Captivated was the Spanish delegation that joined the international president of the Castilla del Oro Foundation, Duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, during the cultural and folkloric acts given in their honor by the local and municipal authorities of the Parita District.

This tour was organized by the Castilla del Oro Foundation who, under the vision of entrepreneur Richard Fifer Carles, boosts tourism projects in the central region of the country, taking advantage of the income from the mining activity of the company Petaquilla Gold SA.

During the cultural act organized by the Parita Municipality were present, the president of the Castilla del Oro Foundation in Panama, Pascual Montanes Duato; Jaime Ruiz Pena, general director of the public enterprises of the Autonomous Region of Extremadura, Spain; Beatriz Flores, Luis Miguel Montanes, Gabriel Bellomusto, and Juan Rivero.

The tour is part of the efforts to promote the development of rural tourism in Panama through the Castilla del Oro Foundation in Spain and Panama, project conceived by Panamanian entrepreneur Richard Fifer

The Nazareno community is under constant growth, like all the other communities neighboring the Molejon Mining Project, led by Panamanian entrepreneur Richard Fifer-Carles, and this growth comes with changes and among them, needs that have to be supplied progressively. The Petaquilla Foundation, with the mission of accomplishing sustainable development in the region, independently from the mining project, collaborates with training the little ones.  In Nazareno (Donoso district) are located the Kindergartens, an institution that works towards the progress of the children in the area.  Petaquilla foundation has collaborated with this institution throughout 2011 and will continue next year.

Olga Ortega is the teacher in charge and she stated, “the support of the Foundation is very important for the daily work with our children.  Materials and tools are very welcomed.  We are very thankful”.

Health actions in benefit of the people

The mining company Petaquilla Gold S.A. led by engineer Richard Fifer-Carles has organized activities directed to coordinate efforts with state institutions in benefit of the residents of Castilla el Oro.  They prioritized both preventative and curative health actions among which are highlighted: medical tours, maintenance of health posts with donations of medicine and cleaning supplies, care to people with disabilities, helicopter transportation for accident patients in areas with difficult access, first aid kit donations to schools, family planning conferences, and prevention of family violence and abuse.

Another priority axis of the Petaquilla foundation is Education. With this purpose the Petaquilla Foundation has built school buildings like the Coclesito Senior High School and the Teacher’s shelter.  Additionally, it has provided logistics support to the schools around the Mining Project.

Thanks to the upturn that tourism has registered in the beach areas of the province of Cocle, that according to official figures there are already 10 thousand rooms that during the peak season of summer can accommodate 20 thousand tourists, the Castilla del Oro Foundation, under the vision of the engineer Richard Fifer-Carles, hopes that a huge amount of these visitors tour the surrounding communities, and leave in their town the benefits that are created by this activity.

This is how it was raised by the executive director of the foundation, Jorge Isaac Obon, who noted that today the ones that benefit of this growth as the hotels and not the people. “So that’s our real objective, create a touristic development in this five provinces and make all that money from tourism permeate in the rural areas”, said Obon.

To achieve this objective, Castilla del Oro Foundation, through its international president, the duke of Veragua, Cristobal Colon de Carvajal has built a bridge between Spain and Panama, in order to exchange experiences to replicate the Spanish example in rural communities of Panama.