At acciona.org, we promote the involvement of the ACCIONA employees in the social action activity of the company, by offering them to be volunteers in our projects in developing regions. This volunteering offers a unique opportunity to realise the reality of our world firsthand, as well as how ACCIONA provides solutions to improve that reality in which the lack of access to basic services –such as energy, water and sanitation– brings negative impacts on the health, education, economy or environment of the people, hindering their development.

For this reason, the participation of workers from the countries we operate –Peru, Mexico and Panama– is a priority, in order to them find out and help in improving that other reality, which is so close and so far from theirs at the same time. This is the case of Marcos Lopez Fernandez –an ACCIONA employee at the real estate business unit in Mexico–, who went to collaborate with the implementation of the EncASa Oaxaca 2018 project in the most rural Oaxaca areas some weeks ago.

Well done, acciona.org! Marcos congratulated us and added: “In fact, it has been an incredible experience I’ve lived. I could get to know a bit of everything done in the communities: the operation of the rainwater catchment systems providing families with the water they need to perform their daily tasks; the water purification systems, which are astonishing eco-technologies to provide quality drinking water; the dry toilets that have changed the way of life of families which didn’t have access to a quality sanitation, and; the solar home systems are also astonishing… I installed one system I’m sure it is going to change the life of that beneficiary.”

The statement of Marcos recognizes our work, which is complementary with the ACCIONA activity of service and infrastructure provision, by adding a social perspective to cover those needs where the company cannot arrive. We also give an innovative approach, at a technological level and a managerial level; for instance, we join with the Government of the State of Oaxaca, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation-AECID and its Mexican counterpart AMEXCID in a public-private partnership for development, gathering the necessary resources to carry out a project like EncASa Oaxaca.

ACCIONA workers dedicating unselfishly their resources, time and experience to international development projects for poverty alleviation favours their execution, as well as their dissemination, mainly among their colleagues. In this way, they realise of –and, in the future, they may participate in– those projects of the company that goes beyond the business, as a part of its commitment to the most vulnerable people.

More information about our in-person volunteers at https://acciona.org/about-us/volunteering/