Many families had not just emerged from the housing bubble crisis when the pandemic broke out. And once the covid was overcome, came the war in Ukraine and inflation. However, for years the main educational leisure associations in Catalonia have been forced to seek resources to be able to grant scholarships to vulnerable young people and try so that no one is left without their esplai or summer camp. This year the situation will worsen and more than 13,500 scholarships will be distributed.
According to Fundesplai estimates, 8,000 scholarships will be distributed from this foundation. “We would like to distribute more, but we hope to have the capacity to award the same as last year”, explains Carles Xifra, director of Innovation and Content at Fundesplai. In 2022, an increase in aid of 35% was reflected compared to the previous year. And this year "it is very likely that we will have an increase in scholarship applications," adds Cristina Rodríguez, the general director.
At the Pere Tarrés Foundation, the other main institution in the field, they share the same impression. During the past year they reached the figure of 5,669 summer scholarships. In this case, the forecasts for this summer are being prepared, but according to sources consulted by this newspaper, the safest thing is to "increase the amount again." In fact, it would not be anything new: since 2018 the scholarships have been climbing 40% at the Pere Tarrés.
From Fundesplai it is expected to offer some 82,000 places in 1,100 batches of activities, such as wedding parties, colonies and camps. Under the slogan "Let's make a better world possible", the aim is for boys and girls to become "activists of the sustainable development goals (SDG)".
38,321 young people participated in the activities of Pere Tarrés in 2022. In the casals "they will promote values through an axis that will revolve around the fact of telling stories as a way to understand the world."
