HispanicBusiness

Esperanza ("Hope") International is dedicated to alleviating poverty in the San Diego-Tijuana trans-border region by building strong community leadership, while developing organizational skills and strengthened ties among community members.

The donation comes at an important time for Tijuana as a majority of the inhabitants live in great poverty. Some of Tijuana's poorest residents live in clapboard houses with no floors, heat or electricity. Many children struggle to receive an education and sometimes must walk three hours a day to the closest school where makeshift classrooms are set up in old farm stalls and abandoned buildings.

Tijuana Educational Linkage Committee
The NFL also will support its young neighbors in Tijuana, Mexico by donating $18,000 worth of computer supplies to the Tijuana Educational Linkage Committee. This organization seeks to improve educational opportunities and elevate the quality of life for Tijuana's young men and women by serving as a link between the business, government and academic sectors of the Tijuana community. The donated computer equipment will be distributed through the Tijuana school systems and will provide Tijuana's elementary schools with computer classrooms and Internet access.

Fundacion Televisa
The Super Bowl affords another opportunity for the NFL and Televisa, the largest Spanish-language media company in the world, to again implement the 'Touchdowns for Education' program through Fundacion Televisa, Televisa's charity arm and one of the leading charity organizations in Mexico.

This program provides computer labs to Tijuana schools for designated touchdowns scored during the NFC Championship game and Super Bowl XXXVII. The NFL and NFL Mexico will fund two computer labs at a cost of $18,000 each. Fundacion Televisa will at a minimum match these two labs for a total of four. On Friday, Jan. 24, NFL players and Televisa executives will participate in a ribbon cutting for one of the computer labs at a designated school in Tijuana. Televisa will create capsules of the event and broadcast them as part of its national Super Bowl coverage.

NFL Latino Scholarship Program
The NFL will contribute $50,000 in scholarships for Latino students in the San Diego area through the NFL Latino Scholarship Program. This program will provide scholarships as well as instructional courses involving basic money-management skills to Latino youth in the San Diego area.

Scholarships will be provided to youth at different stages of the educational process ranging from middle school students to graduating high school seniors. And because 90 percent of high school seniors nationwide graduate without basic money-management skills, the youngsters who receive the NFL scholarships will participate in a mandatory financial literacy program.

Additionally, the older students who receive cash grants for college through the NFL program can receive their scholarship via a debit card. This alternative will introduce the students to controlled spending via the use of a simulated "credit card" while also allowing the program to track appropriate expenditures.

The NFL and the San Diego County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (SDCHCC) also will partner with the U.S. Treasury Department to arrange for younger scholarship recipients to receive U.S. Savings Bonds. These bonds will then be available for students when they graduate from high school and further their education careers at two or four-year colleges/universities. The SDCHCC will match the NFL's donation with $20,000 and challenge the local corporate and civic communities to collectively match or surpass the Chamber's contribution.