- Fundación Cepsa is focused on social, cultural, scientific-educational, environmental and sporting initiatives
Fundación Cepsa presented an overview of its activities in 2019 this morning at Cepsa's facilities in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. The presentation was attended by Cepsa's Canary Islands Director, José Manuel Fernández-Sabugo, and the Head of Fundación Cepsa in the Canary Islands, Belén Machado. They both explained that these figures are the result of "strengthening the company's commitment to Canarian society, by seeking to help people by launching initiatives adapted to the needs of the archipelago."
Fundación Cepsa focuses on five main areas of action: social, cultural, scientific-educational, environmental and sporting.
They explained that one of the highlights of the social area is the Social Value Awards, which "have become one of our core actions, while also helping to promote values based on solidarity among Cepsa professionals." The twelfth edition of these awards received 56 entries and the €50,000 prize was shared between 4 winning organizations across the islands: CIVITAS (an association offering specialist centers for people with intellectual disabilities), Aspronte (an association for the families of those with intellectual disabilities in Tenerife), Iniciativas Humanas (an association that seeks to promote volunteering) and Nuevo Futuro Tenerife (an organization providing underprivileged children with family homes).
Fundación Cepsa's Christmas Marquee in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the Christmas House in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria were two initiatives aimed at entertaining kids, while giving parents a break. The theater at Tenerife Children's Park and the support given to the Compartir Canarias (Sharing in the Canary Islands) charity telethon also formed part of the social program during the Christmas season.
Another social activity which Fundación Cepsa participated in was Canarias Conduce Segura (Canary Islands, drive safely), an initiative aimed at raising awareness and encouraging children and young people to take a safe approach as pedestrians, passengers and, in the near future, as drivers.
Support for the Red Cross campaign, Imágenes sin derechos (images without rights), a traveling exhibition that toured 9 sites in Tenerife, enabled 7570 visitors to learn about the meaning and importance of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to become aware of how this responsibility is shared by all society.
One of the highlights of the cultural area is the Fundación's Commitment to Sumérgete en Santa Cruz (immerse yourself in Santa Cruz), an initiative that since its launch has brought together 17 artists who have embellished the streets of Tenerife's capital with 20 large-scale murals in different neighborhoods of the city. In 2019, it took place in the Valleseco neighborhood.
For another year running, the company collaborated with Santa Cruz de Tenerife's Port Authority for the Christmas Concert, which was attended by 16,000 people, as well as for the Canary Islands International Music Festival (FIMC), which drew 26,000 spectators. At this last event, Fundación Cepsa also funded a series of educational introductory talks before each of the festival's major concerts, hosted by musicologist and commentator Ricardo Ducatenzeiler with 802 participants.
Other notable events were the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Book Fair, which encouraged reading among almost 60,000 attendees and the annual Cinema + Food Festival held in the capital of Gran Canaria for lovers of cinema and gastronomy.
In the field of educational science, Fundación Cepsa organized the third edition of its Campus de la Energía (Energy Campus) initiative, a digital educational program to boost knowledge of the evolution of energy and its uses in daily life among school children in Tenerife. 1250 students from 33 schools in Tenerife took part in the activity.
Meanwhile, the Fundación Cepsa Chair for Innovation and Energy Efficiency at the University of La Laguna aims to develop training, research, technological innovation and outreach activities. Furthermore, Fundación Cepsa has collaborated in significant innovation events aimed at young people, such as TLP Tenerife, by providing the training for its 300 volunteers; the First Lego League, Canary Islands robot tournament for schoolchildren organized by TLP Kids division and; the science and technology careers fair organized by Fundación General de la Universidad de La Laguna (General Foundation of the University of La Laguna), as well as other actions aimed at increasing interest in science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship among young people.
The Auditorio de Tenerife's social and educational program aimed at promoting music, dance and acting among children, young people and their families, which had a total of 29,500 participants, was also backed by Fundación Cepsa.
Promoting grassroots sport and a healthy lifestyle is another one of Fundación Cepsa's key areas of activity, which it does by supporting the ten children's schools of the Santa Cruz Basketball Club, the Municipal School of Regional Sports of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and the under-eights and the under-tens age groups at the islands' Canarian wresting tournament, organized by the Canarian Wrestling Foundation of Tenerife.
With regard to the environment, the company committed to the initiatives organized by Fundación Santa Cruz Sostenible (Santa Cruz sustainable foundation), such as the fourth edition of the Pequehuertos program which saw 1281 schoolchildren from 31 schools in the municipality learn how to make a mini ecological vegetable patch and discover the benefits of a healthy diet. Fundación Cepsa also contributed to the Anaga a pie (Anaga on foot) program, which allowed 240 hikers to discover the natural and cultural values of this Biosphere Reserve; as well as lending support to the non-competitive mountain race Anaga Trail Solidario (Anaga charitable trail), which saw 500 runners donate a toy as a registration fee.
It also collaborated in the capital of Tenerife's Environment Day, which, under the slogan Ambiéntate (get environmental), was aimed at bringing together respect for nature and the creativity of schoolchildren and saw 750 students taking part. Fundación Cepsa also promoted intergenerational visits to the Palmetum of Santa Cruz botanical gardens, which were attended by 450 participants of all ages.
Through Voluntas, the company's corporate volunteer program, Cepsa professionals took part in a clean-up of the Antequera Beach and, during International Corporate Volunteering Week, they took part in an environmental activity organized with the Finca Berta Association. Among its employees, Fundación Cepsa also organized campaigns to gather donations of clothing, bottle tops, toys and food, which were donated to various organizations, as well as 42 blood donors taking part in the annual blood drive.
Fundación Cepsa's activities in the Canary Islands across the five aforementioned areas have directly benefitted 15,712 people and indirectly reached 383,560 Canarians throughout 2019.