ALBA Bank to Invest Millions in Social Programs

 The ALBA Bank is accumulating investments for around $170 million USD to finance social initiatives, as part of the actions for cooperation in this field, sources of the institution reported today. In that reference, ALBA Bank's President Rafael Isea held a meeting with Ismael Gonzalez, coordinator of social policies of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of our Americas (ALBA).The funds are mainly devoted to support the programs ALBA Education, Cultural ALBA and ALBA Health, the entity said.According to Isea, turning education into the main force of change to continue consolidating the historic memory of the Latin American people is among the precepts that conceive these alternatives announced by the financial entity.Among those precepts, there is also integration and promotion of artists, as well as developing and implementing a single harmonized and centralized system for the bloc's member countries to register medicines.ALBA Education is already being implemented with the educational methods "Yes, I Can" and "Yes, I Can Continue," created by Cuban teachers, and is currently applied in Bolivia, Nicaragua and Dominica.In the altiplano, more than 500,000 Bolivians have received elementary education and in Nicaragua, approximately 800,000 people have accessed the same kind of education.In Dominica, a pilot experience with this method is being developed.The ALBA Bank not only boosts socio-productive projects and programs that are in line with a social reality, but also contribute to economic, political, cultural and trade integration, Isea concluded.