26% of the population in Spain is at risk of poverty or social exclusion. That is, 12.3 million. Homelessness is also growing. The numbers are overwhelming. Not seeing work, not seeing food, not seeing a future. When hope is lost, there is the Fundació de l’Esperança. For ten years, the entity that has been and is the figurehead of the Fundació La Caixa has been carrying out direct action work, as enormous as it is discreet.
Give a man a fish and he will eat today. Give him a rod and teach him to fish and he will eat for the rest of his life...
It is the philosophy that should inspire all social action. It is ours as a foundation. We have to ensure that people with problems take control of their lives. Our model is not healthcare, it seeks to transform.
To transform?
If you give a school or food check to a child it will not cause any change in them. It is only a complement at a specific time. But if what you want is for that child to have social and academic development even though his family and economic circumstances do not favor him, then there will be a change.
There are those who continue to confuse charity or charity with social assistance.
If charity is not accompanied by transformative action, it represents an inefficient use of resources.
What role has the Fundació de l’Esperança had since it was born, ten years ago?
It has acted as a test bed for the la Caixa Foundation. His main intervention programs have been developed in L'Esperança. It is about carrying out a comprehensive action on the people who need it, from babies to adults. The la Caixa Foundation is not only a financier but we intervene directly through the programs in all the provinces of Spain.
Is the La Caixa Foundation the social work of a bank?
No. Obviously we have common origins, with which we identify. The current structure of the Foundation, designed by its president Isidro Fainé, has made it the head of the group. It is the largest foundation in Spain and one of the first in Europe. It allows us to maintain the spirit of its founder, Francesc Moragas, and guarantee the continuity of social action. The demonstration is that 60% of the budget, 538 million in 2023, is allocated to social programs.
What relationship does L’Esperança have with the Administration?
Cases are referred to us from social services but there is no economic relationship.
And with social entities?
We work hand in hand, in a network. The La Caixa Foundation's social call program allows us to collaborate with a thousand entities from all over Spain, which are on the ground. They are a fundamental piece so that aid reaches those who really need it.
Third sector entities are crying out for more resources and against the slowness in granting the budget allocations assigned to them by the administrations.
And they are right. Administrations take a long time to decide on the aid that entities need to act. There is excessive bureaucratization and excessive zeal when granting money. It also occurs in the management of European social funds. The La Caixa Foundation model goes in the opposite direction.
explain yourself
Social action is only efficient if there is a medium or long-term vision. It is important to measure the social impact of each intervention. First we identify the need, then we apply the scientific method and qualified teams and finally we evaluate the results of each program. Thanks to CaixaProinfancia, for example, we serve more than 63,000 children a year. With 1,000 euros per year per child, we break the cycle of poverty from parents to children.
Are we in a situation of social emergency?
We have been in a social emergency for so long that it has stopped being something sudden and has become something chronic. During the pandemic we all worked hard, something improved, but the emergency remains at very high levels. The situation is worrying. There are people who cannot get out of the hole: their circumstances are getting worse, with a greater risk of perpetuating themselves over time.
More than 400,000 children under 16 years of age are at risk of poverty and social exclusion in Catalonia.
Poverty that affects families with children is one of the most urgent areas in which we must intervene. Spain is one of the countries where this poverty lasts the longest and registers the worst rates. We are also particularly concerned about the abyss into which many people fall when they lack employment or when they have one that does not allow them to survive. It happens that these situations become entrenched: those affected withdraw into themselves without the possibility of social interaction, condemned to exclusion. The Incorpora program, for which we have the collaboration of more than 10,000 companies, acts on this problem.
In recent times, due to the population pyramid, increased life expectancy and changes in society, older people have appeared in social exclusion.
That's how it is. Before, pensions guaranteed being able to make ends meet. Not now. In many cases there is no family network either. Older people are not a uniform group, there are many stages with different needs. Promoting their autonomy and avoiding their exclusion from technology are key. To that objective we direct another of our programs.
During the pandemic, a part of society forgot to ensure the dignity of the elderly and their rights.
That cannot be repeated. The end of life must be dignified. It is another challenge for social action. We work with public and private hospitals, nursing homes and home care teams to give life to days, and not just days to life.
