Fundación Iberdrola is collaborating with Gizakia, Asociación Bizitegi, Fundaciones Ayuda en Acción, Etorkintza and Pequeño Deseo by supporting initiatives they have implemented in the Basque Country that directly benefit over one thousand people.

 

The initiatives implemented in the Basque Country directly benefit over one thousand people.

At a meeting in the Iberdrola Tower, the director of Fundación Iberdrola España, Ramón Castresana, the company’s institutional representative in the Basque Country, Francisco Olarreaga, the Basque Country delegate for Fundación Ayuda en Acción, Olatz Ecenarro, the director of Asociación Bizitegi, Aitor Ipiña, the manager of Fundación Etorkintza, Inmaculada Cuena, the director of Fundación Pequeño Deseo, Cristina Cuadrado, and the manager of Gizakia, Celina Pereda, praised the cooperation and listed the initiatives and programmes that the organisations will implement in 2018.

The project Fundación Ayuda en Acción designed helps children and teenagers at primary and secondary school, working with the schools after classes. The aim is to guarantee equal opportunities in access to quality education so as to facilitate their academic success and personal and social development. This is a new project that will benefit some 470 children and young adults.

Asociación Bizitegi has three shelters with space for 11 homeless women suffering from mental illness and/or addiction who are on the street because they cannot meet the requirements of other residential accommodations. The goal is for these women in Bizkaia, who have a very difficult time finding housing, to have accommodations that offer them lodging and food, help them build up their skills, give them support and monitor their medical, mental, employment-related and legal activities.

The Fundación Etorkintza programme is designed for young people between the ages of 16 and 30 who are in a situation of or at risk of social vulnerability. The foundation is currently assisting 17% of the at-risk youth in Bizkaia. The basic aim of the programme, for 30 young people cut off from the educational and social welfare system, is to foster their independence to improve their future employability.

Fundación Pequeño Deseo offers assistance for children who are in hospitals in the Basque Country that is based on fostering positive thinking by making a wish of theirs come true. The foundation gives the children positive stimuli to take their minds off their disease and the hardships resulting from them, such as gruelling treatments, the impersonal hospital setting, the sadness of the patients and their families, etc., and motivates them to continue to fight to get better. The users are 45 boys and girls between the ages of 4 and 18 who have chronic illnesses or a poor prognosis and are being treated in the Autonomous Region.

Gizakia’s ultimate aim is to help sick people affected by addiction, especially those at risk of poverty or exclusion, and to contribute to their care, recovery and future social inclusion. Iberdrola has been working with Gizakia since 2009, with a total investment of €136,000, producing a direct impact on the therapeutic processes of more than 500 people.

Since 2010, Iberdrola has aided 20 social projects in the Basque Country, with a total investment of €500,000.