The María Cristina Masaveu Auditorium hosted the ceremony for the Ninth AEF Awards, organised by the Spanish Association of Foundations (AEF). The awards pay tribute to philanthropists and entities in Spain’s foundational sector.

The winners at this edition of the awards were:

Dr Fernando García Marín, founder of the Spanish Foundation for Health Cooperation (FECS), who received the Philanthropic Initiative Award for his work. A maxillofacial surgeon, since 2021 Dr García Marín has delivered healthcare in disadvantaged regions like Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania, with a special focus on cranio-maxillofacial surgery. The FECS is currently supported by a group of enthusiastic people who form the board, the executive committee and around 75 members, volunteers and friends of the Foundation who take part in the various projects.

The Integra Foundation, active for more than 23 years, received the Collaboration Award for its intermediation between more than 450 primary social care organisations and more than 70 major companies. Its labour market inclusion project helps people experiencing severe social exclusion—women who have been victims of violence, prostitution or trafficking, the homeless, recovering drug addicts, convicts and ex-convicts, and people with disabilities—to find employment and take back control of their lives. Working across the nation, the Foundation finds jobs for around 2,000 people a year.

The alliance formed by the Action Against Hunger Foundation and the acciona.org Foundation received the Social Innovation Award for its Decarbonising Humanitarian Response Efforts in Crisis Contexts project, launched in April 2023. This free open-access digital tool enables humanitarian organisations to measure the energy requirements of their interventions and obtain solutions based on renewable energies. It will shortly be tested in a primary school in Mauritania and will be used to supply energy to medical teams in Colombia.

The event also included a motivational lecture by José María Gasalla, a renowned speaker, writer and educator at Deusto Business School, and a musical performance by Valentin Chong, a pupil of the Telefónica Violin Chair at the Reina Sofía School of Music.