The Cepsa Foundation’s 2020 Social Value Awards ceremony in the Canary Islands was held this Friday virtually, due to the situation imposed by the pandemic. The awards have been dedicated to entities that help people who are especially vulnerable as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, with serious mental disorders, affected by breast cancer and with functional diversity. Likewise, this year, the Foundation has increased the financial endowment given to the five winning organizations (Atelsam, Afedes, Aspercan, Funcasor and Amate), with an economic allocation that exceeds 60,000 euros.
This 13th edition of the Awards for Social Value in the Islands has been chaired by the director of Cepsa in the Archipelago, José Manuel Fernández-Sabugo and by the Deputy of the Common and president of the Awards, Rafael Yanes.
Fernández-Sabugo explained in the first instance that 79 projects have been submitted to these awards “of high quality, so the selection has been a challenge.” For this reason, he emphasizes that “the criteria, professionalism and dedication” on the part of the jury have allowed awarding the prizes in the “most objective way possible”. This small court has been made up of the aforementioned José Manuel Fernández-Sabugo and Rafael Yanez, who have been accompanied by the Deputy Minister for Social Rights of the Government of the Canary Islands, Gemma Martínez; the Minister of Social Policy and Accessibility of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria, Isabel Mena; the person in charge of Tenerife Solidario, Beatriz Sicilia; and the head of Fundación Cepsa in the Islands and coordinator of the event, Belén Machado.
Winning entities
One of the projects that has carried out an “invaluable work”, as recognized by the director of the Cepsa Foundation, has been Educasalud for people with breast cancer and society in the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife of the Tenerife Breast Cancer Association (Amate), which was born as a small entity with “only five women” with the disease, as its president, María del Carmen Bonfante, pointed out during the awards ceremony. The project they have presented makes it possible to offer information and training to women and their families, as well as psychosocial counseling and assistance. His godmother has been Cristina Martín Carvajal.
The second winning name has been the initiative Speech therapy intervention specialized in hearing impairment, brought by the hand of the Canary Foundation for People with Deafness and their Families (Funcasor), which aims to “improve the quality of life of people with deafness in Gran Canaria and their families”, as highlighted by the entity non-profit, Isabel Gómez. The project, sponsored by Luis Barrios, aims to re-educate the language and the Spanish sign language to improve communication with people with hearing disabilities.
Finca Isora: Prepare and Employ of the Mental Health Association (Atelsam) has also been among the winning initiatives. Through organic farming and a poultry farm, this entity seeks to enhance the skills and professional competencies of this activity to contribute to the rehabilitation of these people and promote, with this pre-employment preparation, their socio-occupational integration, as explained by the director of the entity, Ana Concepción. In the work of this project, whose godfather has been Fernando Hernández Santos, to work on group work.
The Canary Islands Asperger Association (Aspercan) has won one of the awards for its project ResetEA: Activism and autistic self-representation, whose main objective is the “self-representation of these people”, as explained by Ana Rodríguez, a technician of the organization. For this reason, the entity promotes and favors the real inclusion in any field of development of a person with Autism Spectrum Disorder – Asperger’s Syndrome to end their training, high unemployment rates, school bullying and discrimination.
Finally, the Afedes Association, chaired by Catalina de Lorenzo, has also obtained its award for its project AFEDES by your side, which proposes to provide support and care to people and groups in a situation of special vulnerability that has worsened as a result of the crisis caused by the coronavirus. For this reason, one of the objectives they have is to end the digital divide to “reduce school absenteeism”, explained the designer of the initiative, Sofía Sánchez, who remarked that “personalized itineraries will be developed to promote social inclusion , as well as individualized intervention plans “. This project has been sponsored by Juan Carlos Díez Martín.
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