BBVA - Press Room

 

• The more than 7,000 participants in the race have paid a €5 per head charity registration fee for the race, which will go in full to African children in UNHCR’s refugee camps
• BBVA will match this total, guaranteeing a minimum contribution of €70,000
• This BBVA project falls under the aegis of an agreement with the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR), in which it undertakes to finance the primary education of a group of child refugees in Dadaab, Kenya
• The Madrid town council is actively helping organize BBVA’s benefit race, as is Jesús Vázquez, UNHCR Ambassador and the face of the event

The second annual BBVA benefit race was held today, with the participation of over 7,000 people between the bank’s employees, customers and friends who, through their €5 registration fee, are helping this BBVA charity. The objective of the BBVA benefit rate is to help children at refugee camps in Dadaab (Kenya) overseen by the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR (BBVA will match the total raised through the race registration fees, guaranteeing a minimum contribution of €70,000)

Juan Asúa, BBVA’s Director for Spain and Portugal, Juan Ignacio Apoita, BBVA’s Head of Human Resources and Services, and Jesús Vázquez, a UNHCR goodwill ambassador, oversaw the start of the race. The race, in which runners could choose between a 5k and 10k route, ran from Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, where the bank’s headquarters are located, through several Madrid streets and ended on Paseo de Camoens.

Participating in the race was Spanish track and field star Fabián Roncero, who was the first to reach the 10k finish line. After the race ended, Juan Asúa, BBVA’s Director for Spain and Portugal, and Juan Ignacio Apoita, BBVA’s Head of Human Resources and Services handed out the prizes.

Commitment to education

BBVA has made education one of the main pillars of its CSR policy. This reflects the belief that education is of critical importance to maximizing human potential and leveraging progress in our societies. The bank’s motto is we work for a better future for everyone; for many people, education is the only way of attaining this better future. For example, the BBVA Integration Scholarships Program provided scholarships to 47,104 children in Latin America last year.  

Education in Kenyan refugee camps

UNHCR runs three refugee camps in Dadaab – Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley – where over 170,000 people live. Of these, 97.5% are from Somalia, with the rest of the refugees from Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea, Uganda, the Congo, Ruanda, Tanzania and Burundi.  

The camps are located approximately 500km from Nairobi and 80km from the Somali border, in an area with harsh climatic conditions (temperatures of 40º to 50ºC, droughts, flooding, and outbreaks of polio and Rift Valley fever), making survival extremely difficult.    

UNHCR conducts activities to meet both the most immediate as well as the long-term needs of the refugees.  Education plays a crucial role as an instrument for building and maintaining a social fabric, preventing unemployment, reducing frustration and the sensation of displacement among the population, and creating a feeling of normalcy in the community.

Currently, 32,663 children are being taught at 18 pre-primary and primary schools in Dadaab. 39% of the children are girls. A very high percentage of both boys and girls in primary school do not attend class (44%).

Access to secondary-level education is limited, because of the small number of secondary schools and teachers, while the cost of tertiary education is beyond the reach of the vast majority of secondary-school graduates.