The session was led by our collaborator and former Humanitarian Aid Director of the Foundation, Enric Roig who tells us:

“Continuing with the awareness program of the Orvalle School (Madrid), on Monday, May 20, I had the opportunity to tell the Primary students about my experiences as a cooperant aid worker in the Humanitarian Aid projects of the Social Promotion Foundation in Lebanon and Jordan.

The sessions began with an explanation of what a refugee is and how to get there. The students participated actively and showed great empathy, commitment, and critical capacity. Then came the turn of the personal stories that we have lived in the Community Center for Mental Health in Lebanon, and in the Rehabilitation and Physiotherapy Clinics of the refugee camps in Jordan. These projects of the Social Promotion Foundation have been possible thanks to the support of entities such as the European Union, the United Nations, Spanish Cooperation, the Community of Madrid, the Government of La Rioja, the MAPFRE Foundation and a growing number of anonymous donors and partners of the Foundation that, year after year, renew their trust in us “.

Appropriate to the age of the students, information was offered about the mental health problems suffered by both refugees and the vulnerable local population and the psychosocial care and psychiatric treatment services offered at our Zahle clinic in the Valley of the Bekaa (Lebanon)*.

The students left in order to make their own refugee aid bank: a personal piggy bank that each student will offer to their friends and family to join their campaign in favor of the neediest.

Prior to this session, on Saturday, April 27, the II edition of the Orvalle Solidarity Race was held framed in its traditional Family Day. “Orvalle runs for Syria”, which has had the participation and effort of more than 300 runners.

Both initiatives have been organized within the framework of the Solidarity Campaign of the 2018-2019 school year, dedicated to supporting the Foundation’s projects with Syrian refugees, and which is framed within the goal of the Orvalle School “The conquest of freedom “.

* The work in the Mental Health Clinic is carried out within the framework of the project “Reducing the economic barriers to access health services in Lebanon (REBAHS Lebanon)” that it develops in consortium with its partners International Medical Corps UK (IMC)and Première Urgence-Aide Médicale Internationale (PU-AMI). The consortium works to improve access to quality services in primary health care, community health and mental health services for Syrian refugees and other vulnerable populations in Beirut and Mount Lebanon, Akkar, Tripoli, Bekaa, and the South in close coordination with the Ministry Lebanese Public Health (MoPH).

The project is funded by the General Directorate for Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) of the European Commission and is based on the general objective of the European Union Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis (“MADAD Fund”) of respond to the “needs of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, as well as the communities that host refugees and their administrations, particularly in terms of resilience and speedy recovery.”