Ayuda en Acción creates opportunities for children and young people

Ayuda en Acción was created after a trip to India by Gonzalo Crespí in which he met Vicente Ferrer to make a report. One of the people involved in the project got Crespí in touch with the representative of ActionAid, who suggested the possibility of opening a branch in Spain. We quickly began to take the first steps to leave an indelible mark on people’s lives. And so, Ayuda en Acción was founded, the first non-governmental organization in Spain dedicated to sponsorship.

“I liked the name, I wanted to bet on an organization that would act, that would do something different”. So begins the testimony of Conchita, our first supporter. Forty years later, she is still part of Ayuda en Acción. Since Conchita was registered as our first supporter in our database, we have kept in touch with each and every person who has reached out to Ayuda en Acción with the goal of transforming the present and the future of millions of people and hundreds of communities.

Cristian Nogales was one of the first children sponsored by Ayuda en Acción in Latin America. It was 1985 and we were beginning to make our way on the continent, in the community of Cayambe (Ecuador). We thus began a new path after our first projects in India and Kenya, where we had started working only a year earlier. Today that child is a community leader, a reference for those who, like him, were looking for opportunities for the future and found them in solidarity: “we needed an opportunity and they gave it to us”.

Not yet a decade had passed since the Ayuda en Acción history began, and already 10,000 children had been sponsored. Without a doubt, it was a revolution in the world of cooperation, a way of uniting people around a common project. The letters exchanged between sponsors and sponsored children are kept in the memory drawers of thousands of families. They also remain in the hearts of children, now adults, who grew up knowing their rights.

This year is one of the most destructive hurricanes of our time, Hurricane Mitch, which caused almost 20,000 deaths and millions in losses. Ayuda en Acción worked with the people affected by the hurricane for six years (1998-2006) to respond directly to the emergency and contribute to reconstruction. This was a turning point in our form of intervention: long-term projects are essential to transform realities and build a dignified future.

After the economic crisis of the first decade of the XXI century, Spain was devastated by poverty and inequality. Child poverty figures were alarming: 1 in 3 children lived at risk of poverty and social exclusion. After years of dedicating ourselves to international cooperation, Ayuda en Acción realized that it was also necessary to fight against the poverty that was trampling on the opportunities of those who least deserved it. We began by covering basic needs in the educational field, but we gradually broadened our horizons and opted for innovation. Proof of this is the GEN1OS program (2015), developed at Google.org to break technological, educational and gender gaps.

To highlight the importance of aid, the #SomosAyuda (#WeAreAid) campaign was launched, which quickly became our motto and a mantra that drives us to continue working for the present and the future of the youngest people and those who need the most support. As part of the campaign, the #SomosAyuda Award was launched and was presented in its first edition by Toñi Moreno, rewarding organizations and individuals who, over the last year, have been involved in the campaign.

In 2019, we formally joined the Alliance 2015 network to expand our responsiveness around the world. Eight European organizations work independently but in a coordinated manner to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Together we are present in 85 countries to support 50 million people and produce the Global Hunger Index Report on the state of hunger in the world every year. Working in a network allows us to be more effective and efficient and for this reason we work in many other networks linked to the world of development cooperation and social action: Platform for Children, World Compliance Association or the different NGDO coordinators are just some examples of this.

Ayuda en Acción was created to help people and this commitment is the key to its success. In 2020 we celebrated 40 uninterrupted years of work that have allowed us to know thousands of stories. The mark we have left also allows us to replicate projects in contexts and situations where they can work, but also to avoid mistakes.