Biography
He was born in Panama City on November 13, 1978.
He completed his primary studies in the cities of Panama and David, where he obtained his bachelor’s degree in science at the Félix Olivares Contreras School.
Later he obtained the degrees in Advertising and Public Relations at the Autonomous University of Chiriquí.
Since 2009 he has been working as a volunteer in HIV prevention and other STIs, sexuality, sexual diversity and human rights in the Ngabe Buglé Indigenous Comarca and rural areas of the provinces of Chiriquí and Bocas del Toro.
He delves deeper into the subject of human rights and sexual diversity within regional projects in Central America, training officials from municipalities, provinces and institutions of the Panamanian state between 2014 and 2015.
Between 2015 and 2017 he serves as Country Manager for a non-governmental organization within the Project “Expanding and Strengthening the Response to HIV and Tuberculosis in Panama” financed by the Global Fund and administered by the UNDP in this country.
Parallel to this responsibility, he collaborates as a consultant in his country for the project “Promotion of the human rights of the elderly and respect for sexual diversity” by training seminars and workshops for members of key populations within the project.
Their efforts during the last three years revolve around constituting the Inclusive Panama Movement, an organization focused on the struggle for human rights and a true inclusion of discriminated populations, such as LGBT, the elderly and people of African descent.
Ramos Quintero, J.
Paper
Preliminary results in the investigation of the project Promotion of Human Rights and respect for Sexual Diversity in the elderly population in Panama.
Panamanians expect to be 4,278,500 by 2020, of which 12.4% (532,039) will be 60 years and over. 5% of those adults aged 60 and over would be LGBT, or 26,602 (based on estimates from national and international studies).
In 2013, the initiative to find out about the situation of the LGBT adult population in part of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama) was born to create a project focused on this population and work on finding solutions to the issues of discrimination and invisibility.
After conducting assessments between February and April 2014 in homes for older adults as well as interviews with heterosexual and LGBT older adults (13 places visited and 68 interviews in the case of Panama), it was concluded that there was a deep ignorance and many misconceptions and discrimination when addressing the issues of older adults and LGBT. With these results, a project is proposed to Brot fur die Welt, a German organization, called “Promotion of the human rights of the older adult population and respect for sexual diversity in Central America,” which seeks to influence society and among decisions makers on the issue of human rights of the LGBT adult population in the three countries mentioned.
The project seeks:
- Raise awareness about the current reality of the elderly in our latitudes and visualize the problem of human rights that is presented
- Contribute to the acceptance and respect of all forms of sexual orientation and gender identities in the elderly in these countries through knowledge.
From 2015, the project is given shape and in 2016 the training workshops in Panama begin to be delivered to:
- Students and health professionals
- Students and professionals of social communication
- Caregivers, relatives and friends of older adults
- Nursing home officials
- Older adults in general
In this exhibition we will deal with the results obtained during the process of training and sensitization to health professionals specifically, after analyzing the reports of the tests applied. With 74% of the participants who approved the training (based on a minimum percentage of 70% obtained in a posttest), only 46% showed an advance in knowledge acquired in human rights and sexual diversity. These are part of the results presented by Movimiento Panamá Inclusivo.
