We ask for miracles from education. That instills values; that provides knowledge; that guarantees equal opportunities. “Magic”, summarizes Macarena Alvear, project coordinator, and Daniel Chinarro, childhood coordinator of Asociación Aventura 2000, the NGO that develops the Don Guanella socio-educational center project in the San Blas Canillejas district, in Madrid. And they say it not out of disbelief – on the contrary, they know well how a desk and some classmates can transmute you – they say it with a hint of anger, because “in order for that expectation to be fulfilled, many more resources are needed in educational centers, and also take into account the very different background of each girl and boy,” they insist.
That is the reality that the data shows with cruel coldness: Spain is the second country in the European Union (EU) with the highest rate of child poverty: 28.9% (2024 data from the Platform of Children’s Organizations); and also the second with the worst rate of early educational abandonment: 13.7% of young people between 18 and 24 years old have not completed ESO nor continue with any training, according to the Active Population Survey of the National Institute of Statistics ( INE) for the second quarter of 2024. Something is wrong…
It’s Monday, it’s around six in the afternoon. The brick profile of these alluvial buildings built in the late nineties in the west of Madrid, silhouetted against the horizon, fades as night falls. In one of the rooms of the Don Guanella socio-educational center, about twenty little ones They pass the microphone to each other to tell the educators what they have drawn on the paper, what their favorite moment of the weekend was.
“This group started last month,” Alvear explains between hugs and effusive greetings. For 34 years, Aventura 2000 has been promoting “a comprehensive educational project in which boys, girls, young people and families from the neighborhood participate, offering a space for growth in which they live with a group of equals, where they can express themselves without obstacles and in which they can They develop activities around four areas: school success, personal and social development, prevention and health and families.”
“This is a vulnerable environment, with a high unemployment rate, low educational level, where more services are necessary… And the stigma of drugs weighs on this neighborhood, which is now experiencing an upswing,” says Alvear. “Participating three afternoons a week from ages six to 18, feeling part of a group, sharing, learning, growing together, doing homework, participating in workshops or going on a weekend excursion to the mountains together improves life. ”.
Three weekly afternoons that improve lives
These different experiences that the center offers are an essential value of its work. “For some it is the only time they have seen snow or gone to the beach, some had not left the neighborhood!” says Chinarro, who was first a participant, then a monitor and who today, after a time dedicated to design and editorial layout, at 33 years old, he serves as the center’s childhood coordinator. This is how he met Macarena Alvear; She was then an 18-year-old volunteer and he, an eight-year-old boy, very excited about what he found in there: “It filled me with values that I carry very much, now I see myself reflected in every boy who passes by here.” They are a reference in the neighborhood. Schools or even Social Services come to Aventura 2000 when they detect cases that could benefit from their proven good work. They support more than a hundred boys and girls per year, and at least one member of each family must be involved in the educational process. In 2023, they provided more than 310 hours of school support, 253 of personal development; they dedicated 270 hours to individualized monitoring; They invested almost 1,200 hours in prevention, leisure and free time activities, camps, excursions… and for another 575 hours they worked with families to enhance their pedagogical tools so that they could better accompany their children in this process.
The importance of being from the neighborhood
One of the neighborhoods that concentrates some of the most flagrant social exclusion and academic failure in Spain is located in Córdoba. It is something that Paloma Delibes, coordinator of Social Action programs at the Banco Santander Foundation, knows well: a few kilometers from the tourists who walk among the marble and jasper columns of the great mosque there are neighbors whose zip code will represent an irreversible brake on their future. . Two realities so different and so close. Delibes has been working for many years with associations throughout Spain that try to address these inequalities, NGOs that, thanks to their proximity and direct work with the residents of these disadvantaged areas, “achieve a real impact on minors and their families.” . It is when he expands on these types of initiatives that his voice comes through most enthusiastically: he talks about transforming a neighborhood through basketball or music; of supervised minors who receive academic support; of imprisoned women who share camps with their school-age daughters that change the dreams and desires of both…
“Santander Bank already does enormous work in the higher education sector. Upon seeing these figures and this reality hidden from everyone’s sight, we decided that something had to be done.” That is why this year they wanted to dedicate the Santander Ayuda call, organized by the foundation, to supporting non-profit associations that combat, through education, this scourge of children and adolescents in vulnerable situations, which places us at the forefront. queue of Europe.
Who is Santander Help addressed to?
- Until December 5, the NGOs can request up to 20,000 euros through a form on the foundation’s website for educational projects with vulnerable children and adolescents.
- Until 15 associations non-profit will be beneficiaries of the aid.
- Wanted projects highlighted by an innovative approach and for his experience working on the ground in disadvantaged environments.
- It doesn’t matter if they are associations small or mediumlike Adventure 2000.
- Since 2016, the Banco Santander Foundation has supported 566 projects, impacting more than 290,000 people in a vulnerable situation.
Collective activities against screen loneliness
Although it works poorly, education is still the main way to emerge above a difficult context, training is still the best option to achieve a job that allows you a better livelihood and living conditions, as reflected by the High Commissioner against Poverty Children from Spain in their studio The intergenerational transmission of inequality in Spain of 2020. Therefore, academic support is a fundamental leg, but not the only one.
Delibes warns: “We have our eyes wide open to other areas. We give a lot of importance to those associations that also work on the acquisition of socio-emotional skills, the prevention of mental health or addiction problems.” According to the account, the cases of infants and adolescents who suffer from anxiety or depression, or who suffer atrocious isolation, a loneliness not mitigated by technological hyperconnection, via mobile phone, have skyrocketed: “These children who live in contexts of special vulnerability, many Sometimes characterized by family dysfunction, they also have a higher probability of developing a mental health problem than in other environments. For this reason, it is even more necessary to work on prevention, provide them with tools and resources that help them in their personal and social development, and offer them healthy leisure alternatives.”
In Madrid, it almost seems like dark night. On the stairs of the Don Guanella socio-educational center, the photos hanging on the walls remind us of the three decades of Aventura 2000. “There is Daniel,” Alvear points out, his index finger pointing at Chinarro, a dark-skinned and smiling boy. The evolution of his face from child to adult can be seen in those printed snapshots: “This,” he confesses, looking around, “is part of who I am.” For this coordinator, working in the association in which he grew up is the natural outlet towards which his life flowed.
The teenagers have finished academic reinforcement time, and they run towards the playground. The common room is empty, they could entertain themselves there during the break, but it’s a warm fall, they can still get together to play outside for a while. Around the table football, Alvear and Chinarro pose for the last photos and say goodbye, with a warning or, rather, a request:
—Children’s rights must be a priority, educational projects like ours are fundamental.
That’s what the point is, that is the purpose of the foundation and of this call: to keep open the doors of those centers that promote boys and girls to grow up in an environment of good treatment, feeling like protagonists of their lives; the doors of those places that make the miracle of education feasible.
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