www.royalresortsfoundation.org<\/a> or during your stay at Royal Resorts.<\/p>\n![\"Second](\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/second-race-royal-resorts.jpg\")
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<\/h2>\nBuilding a Home for Dani<\/h2>\n
In February 2016, our First Royal Resorts Foundation Race, organized in partnership with Erase Una Vez un Hogar A.C. (Once Upon a Time a Home), helped raise money to build a home for Dani, a little boy from the village of Leona Vicario with brittle bone syndrome. Dani and his family are now settled comfortably in their new house, which is equipped with foam floors, ramps and other aids to meet his needs.<\/p>\n
![\"Dani\u2019s](\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/dani-01.jpg\")
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<\/h2>\nTherapy for Physically Challenged Children at the Cancun CRIT Clinic<\/h2>\n
In November 2016, Royal Resorts Foundation made a donation to the CRIT Rehabilitation Center in Cancun (Centro de Rehabilitacion e Inclusion Infantil Teleton) to cover the costs of physiotherapy for six children with motor, bone and neuromuscular diseases.<\/p>\n
The CRIT Center is run by a Mexican charity called Fundacion Teleton, which has 23 CRIT Centers all over the country and a Children\u2019s Cancer Hospital, and attends 294,172 children.<\/p>\n
CRIT Centers provide diagnosis, physiotherapy, multisensory stimulation, occupational therapy and care for children with mobility challenges, cerebral palsy, autism, cancer and other illnesses. Dedicated teams of medical staff and volunteers help children from low-income households, providing access to treatment that will improve their quality of life. Counseling, health and hygiene seminars are also available for the parents of special needs children and for those with terminally ill children.<\/p>\n
As a result of the therapy they receive at the CRIT, some children become stronger and more independent, taking their first steps, learning to swim, dress themselves and move around more. Others begin to express themselves through art or practice their language skills.<\/p>\n
![\"crit\"](\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/crit.jpg\")
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Helping Women get Vital Cancer Screening<\/h2>\n
In 2016, Royal Resorts Foundation donations funded vital breast cancer screening, mammograms, ultrasounds or treatment for 693 women on a low income.<\/p>\n
The Foundation\u2019s partner for this cause is Grupo Desafio de Quintana Roo, A.C. Founded in 1999 by a group of women who have fought their own battle with the disease, the Cancun-based NGO started life as a support network for breast cancer patients. Its mission is now to help all those living with the disease, regardless of sex, age or type of cancer.<\/p>\n
In addition to helping women from the poorest sectors of society with cancer screening and treatments, Grupo Desafio seeks to raise cancer awareness by giving seminars on the disease and the importance of early detection in local communities. It also offers self-help and counseling sessions for patients and their families.<\/p>\n
![\"Royal](\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/royal-resorts-foundation.jpg\")
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Employee Emergency Relief Fund<\/h2>\n
The Royal Resorts Foundation gives emergency aid to staff coping with grave illnesses such as cancer, major surgery or accidents in the family and to care for the terminally ill. In 2016, it helped seven employees with health problems, including treatment for scoliosis, eye surgery, bladder surgery in a case of spina bifida, epilepsy medication, speech therapy for a child with Down\u2019s syndrome, hearing aids and assistance with funeral expenses.<\/p>\n
![\"Employee](\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/employee.jpg\")
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Building a future for children in need<\/h2>\n
The Royal Resorts Foundation awards scholarships to a class of children attending primary school in Colegio Mano Amiga in the Ciudad de la Alegria community center on the outskirts of Cancun.<\/p>\n
Colegio Mano Amiga students come from poor families, often from single parent households, migrant families or vulnerable backgrounds overshadowed by domestic violence, addiction, crime or other problems that would make it impossible for the child to continue his\/her studies if it were not for this support.<\/p>\n
At Colegio Mano Amiga primary and secondary school, children study and play in a safe, happy environment. They have access to nutritious meals and medical treatment and an education that will give them hope and a better chance in life.<\/p>\n
![\"Mano](\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/mano-amiga.jpg\")
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<\/h2>\nSaving the Mayan Jungle<\/h2>\n
In partnership with Amigos de Sian Ka\u2019an, the Foundation is helping to fund initiatives to protect the Mayan Jungle and its precious wildlife and the fragile network of underground rivers that flows deep in the limestone beneath our feet.<\/p>\n
Through the environmental services payment program coordinated by Amigos de Sian Ka\u2019an, 22 landowners in Ejido Juarez and four in El Eden reserve in northern Quintana Roo are receiving grants in return for preserving the forest on their land for posterity instead of clearing it for agriculture or cattle ranching. To date, 400 hectares of forest have been saved using this system. Not only is the forest protected for the rare animals and birds that inhabit it, it represents the capture and storage of 30 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions generated by water production, water treatment plants and pumping in the Benito Juarez municipal district where Cancun is located.<\/p>\n
Participating landowners recognize that it is crucial to protect the jungle and their enthusiasm has spread to eight other ejidos <\/em>where landowners are also interested in joining the program.<\/p>\nEl Eden reserve is of vital ecological importance in the area. Straddling a natural fault line, it is a zone of jungle and marshland peppered with cenotes, underground rivers and lagoons where water is plentiful year-round, attracting wildlife. It is home to forest and wetland birds, whitetail deer, peccary, spider monkey, jaguar, puma, ocelot and anteater, among others.<\/p>\n
Endangered as a result of deforestation, uncontrolled growth, ranching and poaching, rare jaguars and pumas still inhabit the territory. El Eden Reserve has been identified as a breeding area for jaguars and it is thought that females seek it out as a refuge to give birth. Using camera traps attached to trees along jungle trails, biologists are studying the big cats\u2019 movements and those of the animals they prey upon such as deer, peccary, agouti and ocellated turkey.<\/p>\n
The goal is to expand the environmental services program in the north and center of the state, linking larger areas of forest to the Sian Ka\u2019an biosphere reserve and creating natural wildlife corridors for threatened species like the jaguar. Quintana Roo has the largest population of jaguars in Mexico, estimated at around 800 of the 4,000 that still roam the country. Protecting this emblem species, once held sacred by the Maya and the Aztecs, is a priority for Mexico\u2019s environmental ministry and conservationists.<\/p>\n
The project to create a natural corridor in northern Quintana Roo was given an extra boost recently at the COP 13 biodiversity summit in Cancun in December.<\/p>\n
The cenotes and underground rivers of the Yucatan Peninsula are breathtakingly beautiful and a hidden treasure for biologists, archaeologists and cave divers. The only source of fresh water in the area, they are also fragile and under threat from urban development and pollution. Amigos de Sian Ka\u2019an is mapping the network of underground rivers, studying threats to the aquifer and cenotes and working with government authorities, universities and the private sector to develop a water management policy to protect them.<\/p>\n
![\"jaguar\"](\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/jaguar.jpg\")
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<\/h2>\nGifts of Toys for Children in Need<\/h2>\n
In what has become a Christmas tradition at Royal Resorts, employees, members and guests collected toys to give a Kings Day surprise to children at La Escuelita de Sonia, a home school helping underprivileged children in Alfredo V Bonfil community on the outskirts of Cancun on January 6, 2017.<\/p>\n
January 6, Dia de Los Reyes Magos is the day that Mexican children traditionally receive gifts and the Spreading Happiness Party at Sonia\u2019s School was a fun morning for all with toys, games, pi\u00f1atas filled with candies, cake and other goodies.<\/p>\n
In 2016, toys were distributed at a school in the village of Leona Vicario.<\/p>\n
The Royal Resorts Foundation accepts donations of educational material, new toys and used clothing (children and adults) in good condition all year round.
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![\"Royal](\"https:\/\/www.royalresorts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/royal-resorts-foundation.jpg\")
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