‘la Caixa’ Foundation invests 12 million in the Basque Country in social action

2023-11-21 20:57:38

This Tuesday, the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation signed a framework agreement with the Basque Government. In a formal ceremony that was attended by the Lehendakari and Minister Melgosa, the banking foundation and the regional Executive signed an agreement to collaborate together in matters of social, educational and cultural action.

In 2023, the foundation has deployed an important action plan that involved the investment of 12 million euros in Euskadi. These disbursements already made it possible last year to finance very diverse activities that have had an impact on the care of the most vulnerable. Thus, for example, the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation helped 584 families with 971 children at risk of exclusion throughout 2022 through the Caixa ProInfancia program.

Among other programs, the institution helped 1,086 people find work and overcome difficulties such as long-term unemployment, disability, being an immigrant or even being a victim of gender violence. In collaboration with this program – called Incorpora – 610 companies from the autonomous community were involved according to data from the foundation itself. In addition, another program works on the labor reintegration of inmates from Basque prisons.

2,111 patients with advanced illnesses – and near the end of their life – and 1,647 family members were also cared for through two psychosocial care teams that work in six hospitals in the autonomous community. In terms of senior citizens, the entity organized 357 within its senior citizens program, which included the participation of 12,339 people from this group.

The president of the foundation, Isidro Fainé, has been in charge of signing the framework agreement with the Executive. For Fainé, the new commitment reinforces the collaboration with Euskadi and “allows us to continue promoting social and human development, and the well-being of Basque citizens, especially those who are in a more vulnerable situation.” Something that Fainé himself has framed in the territorial approach that the institution he presides is acquiring. “Our commitment to the present and the future of people is to continue developing our social action here, focusing on those programs and actions that have a greater transformative impact for Basque society.

Within this local impact are points such as the collaboration agreement that the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation has with the Guggenheim Museum to share content from the Biscayan art gallery on the foundation’s audiovisual platform, CaixaForum+. In cultural matters, last year 211,963 people attended the traveling exhibitions that the entity brought to the streets of Vitoria, Bilbao, Donostia and Barakaldo. 16,458 schoolchildren and 1,314 teachers have also benefited from the foundation’s actions. Likewise, 53 projects from social entities received support from the foundation, which dedicated 1.4 million euros to this end, among other actions.