An unstoppable wave of solidarity

Since we launched our Social Outreach Awards, the task of choosing who to reward has become more difficult with each passing year, given the huge number of people and projects worthy of receiving our full and unreserved recognition. Society is becoming more and more aware of the need to take a look at our surroundings, to learn about those who are suffering and find out how we can help.

The 2018 winners are a good example of this unstoppable trend; a company whose production methods are carried out in a way that is sustainable for their surroundings and the environment; successful professionals who dedicate their spare time to helping those most in need and an organization which, thanks to its volunteers, feeds over a million underprivileged children Society is on the right path to reducing inequality and offering opportunities to those who have none.

In a ceremony in which a sense of pride, enthusiasm and hope filled the air, Antonio Huertas, president of Fundación MAPFRE stated that: “We are so fortunate for the time in which we live, because it is also up to good people like us, at this crossroads in development and transformation, to contribute to redesigning our world to make it more inclusive, fair and equitable”.

All the award winners of this edition are aware of their responsibilities and have taken action which, in Huertas’ words, we are all called to do “today more than ever, citizens and companies alike, and above all those who have a greater reach, such as the Global groups”.

On receiving the Award for the Best Agricultural Initiative, Roberto Jank, president of Agrindus, the Brazilian company who won the award, was proud “to be able to take care of the land and of animals and be responsible for providing nutrition for people”.

For Elena Mendía, from cirugía en Turkana (Surgery in Turkana), who collected the Award for the Project with the Best Social Impact it is important to understand the similarities between people who are suffering, although they may be far way. “It doesn’t matter where you live, how much money you have, what profession you do or what religion you profess. Illness weakens you. It is a miserable condition. Then you understand what we have in common. This is what a human being is from a doctor’s perspective, an equal and someone who needs to regain their health and receive dignified care. This is why we go to Africa every year. We go there to give them what we have and they do not: health, by means of our operations” she asserted in her speech.

Thanks to the work of Mary’s meals, over a million children are being given nourishment, as well as the chance of a better future. When the children have a full stomach, “the classrooms fill up, absence rates go down, grades go up and their health improves, declared the organization’s president in Spain, Elisalex Löwenstein, on picking up the Award for the Entity with the Best Track Record in Social Causes.

Last but not least, Emilio Aragón received the José Manuel Martínez Martínez Lifetime Achievement Award and focused on the notion of never losing hope. “When we see the work that organizations like those awarded here today are doing, we can find hope once again. Faced with so much noise and disruption in our lives, there are people such as those who have today received a Fundación MAPFRE award who inspire us to quietly say “perhaps not all is lost”.