There is an opportunity to become deep and longterm partners and to bring systematic change, urges Olga Ramos, President of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico in this video session with Rita Ferro, President of Advertising Sales at Disney.

In this session, Ramos, a former senior Walmart executive, provides an overview of the many issues facing Puerto Rico, including the systemic issue of child poverty on the island and the organization’s vision to cut the poverty rate by 50% in 10 years.

And she relays the work of the Clubs during the pandemic by helping the children with their studies and providing other support to the communities.

This 5-part series abut diversity and inclusion is made possible by a generous contribution to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico  from Disney Advertising Sales.

Editor’s Note: Since 2017, I have been been an advocate for this group. Please find the latest video report from San Juan with the Clubs’ president Olga Ramos. You can make a tax deductible contribution right here.

Gracias Rita! 

“We kind of fill the gap that the education system leaves in Puerto Rico,” Ramos explained in a one-on-one discussion with Phil Cowdell, formerly Global President of Client Services at GroupM.

In Puerto Rico, nine out of 10 schools “are failing schools” based on standardized tests, according to Ramos. Add to this some “crazy stats” cited by Cowdell: Maria damaged 82% of the island’s homes, 42% of the population had daily food shortages and 44% of children have a registered mental health impact from the storm.

“That’s pretty cataclysmic and we’re talking about this is part of the United States of America,” said Cowdell.

The bottom line education-wise was that children in Puerto Rico missed a half a year of schooling in a system already burdened by systemic failure.

“In Puerto Rico, we tend to be short minded, so we forget really quick, and we will say that we reopened schools six months after and that we passed our students. We pass them,” said Ramos. “How do you insert those kids in the formal economy later on, ten years from now?”

In the aftermath of Maria, her organization reframed its services to include things like yoga and mindfulness “so we can try to help the country doing the job they should have done with the storm.”

Having been involved early on in emergency relief efforts, Cowdell recalled that just over a month after Maria, “the far end of the island hadn’t seen milk for six weeks.” At a Costco store, “there were people there buying flat screen TV’s because they live on Ashford Avenue in the downtown part of San Juan.”

His point was that when the storm first made land, “it was a very democratic storm, it impacted everybody. It became very economic the week, the month and then the period after it. And what we see now is an economic impact.”

This video was produced in San Juan, Puerto Rico at the Beet.TV executive retreat. Please find more videos from the series on this page. The Beet Retreat was presented by NCC along with Amobee, Dish Media, Oath and Google.

According to Ramos, tutors are a critical component of helping kids through the school process so they gain future potential.

“We want to make sure that they’re able to insert in the work force. Once they’re done with high school, we want to get them to college. We want those that are not wanting to go to college to have a job as well. The tutors have been that companionship for our kids. That mentor.”

Tutoring goes well beyond assisting young people with homework, Ramos explains. “Many of our kids do not have that father figure. At times they don’t even have the mother figure. Some of our kids are growing with their grandparents. So our tutors have become that person that guides them through the educational path.”

BGCPR’s previous after-school efforts had been more general in nature. “We did assistance with homework. We were more focused in Spanish,” Ramos says. “We have worked to elevate our offer in order to make sure that they’re more prepared to be successful in school. In Puerto Rico, most of our schools are not up to par with what kids need.”

A PLEA FROM ANDY PLESER:   Please donate to the Boys & Girls Club via this donation page.  Contributions are tax deductible.   You can use this page for your tax deductible contribution.

This video was produced in San Juan in November.

These and other impacts on the media community in Puerto Rico will be the topics of discussion during a special session at Beet Retreat 2018 from Nov. 28-30. Claudio, who is General Manager of Hearts & Science on the island, will be joined by other industry practitioners to share their on-the-ground experiences before and after Hurricane Maria.

In this video interview with Beet.TV conducted on the island, Claudio says his agency is using more radio and outdoor, in addition to being more creative in the way it buys TV. “We are emphasizing the importance of digital and social media as well, because people are connected now and they are using more of those vehicles to be able to understand what’s going around,” Claudio says. “Brands are maximizing that opportunity in creative ways to find all their options on how to become relevant within those communities.”

A big change for Hearts & Science is the realization that it had to become more flexible in the way it does planning. “It’s more real-time planning based on the situation. We are maximizing the resources the best way we can by looking at day-to-day involvement of the community.”

As counselors to its clients, the agency “now are more on board with their businesses as well. We take into consideration what’s going on and we decide what to do next in a better way,” Claudio says.

He considers Puerto Rico to be a test market “because everything happened very quickly. After that situation, I guess we learned that it’s important to be prepared, to have plans and be ready to move on in cases of a disaster and how you maintain your brands and messages across the market without loosing your leadership and your strategies.”

When the full extent of the impact of Hurricane Maria became clear, it galvanized the media community to get involved so as to move forward as an industry. “And that’s all we did. We got together, we helped each other.”

Consumers on the island “are now more connected than ever,” presenting advertisers with “great opportunities on TV, streaming video as well. Many people are moving from cable TV and traditional TV to other devices for content. We have been finding ways to connect with those different communities now with different opportunities,” Claudio says.

Joining Claudio for the Beet Retreat 2018 special session titled Lessons Learned: Hurricane Maria’s Impact on the Media Industry of Puerto Rico, will be Jose Cancela, President and GM, Telemundo Puerto Rico & NBC Puerto Rico; Melissa Burgos, Marketing Director USVI/Puerto Rico, AT&T Mobility; and Freddie Hernandez, General Manager, Procter & Gamble Puerto Rico. The session will be moderated by Phil Cowdell, President of Client Services at GroupM, who has been deeply involved with Puerto Rico relief and recovery.

The session will conclude with a briefing by Olga Ramos, President of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico. She will present data on the impact of the storm on the island’s youth and her organizations’ efforts to improve their future.

After Maria struck, “there was no electricity, there was no phone, there was no cable,” says Freddie Hernandez. “So we undusted the radio book and started using radio and outdoor as the main vehicles to really communicate with our consumers.”

At Beet Retreat 2018 in San Juan from Nov. 28-30, there will be a special session titled Lessons Learned: Hurricane Maria’s Impact on the Media Industry of Puerto Rico. Among other topics, Hernandez and other executives will discuss how in the absence of broadband advertisers turned to over-the-air broadcasting along with traditional media like outdoor, radio and print.

In this interview with Beet.TV conducted on the island, Hernandez explains how many Puerto Ricans have been cutting their cable cords and migrating to digital services like online shopping after their experiences in dealing with the devastation wrought by Maria.

“We were on the verge of re-launching our media investment, trying to look into digital and how things are changing with Millennials and how media is being consumed on the island,” Hernandez recalls. “It doesn’t necessarily follow how it is consumed in the States and other developed areas as we’re lagging a little bit behind. But we know that we need to get into the digital arena.”

Having to rely on traditional media “was a great exercise to really acknowledge that radio is still there. And we sometimes take it for granted and focus so much in digital, in mobile and other platforms that we forget about radio. It was very helpful for us,” Hernandez explains. “After that we have seen a quantum leap in terms of the media consumption by the consumers here in Puerto Rico.”

Lacking cable television and electricity, many residents migrated to phones and wireless communications where possible.

“So we’re seeing a lot of movement in that direction and you can see in the trends of people not renewing their cable system and looking at other options to consume media. So we are really on the verge of understanding what are the different venues that people are using to really change,” Hernandez says.

Before Maria there was one online grocery provider. “We have three now and they are expanding aggressively because consumers are ready to embrace what digital can bring to their lives and how they can do better by using this technology advances that we have available.”

P&G has customers who are doing 10% of their business “with online selling that was nonexistent a year ago. It’s a movement that is moving very fast and it’s here to stay. So we need to make sure that we get ahead of the curve and start looking at what are the options we can tackle…try to be the number one investing in technology, investing in venues that are going to help us continue leading the market in the categories that we compete in.”

Joining Hernandez to discuss media in Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Maria will be Melissa Burgos, Marketing Director USVI/Puerto Rico, AT&T Mobility; Jose Cancela, President, Telemundo/NBCUniversal Puerto Rico; and Andres Claudio, General Manager, Hearts & Science, Puerto Rico. The session will be moderated by Phil Cowdell, President of Client Services at GroupM, who has been deeply involved with Puerto Rico relief and recovery.

The session will conclude with a briefing by Olga Ramos, President of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico, who will present data on the impact of the storm on the island’s youth and her organizations’ efforts to improve their future.

With a successful 13-year career at Walmart and having spent eight years on the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico, Ramos had decided it was time for a change.

“What I did was great in the business sector, but then I think that as a Puerto Rican myself I have to make sure that I leave a legacy and that I work to make a difference,” says Ramos, who was a featured guest at the recent Beet Retreat in the City. In this interview with Phil Cowdell, Global President, Client Services at GroupM, Ramos explains how the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico—which is affiliated with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and has just celebrated its 50th year—had decided to shift its focus in the face of an economic crisis that has lasted for more than a decade.

Several years before Hurricane Maria, “We decided that we needed to do things differently. In order to prepare our kids and youth to be prepared for what the future has in store for them.”

At one of its 13 club houses, the organization set about trying to change “the systemic conditions in which our kids live” by concentrating on training them to benefit from tourism. From ages six to 12, youths began to learn about the tourism culture. “When they’re teens, we work with them on entreprenuership. We start putting that seed in their minds that there are things you can think through, there are things that you can come up with. You can have your own business or you can work through another business,” says Ramos.

Part of the effort involved training parents and guardians as well. “It’s about home stability and changing the conditions for the kids. The kids do not choose to live poor or to be born poor,” she adds.

This is different than in the U.S., where the focus is mainly in children, notes Cowdell, who along with many other GroupM representatives became active in Puerto Rico relief efforts immediately after Hurricane Maria struck. However, in Puerto Rico, “You can’t just help the child, you have to help the parent as well,” he says.

Among the success stories at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico, one in particular stands out to Cowdell and Ramos, who had mentored a young girl in her high school years and was determined to help her succeed through college and beyond. “We had to involve her mother because it was a single mother trying to let her only girl go out and study,” Ramos recalls. The girl had posted grades of 4.0 in both high school and college, where she studied chemical engineering and won summer internships to Harvard, Georgetown and Ohio State University.

She eventually made her way to NASA with assistance from the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico.

“Everyone has human potential,” says Cowdell. Then he asks Ramos about the future.

“I think there’s hope,” she says. “Puerto Ricans are resilient.”

At a reception following Beet Retreat in the City, there was an auction to assist the Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico. So far, that effort has raised more than $20,000.

This video was produced at the Beet Retreat in City & Town Hall on June 6, 2018 in New York City. The event and video series are presented by LiveRamp, TiVo, true[X] and 605. For more videos from the series, please visit this page.

On May 15, Beet.TV went to San Juan to interview Boys & Girls Clubs leaders and members for a status report on the island’s post-hurricane progress. It was made possible by a grant from interactive advertising pioneer true[X].

As it has since the natural disaster, the advertising and media community will coalesce once again to assist the organization in a fund-raiser that will take place during the Beet.TV Retreat in the City on June 6. It’s organized under the auspices of Stand With Puerto Rico. Olga Ramos, President of Boys & Girls Clubs of Puerto Rico, will be one of the featured guests at the Retreat.

The San Juan interviews begin with Beraliz Germocen explaining how she and other young people have responded to “a state of chaos and downfall.”

Says Germocen, “We cleared our streets, we got out the garbage, we aided our sick children, we gave food to each other. We know we have this potential and this spirit in us to fight.”

As efforts progress, however, Germocen explains that it’s not easy to keep everyone motivated toward the common goal of complete recovery. This poses challenges. “As a youth, I find in myself, how can I reach or approach a fellow youth or adults, elderly and everyone in my community to take the next step?”

Says Cotto of Germocen, “She’s a powerful young woman and she’s an example of the courage of our teens, of our young, of our kids in our community. They want to do something different. They only need the opportunity.”

While Puerto Ricans in general are known for being resilient, “When you look at young people I have to say it’s resiliency at its best,” says Ramos, an attorney and longtime Walmart executive who managed all the Sam’s Clubs on Puerto Rico before assuming her present role. “They’re looking for new things to do. They’re looking for avenues to get their success. They’re looking for avenues for growth. I think that what this situation has brought to the table and has shown them is that we can come out stronger from this situation.”

Another club member, Bryan Colon, tells Beet.TV that the eight months since Hurricane Maria have been “mind blowing.” And while it’s hard for him to envision himself in a few years not being a part of the Boys & Girls Clubs, “They will always be with me in my knowledge, in the way I am, so it’s not like I’m going to lose them forever.

“If I become rich, you never know, I can make investments like a lot of people are doing. Helping them in the same way they helped me, and help them help some other people. That’s a lot of helps.”

“Luckily, our club in Vieques was directly affected but was not directly impacted. So we were able to reopen our club really fast,” says Olga Ramos, President of Boys & Girls Club Puerto Rico. “Our Vieques community is a small community and it’s committed. And our Boys & Girls Club has become kind of the community center for the Vieques people.”

The Club has been handling everything from assisting the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide Housing & Urban Development meals, Ramos explains in this interview with Beet.TV.

“Basically our club is where all of the NGO’s are coming together to provide relief efforts and help to the island. Besides our educational program, we’re doing everything we can do to make sure that the community bounces back to normal.”

Located eight miles east of the Puerto Rican mainland, Vieques relies on its own water sources, which were shut down by Hurricane Maria. So finding replacement supplies has been at the forefront of most relief efforts.

“Last week, we were awarded by the Banco Popular Foundation a desalination plant that we’re going to be taking to Vieques next Monday,” Ramos says. “As well, we were able to get a community water tank that would allow us to provide water to the community, either filtered rain water or pond water and make sure that we provide safe water for our kids.

“Looking into the medium term, we’re partnering with other institutions to make sure that we provide a sustainable system where Vieques people can get purified water for drinking.”

On Sept. 20, when Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, the group ViequesLove was formed to provide assistance to the island. As of Nov. 9, the group had raised $879,420 from 7,122 donors via its GoFundMe website.

Stand With Puerto, The Industry Steps Up 

This video reports on the pressing issues facing Puerto Rico and the organizations that are having an impact. It is part of a media industry initiative titled Stand With Puerto Rico. It is organized by Beet.TV and Omnicom Media Group along with founding partners AT&T AdWorks and Teads. Please find additional videos from the series here. The series was recorded in Miami at the Festival of Media/LATAM on October 30.