The Athletic Club Foundation has been one of the organisations chosen by the Provincial Council of Biscay to develop Sustainable Development Objectives based on the defence of Universal Human Rights, both political and civil as well as economic, social and cultural, and also for women’s empowerment. Juan Carlos Ercoreca, president of the Foundation, has been in charge of signing this agreement in an act celebrated in the Foral Palace of Bizkaia and in which representatives of the six collaborating entities have intervened together with the deputy Teresa Laespada.
Specifically, the Athletic Club Foundation is committed to developing two projects located in Peru, in the so-called “human settlement” of Villa El Salvador in the city of Lima, and will have the on-site participation of ADDVES (Sports and Development Association of Villa El Salvador), with which since 2006 has collaborated Barakaldo Sports and Development Association (DEPYDES) in carrying out projects focused on human development through sport. Villa El Salvador is a municipality in Lima very affected by violence, and where young people under 14 have access to firearms in daily life. Their belonging to street gangs took them away from school and brought them closer to drugs (smoking coca paste) or to commit acts of common delinquency such as robberies and assaults.
It is in this marginal context that the projects in which the Athletic Club Foundation is involved, called “Villagol: Football for life and hope” and “Promotion of Women’s Sport in Villa El Salvador”, open a door to the development of people, to construction and social inclusion, to the prevention of risky behaviour and to the promotion and transmission of values. In 2008, Carlos Gurpegui and Gurutze Fernández already visited Peru with DEPYDES and, later, in 2013, it was Óscar de Marcos who got to know the project in person.
Regarding the Athletic Club Foundation, this is a similar cooperation to the one being developed in Jutiapa, with the SERSO HONDURAS project, that is, the organisation of football teams and neighbourhood tournaments to recover public spaces for coexistence and sport, together with the training of coaches, methodology and sports material.