The CECA Obra Social and Financial Education Awards honoured the most significant projects of the past year. A total of 72 initiatives were submitted.

The different crises that have unfolded in Spain over the last 15 years have left behind a landscape of social contrast in which some groups have not yet recovered. The future is not too rosy due to geopolitical uncertainty, a looming recession and inflation that is difficult to curb. Faced with this perfect storm, one can only act with determination, and one of the most appropriate tools to do so is cooperation through foundations and collaborating institutions, as they are the ones in charge of reaching out to people who live in a delicate and constant situation in our country. It was precisely to recognise the work of these organisations that the awards presented annually by the association of savings banks and banks, CECA, were created.

As in previous years, the awards ceremony was organised by El Confidencial, together with the association itself, and held in the association's assembly hall in the centre of Madrid. A total of 72 projects were submitted to this call for proposals, divided into 53 Obra Social and 19 financial education projects. In total, 20 institutions have been honoured in the first block and 10 in the second. The ceremony was hosted by Ona Carbonell, CECA's Obra y Acción Social ambassador, and Juan Carlos López, the association's Head of Sustainability, Obra Social and Financial Education. The jury of experts tasked with granting the 12 awards included representatives from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, the Bank of Spain, the National Securities Market Commission, Fundación Lealtad, Spainsif, FUNCAS and this media outlet.

[FINALISTS | Click here to see all the participating projects]

Following the introduction of the masters of ceremonies, the person in charge of welcoming the attendees was Carlos Sánchez, deputy director of El Confidencial, who said he was "proud to participate in the jury" and took the opportunity to be self-critical: "Often we journalists are distanced from social problems and focus too much on the superstructures. Society is currently riding on the back of a permanent crisis and all efforts should be geared towards improving people's quality of life", he stressed.

Beginning with the presentation of the 12 awards, Ona Carbonell and Juan Carlos López introduced the Obra Social section with the Social Action category. In this case, the top award went to the project Cycle of conferences on child and adolescent mental health, promoted by Fundación Ibercaja, while the finalist initiative was No Household without food, from Fundación "la Caixa". The Culture and Heritage award went to Symphony, from Fundación "la Caixa", although the runner-up was Restoration of the tower of the Alcántara Bridge, Toledo, from Fundación Montemadrid.

[GALLERY | Click here to see the full gallery of the event]

The Sport and Leisure category commended the work undertaken in the Chess and Athletics Schools Programme from Fundación CajaCanarias. In turn, the Venero Claro project from Fundación Ávila came in second place. In the Local Development and Job Creation section, the award went to Social Challenge, from Fundación Caja Extremadura, and the finalist was Dare to Jump, from Fundación Ibercaja.

The last three awards in the Obra Social category were for Education and Research, Environment and the Special Jury Award. In the first category, the winner was Prevention and early detection of relapse in breast cancer patients using blood samples, from Fundación Unicaja, and second place went to Schooling of students from Cañada Real in the Second Cycle of Pre-school Education, '2021/2022 Academic Year’, from Fundación Montemadrid. In the sustainability category, the award went to Fundación Mediterráneo for its Green employment courses as a result of the "Diagnosis on climate change and employment opportunities in Alicante", with the second award going to "El Salugral" Environmental Education Centre, from Fundación Caja Extremadura.

The Special Jury Award for Obra Social focused on the Programme of Grants for Social Initiative Projects organised by Fundación 'la Caixa'. Its Director of Relations with Social Entities, Joana Prats, stressed that "it is very important to give visibility to this type of proposal because its raison d'être is to contribute to equal opportunities and to improve the quality of life of people". With respect to the award-winning plan, which has been in operation for two decades, she explained that "it complements the foundation's direct action to build a better and fairer society. We have supported more than 19,000 projects and reached more than 8,000 beneficiaries, but we want to reach every corner of Spain". In concluding her speech, she thanked the social sector entities for their participation and shared the award with them.

Finance: an unresolved issue for many groups

Before beginning the presentation of the awards in the Financial Education category, Ona Carbonell wished to highlight the importance of this discipline in society and gave a very illustrative example: "We have launched a course on finance for athletes. This group usually earns a lot of money within a very short timespan and has no guidance on how to manage it properly, which often becomes a problem", said the swimmer and Olympic medallist, who was recently named by the BBC one of the 100 most influential and inspirational women in the world.

In view of the fact that CECA's objective is to ensure that financial education cuts across all stages of life, the awards are divided according to whether the chosen project is geared towards adults, the elderly or children. In addition, there are also two other categories for entrepreneurs and a special mention from the jury. The award for Adults (26-65 years of age) went to Fundación Montemadrid for its Financial education for empowerment initiative, while the second award went to CaixaBank's Much to be Done initiative. The award for Seniors (65+) went to Fundación Vital for Digitalisation of the Álava area, which prevailed over Mobile classrooms, rural routes, from Fundación Ibercaja. As for the Children and Young People (0-25 years of age) category, the award went to the Financial Grand Prix. The crazy adventure of saving, from Abanca/Afundación Obra Social Abanca, while the finalist was Do the numbers add up?, from Fundación Cajasol.

The Entrepreneurship award went to Sámara Emprende, from Fundación Caja Extremadura, with the CaixaBankLab Campus proposal as a finalist. And the Special Jury Award for Financial Education was awarded to Edufinet, for the 13th Financial Education Conference for Young People and the 13th Financial Olympiad. For María del Mar Molina, a member of the project, "the seed we planted in 2005 has ended up shaping what is now Edufinet and this is why we have managed to attract numerous institutions to join us along the way. Our commitment to young people, the elderly and other vulnerable groups is paramount, which is why we have 244,000 beneficiaries to date and 19 million visits to our online platforms", she said.

"Defeats teach us more than victories".

The gala was closed by Marta Arce, Paralympic judoka, and who also collaborates with Fundación ONCE, and Antonio Romero, Corporate Director of Associative Services and Resources at CECA. Marta gave a motivational talk, which was the most moving moment of the entire ceremony, a talk entitled Willpower is the engine of my dreams.

After congratulating all the award winners, the judoka placed value on the work performed by the institutions: "As a person with a disability, these organisations have helped me enormously at times in my life". However, she also pointed out that "the risk of exclusion exists because there is still a dark part of the world that sees things from a crueler point of view. To counteract this, I focus on helping because I don't want others to experience some of the situations that I have had to go through". Despite the adversities, she assured that she considers herself "very lucky" because "success in life is not to succeed in everything, but to be happy with everyday life". Both Marta Arce and Ona Carbonell - both high-performance sportswomen and mothers - agreed in pointing out that "defeats teach us more than victories and are the shortest path to success".

In closing, Antonio Romero praised this vision offered by sport and linked it to the institutions that received awards during the event: "Determination is a key characteristic possessed by the elite athletes and all the members of the 72 initiatives submitted to this edition of the awards. These awards have provided an overview of the needs of our country and it has been extremely difficult to select the winning projects". Finally, the Corporate Director for Associative Services and Resources at CECA recalled that social work embodies a responsibility which is, without a doubt, one of the pillars of the welfare state", he concluded.