The president of the Foundation for Justice, José María Tomás i Tío, and the president of the Bancaja Foundation, Rafael Alcón, presented this morning to the media the winners of the XV Foundation for Justice-Bancaja Foundation Award: Maite Echarte and José Palazón, from the Association for Children's Rights (PRODEIN). Since 1999, Maite Echarte and José Palazón have been carrying out a intense work in defense of the rights of migrants, especially boys and girls who access the city of Melilla and who suffer serious human rights violations.
The winners will receive 10,000 euros, which is the prize award in this edition, to continue with their work of care, reporting, visibility and creation of opportunities for hundreds of minors, women and families during their time in Melilla. After the meeting, a round table on 'Childhood and immigration' was held in which, along with the winners, the president of Unicef Comunitat Valenciana, Jorge Cardona; the Secretary of Migration of the Diocese of Valencia, Rafael Yagüe; and the representative of the Spanish Committee for Refugee Assistance, Ángela Nzambi.
It was a little boy who started this story: an 8-year-old boy. He slept in a garbage container, next to José's office window. Two or three days later, Maite and José made the first contact with him and invited him to dinner at their house. It was this little boy who introduced them to the world of street boys and girls, introducing them to other minors and allowing them to get closer to their stories. One had just had a fracture that was not being treated; Others told them about the mistreatment they received from their elders. On the street about 120 minors survived by begging. The majority had no family ties and lived permanently in Melilla. At that time, the majority They were between 11 and 15 years old and they could be seen throughout the city begging and in a deplorable state. Months later, towards the middle of 1999, the Association for Children's Rights (Prodein) was born.
The role of Prodein throughout these 20 years has been decisive in the evolution of the lives of hundreds of minors during their time in Melilla.. One of the most important achievements for José has been being able to make this problem visible. Maite remembers when they started going to school, when the residences began to open, the first permits to move them to the peninsula, seeing how they arrived in Spain and stabilized themselves and built life projects with their families. Hundreds of stories that for Maite and José are full of very specific faces.
This couple reminds us of the humanity of those who knock at the door. They have been able to make visible the injustices they suffer and the deaths from which they flee in the face of the systematic invisibility that seeks to ignore them. José, relying on the sensitivity of his camera and the certainty of his word, continues his efforts to show human life in all its dignity. Eyes wide open, which have also focused on the families, women and minors who are long-term residents of the city and who lack documentation, and with whom Prodein has been involved to be, on many occasions, their hands and his voice. This is how they have been collecting it since 2007 on the blog: www.melillafronterasur.blogspot.com.es.
The Jury of the 15th Foundation for Justice-Bancaja Foundation Award has been chaired by Begoña Machancoses, representing Omar Islam Ali, winner of the previous edition, and formed by: Vicent Soler, Minister of Finance and Economic Model; Mª José Ferrer, Spokesperson of the Justice Commission of the Popular Party; José Mª Tomás y Tío, president of the Foundation for Justice; Rafael Alcón, president of the Bancaja Foundation; Juan Alegre and Regina Laguna, trustees of Fundación por la Justicia; Francisco Almenar, vice president of the Valencia Water Court; Vicente Gallego from the Maides Foundation; and José María Segura of the Jesuit Refugee Service, assisted by Juan Añón and Salvador Alborch, as Secretaries of the two sessions of the Jury.
Awarded for the first time in 1995 to Mr. Adolfo Suárez, this award has been awarded in successive editions to individuals and entities such as the Aguas de la Vega Court of Valencia, the Association of Victims of Terrorism, the Association for the Search for Missing Boys and Girls (El Salvador), Professor Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh), Ms. Bogaletch Gebre (Ethiopia), Father Vicente Berenguer (Mozambique), Dr. Pedro Cavadas (Valencia), Missionaries of Charity (India), the Jesuit Refugee Service (Rome), MAIDES Foundation (Valencia), Richard Frechette, director of Our Little Brothers in Haiti, the criminal lawyer Mr. Julián Carlos Ríos Martín and Mr. Omar Islam Ali, the last winner for his work in defense of the rights of the population of the island of Lamu (Kenya) and especially the education and feeding of boys and girls in situations of extreme poverty.