I am a Senior Governance Advisor at ICMA and have been with ICMA International since 1997 working mostly on programs in Latin America. I recently traveled to Panama on a USAID-funded Program, Alcance Positivo, which strives to advance citizen security and community safety through USG-assisted youth-at-risk development gang prevention activities in target municipalities and communities. ICMA is a member of the implementation team, which is headed by Creative Associates International. The three-year program began in August 2010. It is only my second time to Panama and the first time I only spent 2 nights in Panama City, so that didn’t really count. This time I was able to go to Colón, which is the second largest province in Panama (2000 pop. 204,208), at the Caribbean end of the Panama Canal. Colón was surrounded by, but not part of, the former Panama Canal Zone. It was made a free trade zone in 1953 and is the world's second largest duty-free port. Outside of the free trade zone (which I didn’t visit), the city (with an aprox. population of 50,000 habitants) itself though doesn’t show any signs of prosperity. The old Spanish-style buildings with large balconies in the city center are all decayed, with paint having peeled off several decades ago. The newer 5-6 story apartment buildings are in no better shape and alleyways throughout the city are strewn with garbage and rodents. I only saw mice as apparently the rats come out at night… I’ll take their word for it and won’t be going back to check. I’m lucky, I have a choice…

The city is crowded. The Colonenses, as the people who live there are called, actually build makeshift shacks on the balconies of the old Spanish-style buildings, renting them presumably from the people who are living inside. Frankly, I’d rather live outside as it is HOT in Colón. Luckily there is a breeze from the ocean but you have to be outside in the street to feel it.

The city is made up of 18 streets, each of which essentially belongs to a gang. In fact, many Colonenses, whether by direct affiliation with a gang, or family relationship or other connection, are prisoners of their blocks. Should they cross the block into the territory of another gang – literally across the street – they would likely be shot. There is a park that runs right through the city to the ocean. Parts of that park are also off-limits to certain gangs or people affiliated with gangs. What really struck me is that there is nowhere for kids to go and play – no playgrounds, no green spaces, very few internet cafes and no sports centers.

The  Alcance Positivo Program is providing grants to NGOs to fund community centers called “Centros de Alcance” (outreach centers) for at-risk-youth in several cities in Panama, including Colon. ALL kids in Colon are at risk as far as I’m concerned. At the Center I went to see, which is still under construction, there was one ping-pong table, 2 rackets, one ball and 6 kids who wanted to play. They took turns such that when one kid lost a point he would pass the racket along to the next kid to play. It worked like clockwork but I wondered as I witnessed this if this would play out as well in a YMCA in the States… Clearly these kids had learned to work together in a resource-poor world. It was a pretty powerful and hopeful image in a way. One has to believe that if these kids are able to avail themselves of the programs that ultimately will be provided by the Centro de Alcance, they will not take them for granted and they will share what they learn with others in the community. I’m pleased to play a small part through my work at ICMA in fostering these types of programs. ICMA’s assistance on this Project is not at the grassroots level, building these centers, for example, but at a broader strategic level. We are helping to put into place and strengthen mechanisms, in this case, Inter-Institutional Municipal Crime Prevention Committees, to coordinate the efforts of NGOs, police, private sector and government officials to support projects like the Centros de Alcance and put into place programs that benefit youth-at-risk and create a more positive climate for the families of Colón and several other cities in Panama. Our work is easy – it’s the folks that live in these neighborhoods day in and day out who volunteer to participate on these committees who have the hard work. We just have to give them the skills so that they are prepared and motivated to continue on after the Project ends.