Valenciaport shows the involvement of the Valencian port industry in projects to improve the population of the maritime neighborhoods
Valencia, October the 24th 2017. – The Port Authority of Valencia (PAV) participates in the 1st Setmana de la Responsabilitat Social a la Comunitat Valenciana which is held until October 27th. The meeting was inaugurated by Francesc Sánchez, general director of the PAV; Elena López, president of the association + Responsible and Director of Social Engineering; Dino Gosp, general director of Business Banking in the Valencian Community of Caixabank; and Isabel Lozano, Councilor for Equality and Inclusive Policies of the Valencia Town Hall.
During the inauguration, the director of the PAV, Francesc Sánchez, stressed that “the port plays a very important role as an instrument at the service of the economic fabric of the Valencian Community and our hinterland. We are the most important company or entity in the Valencian Community in terms of work and contribution to GDP and we are also aware of our role as a reference among the companies that make up the port community “. He also stressed that “since 2005 we began to expressly speak of social responsibility in our management model and to organize our actions around this strategy, we have been evolving towards projects that are increasingly shared and integrated”.
Pilar Blaya, Corporate Social Responsibility Director at the Valenciaport Foundation, went further into the CSR policy of the PAV in the round table focused on the economic aspect. In particular, Blaya explained that the port and the city are two interdependent entities whose growth and development has been taking place in parallel and has reminded that in the port area different public administrations come together whose operation requires an important coordination, since they are subject to very strict regulations.
In the field of social action, Blaya has highlighted the direct involvement of the Port Authority of Valencia and the companies in its environment with the concerns of the population closest to the port of Valencia. In this regard, she has explained the initiative APORTEM – Puerto Solidario Valencia, which emerged in 2013 with the aim of promoting CSR among the Valencian port community and which, in December 2016, was formally established as an association. Currently, APORTEM – Puerto Solidario Valencia is made up of 18 companies and organizations representing the Valencian port community. Blaya explained that “APORTEM is very focused on the human side, in the social section, because it is a need all the members shared, since the economic or environmental aspect was already much more developed. For this reason, we wanted to direct our activity to the most vulnerable groups and those closest to us “.
In this sense, Blaya has highlighted the collaboration that is made from APORTEM-Puerto Solidario Valencia, especially with five educational centers of the maritime neighborhoods, women at risk of exclusion and with two immigrant reception floors that are located in Nazaret. Specifically, among the lines of action promoted for these groups, is the reinforcement in food, health and education through the acquisition of food, hygiene products, clothing or didactic material, sports and school among other products. “Since our start-up, we have been able to collaborate annually with the support of more than 500 minors, more than 120 women at risk of social exclusion, and we support the projects in which two immigrant reception floors are located in the Nazaret neighborhood. Until this year, thanks to the active collaboration of the entire port community, in solidarity campaigns we have been able to collect more than nine tons of food, 11,000 clothes, 23,200 hygiene products, 24,100 units of school equipment or more than 2,000 educational games and toys, which have all been channeled through the organizations that support them in their own environment “.
In Pilar Blaya´s words, APORTEM – Puerto Solidario Valencia has allowed “forging a stable relationship in our sector from another perspective, which has allowed the entire port community to be closer to the people of our environment and our collaboration has greater scope”. The alliance generated in APORTEM-Puerto Solidario Valencia, affirmed, “allows to contribute actively and jointly to the achievement of several goals of the Sustainable Development Goals to fight poverty, and to promote nutrition, health, inclusion, education and the learning of the Valencian society, and the Valencian port community is actively involved in this “.