The Vision

Villa el Carmen is comprised of rural farming communities with scarce resources and limited access to health care, educational facilities, modern infrastructure and marketplaces to sell goods. In total, 49 communities are scattered throughout the municipality, and their residents are looking to local and national governments and private businesses to provide employment opportunities and social services that they desperately need.

Hope and Development Foundation is determined to link recreational tourism and responsible real estate development with social responsibility in a lifetime marriage of resources. By implementing a comprehensive social development plan, Hope and Development Foundation seeks to provide primary and secondary education, vocational training, job opportunities and improved health. The plan aspires to offer affordable housing options as part of a holistic, master-planned community development, allowing each individual to acquire his own home and fulfill a valued role in the greater community: purpose, health, and significance comprise a lifestyle of hope and passion.

Two key partners are assisting in this endeavor. The first, Gran Pacifica Beach and Golf Resort, encompasses over 2,500 acres along the Pacific coast with 3.5 miles of beachfront property, condominiums, master-planned neighborhoods, shopping centers and golf links routed throughout the development. The scope of the project is as vast as the impact it will have on the surrounding communities.

The newest partner is the International Baseball Academy of Central America, or IBACA. An affiliate of the International Baseball Association, IBACA is focused on the identification and development of baseball talent in Central America in hopes of increasing the flow of quality players into Major League Baseball.

The IBACA program will include intensive player training in baseball fundamentals as well as training for coaches, umpires, administrators, scouts and other essential personnel. In addition to the baseball curriculum, all participants will receive classroom instruction in computing, mathematics, English, humanities, business skills, entrepreneurship and more. This schooling will be essential for players to obtain scholarships to U.S. universities or move into careers in professional baseball. This strong focus on education will enable all IBACA participants to improve their lives and become responsible community role models, even if they are not ultimately successful in baseball.

Moreover, IBACA has committed to working closely with the Hope and Development Foundation to hire administrative and support staff from the local labor force as often as possible, helping to elevate the standard of living of the surrounding community as well as that of the young men who enter the academy to pursue their dreams of playing professional baseball.

The Hope and Development Foundation will not be the first program to have a presence in Villa El Carmen; already, several Non-Government Organizations (NGO’s) are at work to alleviate the effects of pressing problems facing the people of the area. These organizations address issues in many key areas, including health care, education, economic development, family and social development and physical development, and have become experts in their respective spheres of influence in their work. Even so, they often work independently of each other, opening the door for duplication of services or inefficiencies in the implementation of their programs. The Hope and Development Foundation hopes to take the lead in cooperating with each of these organizations to bring the greatest success possible by sharing knowledge and resources.

The solution to the problem of poverty and lack of opportunity in Villa El Carmen must be holistic in its approach and must address every critical need. Part of this solution is the Hope and Development Foundation, an organization which can implement and oversee the coordination and integration of entities from the private and public sector in order to provide life-changing solutions for the communities of Villa El Carmen.