Spain – Alboan points out the need to Promote Global Citizenship on its 25th Anniversary
This year Alboan celebrates 25 years of work for global justice and the fight against poverty and inequality. An anniversary marked by a global crisis aggravated by the COVID-19 that has so affected the most vulnerable populations with whom the NGO works around the world and in our own local context.
This Tuesday, October 19, at a press conference, Leire Morquecho, head of Alboan's International Cooperation Area, indicated that in these years we have learned a lot, we have grown hand in hand with thousands of people and organizations around the world. When we started in 1996, we managed 11 projects in 5 countries. Twenty-five years later we are supporting more than 200 projects in 22 countries in Africa and Latin America, and of course in India, where we are taking up the missionary tradition of the Basque and Navarrese Jesuits.
And he added that today we want to express our gratitude to so many people who are part of our mission and take a look back to understand these years of changes and challenges in the world of international cooperation.
Jose María Vera, an expert in development, sustainability and inequality, spoke about the challenges of international cooperation and listed five changes that have taken place in the field of global justice: the transition from the concept of aid to that of global social justice; the transition from the punctual impact to the attempt to change systems, the desire to transform; the involvement and participation of youth; the closing of spaces to civil society and the need to strengthen local organizations and to defend people and communities; and the change of the international cooperation organizations themselves, which now feel that they must form networks, and share power and resources with allies, in a collaboration between peers.
As an example of such alliances, Yolanda González, member of the Reflection, Research and Communication Team (ERIC-SJ), Honduras, stated that Alboan has been much more than a partner, donor, counterpart or cooperation organization. In all these years we have been companions of dreams, frustrations, struggles, in short, companions on the road with the common horizon of working to build more just societies. González added that this accompaniment has taken place in multiple emergencies: political, linked to environmental vulnerability, and complex ones such as those of refuge and forced migration. And they have also been present in the midst of global crises, which should teach us the obvious: we can only get out of global crises together.
Finally, the director of Alboan, Martin Iriberri, pointed out that, as the NGO's trajectory teaches, our world is transformable, and participation and the sum of wills generates new, hopeful realities with potential for the future. In Iriberri's words, we have learned that our way of life has consequences for other peoples and societies in terms of human rights violations, irreparable damage to natural resources and injustice. To this end, he stressed the importance of looking at reality through the lens of gender equity, participation and environmental justice. Martin ended his speech with thanks to so many people, organizations, public institutions, companies that have accompanied us and have allowed themselves to be accompanied and with a humble but firm commitment that we will continue on the road sharing hope.
Source: Jesuitas Social
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