Our Story
How one stranded Rotarian turned a pandemic lockdown into a movement that now spans reefs, forests, clinics, and communities across Bocas del Toro — and beyond.
Every initiative in The Panama Project traces back to a single moment of isolation in 2020. What follows is that story, told as it happened — year by year, decision by decision.
A Mission Interrupted
Steve Bender, President of the Rotary Club of Newport Beach and CEO of Ayuda International, was in Panama preparing a humanitarian dental mission when COVID-19 shut down global travel overnight. His team was stranded in California; Steve himself was stranded on Isla Colón, a small island off Panama's Caribbean coast.
Cut off from his team and the rhythm of his humanitarian work, Bender faced an unplanned pause — one that would soon become the origin point for everything The Panama Project has since become.
Isolation Becomes Action
With borders closed, the isolation of Bocas del Toro's outer islands became painfully clear. Seniors, Indigenous Ngäbe-Buglé families, and small fishing communities were suddenly without reliable access to food, fuel, or medicine.
Bender organized a grassroots emergency supply network, using small boats to deliver essentials to the most vulnerable. Within weeks, the effort had grown into a coordinated lifeline — and the trust built along the way became the foundation for every initiative that followed.
Beneath the Surface
Between supply runs, Bender — a PADI Master Diver — returned to the sea and found coral bleaching, shrinking fish populations, and an invasive lionfish crisis. He founded the Rotary Reef Program, partnering with local divers and scientists to build artificial reef structures, establish a coral seed bank, and train fishermen to harvest invasive lionfish for income while protecting native species.
On the same supply runs, he noticed imported pineapples arriving even as local fruit rotted unpicked nearby. That observation became Bocas Bounty, a community exchange program for fruits, vegetables, seeds, and fish — a food-security effort that grew into a lasting movement uniting Indigenous, Afro-Caribbean, and expatriate communities.
Roots for the Future
A visit to a Green Macaw Rescue Centre in Costa Rica introduced Bender to another crisis: the disappearance of the Great Green Macaw from Panama due to deforestation of the mountain almond tree, its only nesting habitat.
Partnering with local conservationists and the Panamanian government, he launched a mass reforestation effort. In its first year alone, more than 5,000 almendro saplings were planted across the islands, with fruiting trees expected by 2028 and macaws hoped to return to Bocas by 2030.
Care Beyond the Clinic
The Oral Hygiene Initiative became a core part of the project's health-care work. During an early restorative dental clinic, the team discovered that children in Bocas del Toro had more dental problems than children served in orphanages across Mexico, Thailand, Cambodia, and India — not from lack of resources, but from a lack of preventive education.
The initiative pivoted toward prevention: adopting entire communities, delivering educational programs, and distributing 1,000 bamboo toothbrushes and fluoride treatments through recurring volunteer missions.
The 4-7-8-17 Framework
What began as isolated efforts to meet immediate needs evolved into The Panama Project — a living laboratory in Bocas del Toro and the flagship of the 7 Seas Initiative. Every initiative now aligns with one integrated framework, first developed by the Rotary Club of Newport Beach in 2018 and expanded over the years that followed.
The strategic backbone was shaped in part by Project Drawdown, a science-driven roadmap of climate solutions Steve discovered in a 2019 issue of Rotary Magazine — ensuring every intervention aligned with a proven pathway to a more sustainable future.
Scaling Through Technology
In 2025, the project's reach expanded globally through an AI-powered platform that helps Rotary clubs worldwide measure, strengthen, and scale their own impact against the 4-7-8-17 framework. The Navigator doesn't just evaluate projects — it helps refine them, and strong projects can be featured in "100 Projects in 100 Countries," delivered in partnership with CNN.
By connecting Rotary's 1.2 million members with evidence-based sustainability solutions, the Navigator is translating one stranded Rotarian's island experience into a worldwide ripple of service.
The Next Chapter
The Panama Project's next phase centers on the Phoenix Project — a purpose-built humanitarian catamaran delivering healthcare, clean water, and modular clinics to coastal communities that are difficult to reach by road. Built from shipping containers and designed around Bender's decade-old "Doc in a Box" concept, the Phoenix will support everything from dental care to coral restoration to emergency relief.
This chapter also brings the project to the world stage. In April 2026, The Panama Project will join the Rotary Xperience at Environmental Xperience at EarthX in Dallas, Texas — the largest Rotary environmental and sustainability conference in the world, uniting Rotarians, scientists, and innovators from over 100 countries.
Because the future isn't something we wait for — it's something we build, together.
Be Part of the Next Chapter
The Panama Project continues to grow — one community, one reef, one generation at a time. Support the mission that started with a stranded Rotarian on a small Caribbean island.
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