Rioja NGOs help 588,200 people in 33 countries, despite the decrease in volunteers

La Rioja NGOs helped more than 580,000 people (588,222 in total) through the 109 projects they developed last year in 33 countries. And all, despite the decrease in the number of volunteers that has occurred in the entities that are part of CONGDCAR (in total there are 451 people who carry out altruistic work, a figure that is 23% less than in 2021). These are just some of the data that were released this Tuesday in the presentation of the second Report of the NGDO Sector of the region, which was held in the chapel of the ‘La Bene’ building, which was attended by various public officials.

Before its celebration, the vice president of the Coordinator of Non-Governmental Organizations for the Development of the Autonomous Community of La Rioja, Ana Ganuza, has highlighted the work carried out by the 22 NGDOs – of the 34 that it brings together in the region – in 33 countries from all over the world, although mostly in Latin America. In this sense, she pointed out that “we are working for social justice, for people and for human rights. “We are part of Rioja society.”

For this reason, he has expressed his gratitude to the “Rioja social base” and the Ministry of Culture for their support of the 109 initiatives they carry out. «We work in La Rioja and abroad thanks to the support of 20,270 people and entities and, therefore, we are accountable to the Riojan population that all the money and work is coming to improve education, health, human rights. , in gender and in everything that we believe serves for better social justice.

The problem, however, is that a greater number of needs have been detected in Africa. «We are working a lot in Latin America, but we are seeing in recent years that the needs in African countries are much stronger. There are forgotten conflicts in which we have to work more, especially in human rights, in matters of ecology and governance, and help countries to have good transparency and good government.

For his part, the Minister of Culture, Jose Luis Pérez Pastor, has highlighted that La Rioja is one of the communities that makes the most investment per inhabitant in the country as a whole, with an expenditure of 17 euros per resident. In the field of cooperation, however, he pointed out that “we always have to go further, because in a world full of problems and in need of action, all efforts fall short.” Therefore, the path of the Rioja community is to “keep moving forward.”