20 YEARS
It has been our pleasure to share with you FIDEC’s first 20 years of hard work and accomplishments. We started this foundation with a very clear mission: extending to emerging countries the experience we had gathered with FUNCEI in Argentina in the field of prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Upon reviewing these two decades, we feel pleased with the goals met, grateful with those who joined us at every step, and hopeful about the future.
This celebration finds us enduring the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just 12 months ago, we hoped for vaccines that would help us stop infections and prevent deaths. This wish was fulfilled in several countries, but many others still hope to protect their most vulnerable populations. Thus, we have once again confirmed that vaccines are and will be a key tool against infections. To further promote their use, in 2021 we launched Funcei informa sobre vacunas (Funcei Informs about Vaccines), a one-stop, essential web site in Spanish for those looking for updated and trustworthy content in different formats.
Multiplatform content has also become a solid pillar of child education, one of our greatest passions. When healthy habits are learned and acquired in early childhood, they are more likely to persist into adulthood and provide better opportunities for physical, emotional, and intellectual development. This philosophy inspires all our programs for children, such as the 2021 program to teach them about the immune system, how it works, and why vaccines are their allies.
In Chaco (Argentina), socioeconomic conditions still severely compromise many children’s present and future. We have therefore set the goal to keep helping improve the first 1,000 days of so many lives. For this project, we used the funds raised in Miami with our 2020 charity Open Golf, a now traditional sporting event with two decades of history. To garner more support, we also organized the sixth FUNCEI’s Tea Party and Fashion Show, held online in 2021. And all those to wish be part of the change can still donate.
This is the commitment we made to Armenia in the nineties and that led to the later creation of FIDEC Armenia. The occupational health program at the wine company Tierras de Armenia was one of our first programs in this country, and we are proud and pleased that it has extended to two other companies to promote healthy lifestyles and provide all employees with free access to medical services, treatments, and vaccines.
Many other fond memories come flooding back as we remember the path shared with my daughter, Roxana Stamboulian, Executive Director of FIDEC and FUNCEI. As soon as FIDEC was created, in New York, we received the first donation to begin our mission: the fees waived by our legal counsel after he had given legal status to the charity of our dreams. His generous gesture will never be forgotten. From then on, an ever widening circle of friends, professionals, volunteers, companies, and NGOs have provided us, in one way or another, with the support we needed to perform our multiple activities. We thank you all for these 20 years together.
Here is to many more years working hand in hand!
Daniel Stamboulian