children in their own voices. Across seven episodes, testimonies of personal experience promote greater connections of community understanding, awareness, and empathy.
The Art & Science of Migratory Geology
In November 2021, Fundación FEMSA and DistritoTec opened Geologías Migratorias, a project combining the art of migratory mobility with the science of geological knowledge. Presented in two spaces at the Tecnológico de Monterrey through 2022, the installation considers the notions of body, territory, time, and movement as a bridge between the human transitory experience and planet Earth. Preparations and workshops with the artist entailed carrying out expeditions to the mountains of Nuevo León to explore the soil and rocks from different geological eras while questioning the existence of geopolitical borders. Through these explorations, the artist worked with migrants to help them understand how geology can provide a sense of connection and home in a new territory. Learn more
Art Without Barriers: Expanding Inclusivity & Accessibility
Finally, at the Fundación FEMSA, we strongly believe in the power of art to transform, triggering new emotions, reflections, and mindsets capable of spurring change. In early 2021, with DistritoTec, we presented the open-air exhibition, Los Otros Lados, as a way to bring the stories of migrants to life. An extension of the Puerto Abierto program, the exhibition featured photographs and quotes from the point of view of migrants, conveying a message that contemporary migration is a phenomenon without a single origin or single destination.
Later in the year, Fundación FEMSA and the FEMSA Collection again collaborated with DistritoTec to present another open-air, interactive exhibition, Caminamos Imaginando Otros Mundos. On display from May through September 2021, the project helped make visible the local neighbors who coexist in the same space, including migrants, reminding us that there are more things that unite us than separate us.
With DistritoTec, we presented the open-air exhibition,
Los Otros Lados,
as a way to bring the stories of migrants to life.