Tomorrow the Foundation for Justice and the Bancaja Foundation present the XI Foundation for Justice-Bancaja Award to the MAIDES Foundation. Your president, Jose Mª de Scals, held a meeting today with the media at the Bancaja Cultural Center in Valencia, in which they explained the work they do in Valencia.
In this edition recognizes the work carried out by the MAIDES Foundation with people with chronic mental illness, particularly with those whose illness and family circumstances have led them to a situation of poverty and social exclusion. In addition to providing housing and home support, it works for the recognition, protection of dignity and defense of the rights of people with mental illness.
MAIDES Foundation gives continuity to the work begun no less than 600 years ago by Father Jofre, founder of the first European psychiatric hospital in Valencia. The Archconfraternity of the Madre de Deu has continued over the centuries carrying out this social work, almost unknown in the city of Valencia.
The prize has a financial award of 18,000 euros, which MAIDES will use to maintain its sheltered homes.
The Jury that ruled on this award was chaired by the winners of the last edition, the Jesuit Refugee Service, represented by Dario Mollá, and made up of the presidents of the Foundation for Justice and the Bancaja Foundation, the president of the Court of the Aguas de la Vega of Valencia -previous winner-, the Ombudsman, Mª Luisa Cava Del Llano, the professor of economics at the Jaime I University of Castellón, Ana Fuertes, 2 trustees of the Foundation for Justice and the manager of the Bancaja Foundation.
The Foundation for Justice-Bancaja Award recognizes the trajectory and constant dedication of those people or organizations that stand out for their contribution to the promotion and defense of human rights.
The award was awarded for the first time in 1995 to Adolfo Suárez, and in successive editions it has recognized the work of such outstanding people and institutions as the Tribunal de las Aguas de la Vega in Valencia, the Association of Victims of Terrorism, the Asociación Pro- Search for Missing Children of El Salvador, Professor Muhammad Yunus, Mrs. Bogaletch Gebre, Father Vicente Berenguer, Doctor Pedro Cavadas, the Missionaries of Charity of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and the Jesuit Refugee Service.
The delivery ceremony will be tomorrow, July 12, at 7:30 p.m., in the assembly hall of the Bancaja Cultural Center in Valencia.
The event will be entertained by the Sierra Leonean musician Seydú.