Linked to Drugs, Crime, Racketeering and more. Carlos has it all :-)

Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim launches website to help immigrants succeed

The website aims to provide readers with every piece of information they need to succeed in this country.

The Carlos Slim Foundation last week launched Acceso Latino, a free website in Spanish that provides readers with information on topics such as education, health care, job training and culture.

The site also has other pertinent features, such as English online-courses and information on the federal Dream Act.

“Acceso Latino will put valuable knowledge at the fingertips of everyone who wants to learn new skills and engage with their community. It is a simple but powerful resource that can potentially help millions of people improve their lives,” Slim Helú said in a written statement.

There are about 52 million Hispanics in the U.S. — 33 million of them self-identified as being of Mexican origin — making them the largest minority group in the country, according to data from the Census Bureau and the Pew Hispanic Center.

Hispanics also make up the majority of the more than 40 million immigrants in the country — including 11 million undocumented immigrants.

According to the Carlos Slim Foundation, about 80 percent of adult Hispanics say that they are able to connect to the Internet. Yet many of them still struggle to find access to high value information that they can use to improve their lives and those of their families.

Slim Helú, taking into consideration the growing Hispanic population in the U.S. and being himself the son of Lebanese immigrants in México, visualized the idea of creating the site, said Dr. Roberto Tapia-Conyer, CEO of the Carlos Slim Foundation in México, D.F.

The Mexican telecommunications tycoon wanted to create an easy-access Spanish site and, at the same time, a tool of self-improvement, Tapia-Conyer added.

“The site was designed with everyone in mind, without taking into consideration a specific country of origin, age, education or immigration status,” he said.

After 18 months in the works, the site was launched a week ago with in an easy-to-use format on different topics that concern Hispanics living in the U.S. The site also has videos that walk users through a step-by-step process.

For instance, it has online job training courses for 22 in-demand occupations in the United States. Some of the courses include training in the areas of plumbing, construction, sales and computers.

The website also offers financial literacy and online resources for learning math, American history and civics, English as a second language and courses to prepare individuals for the GED.

Tapia-Conyer said the courses are provided by Khan Academy, MIT-Open Course Ware, Coursera and Academica institute, featuring lessons from top level universities such as Harvard, Stanford and Mexicos National University.

Individuals that finish the courses receive a diploma that, although it is not official, it can be used as proof of being trained in a specific area, he explained.

The site also provides information on human and labor rights and has a special section on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA — also known as the Dream Act — where it explains what it is and who qualifies for it.