Panama's Tourist Assistants: Include Inclusion and Replicate?

To reach the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals for the reduction of poverty many innovative programs are called for. One model with potential is the Tourist Assistants program in Panama.

Can it be adapted so that there is a special emphasis on hiring people with disabilities and training all Tourist Assistants in working with travelers who experience disabilities?

The program called "Tourist Assistants", is an idea the Minister of Tourism of Panama, Rubén Blades had at the end of the year 2004. He met with a group of youngsters, all of them former gang members from popular areas of Panamá in the Washington Hotel in Colon City. In this meeting he explained his desire to implement a program where they could become tourist assistants after receiving full and complete training.

Once the program was accomplished with the former gang members from the San Felipe area who had been trained in tourism and the history of Panama, good manners, safety rules and basic English during a 6 month period, during which they received a monthly basic payment with the purpose of helping them leave their old habits and start a new and better life.

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