One more year of intense activity

As a result of the campaign that was active until the end of 2015, ULMA Foundation collected almost 6,000 Euro from people like you, which was used in January of this year by ACNUR for sending over 500 batches of basic foods and blankets to Syria to be distributed between refugee families in the Syrian city of Madaya.

By working at ULMA, we offered the possibility of purchasing an annual subscription to the Berria or Goiena Klub, with important discounts in the annual membership fee. These two local media channel publish their works entirely in Basque and this way they also promote its usage.

ULMA Foundation participates in the Start Innova programme for training young students on the methodologies and tools required for starting a new business project, a social project or any other type of project.

During this edition with High School students of ikastola Elkar Hezi at Oñati, three projects from students of this ikastola were between the five finalists and came in second, third and fifth place out of 750 students from different participating centres.

As part of the “Izan Osasuntsu” health programme, on 23 February we had the opportunity to attend a discussion-workshop on Nordic Walking, which was taught by the Nordic Walking Club. The people present at the workshop got the opportunity to discover the benefits this activity has on health and to practice this healthy activity for the first time.

The traditional trip to Illunbe took place on 27 March to see the basketball game between the Gipuzkoa Basket Club and FC Barcelona Lassa. Like in previous years, the bus trip and the tickets were free for all ULMA employees and their families.

Collection of school materials to send to children living in the camps of Tinduf in the Sahara. A total of 2,000 kilograms of notebooks, pencil cases, paints, pens, etc., and 242 backpacks is what we were able to send to them in collaboration with the NGO of Hermansoloña (Solidarity Twinning of Oñati), who classified and sent all the collected materials in a van that travelled directly from Oñati to the Saharan Camps.

Bidegorriak euskararenzat has been a social-cultural project promoted by ULMA’s Basque Motivation team for the purpose of claiming that the Basque language, as a minority language in the world, needs to have its own space here and must be carefully cared for by all. At ULMA we take special care of the language.

This project was comprised of three different phases:

· March-april-may:

The Decalogue of linguistic ecology was published during these months and each week we had a chance to learn the rules of co-habitation between the different languages of the world. And we also played the language questions and answers game related with the same subject.

· June-july:

The murals of the Basque language, in the shape of trees, compiled the commitments written by employees on stickers shaped like leaves to stick to the trees.

· September:

To conclude this project, this past 23 of September we demonstrated ULMA’s commitment with the Basque language to the town of Oñati by organising a bicycle run through the bidegorri that passes in front of all of ULMA’s Businesses in Oñati. Over 150 people participated in the run, which ended up at the plaza with a musical performance by Amaia Txintxurreta; and that night with the performance of the group KALAKAN at the Church, with the collaboration of Oñatz Dantza Taldea and Ganbarra Abesbatza.

With the aim of helping working parents balance work and family, ULMA Foundation organised the first Workshops for children at ULMA Group’s installations in Oñati. These workshops take place during the evenings of the month of June, when the youngest children at home only attend school in the morning. The workshops take place from 2 to 6 in the evening to cover the working hours of parents employed at ULMA.

At these workshops, a total of 46 girls and boys, accompanied by 4 counsellors, had an opportunity to learn the importance of caring for the surrounding environment through games, experiments and crafts as well as field trips to observe nature.

Also, other participants sent their crafts and had the opportunity to join the end of the workshops party on 30 June.

The assessment of this first edition by part of the parents as well as the kids themselves was very positive as shown by the surveys that were collected from the participants.

To collaborate with the Childhood Aid Association APAN and the FLEXER Foundation for helping children with cancer, we have purchased solidarity candy, which since then is available at ULMA Group’s Boardroom. And we encourage all businesses to also purchase solidarity candy for some cause.

Humanitarian collection of food for sending to the Food Bank, who in turn ensures it reaches towns in the area where it is distributed between families in need.

Primarily milk was collected because it was the item that was mostly requested at that time but we also collected vegetable canned goods, legumes and fish. As always, thank you very much for your kind collaboration.

Psychological support service for family members of dependent seniors residing at the San Martín Nursing Home in Oñati.

This support consists of group sessions coordinated by the Director of the Human Resources areas at ULMA Group and psychologist, Joseba Martínez, on an entirely volunteer basis during the evenings beginning at 6.

The purpose of these sessions is to support these families providing them with guidance regarding their personal situation as best as possible, using relaxation exercises, neurolinguistic programming techniques and group support.

All for the purpose of helping them confront situations that can generate anxiety or malaise. The first session took place from June-July and was very positive as shown by the assessments made by the people that attended as well as by personnel from the nursing home themselves and therefore a second phase began in October, which will run to the end of the year.

In July, ULMA Foundation in this same magazine, published a call for volunteers to travel to Honduras with the NGO ACOES (Asociación Colaboración y Esfuerzo), to work as a volunteer for one month helping people by teaching them your best skills.

However, nobody responded to this call. We will continue with the idea and will try again in 2017. If you think that you can be that person, you can begin planning your agenda for next year by making room for your solidarity vacation.

Coinciding in the dates, the Hotz Oñati citizen’s platform for helping refugees arriving to European borders began a collection campaign to send materials to refugees in Greece. To pay for the shipping of these materials to Greece, they organised a collection from different companies at Oñati by placing Solidarity money collection boxes. ULMA Foundation installed these money collection boxes in all its Businesses for one month and collected a little over 100 Euro. Every little bit counts.

On 17 October, the International Day for Eradicating Poverty, the Fundación Mundukide campaign “One minute a Day” took place at ULMA with the aim of signing new members. The proposal is simple: donate the value of one minute a day of our monthly salary so that Mundukide can continue working on its projects in the southern countries.

Until December, the campaign will be present at our cooperatives and then will transfer to other cooperatives of Mondragon.

Through the 8th of November, through ERRIGORA, we are offering the possibility of purchasing products from the Navarra harvest in support of the Basque language since ERRIGORA will destine 25% of the money collected to promoting the Basque language in the south of Navarra.

To finish the year, ULMA Foundation joins the solidarity toy collection campaign conducted by the Red Cross. Collection boxes will be placed at your cooperatives until the 16th of December where you can place toys for ages 0 to 15 that are new, not sexist or war toys and which comply with the applicable safety standards for the indicated ages.

If you don’t know what toys to buy or you do not have time, you can collaborate with the campaign by making a 5, 10 or 20 Euro donation to the Red Cross, which they will use to purchase the remaining toys they need:

- Or you can ask your personnel department to donate in your name and they will discount it from your December pay check that is paid on 5 January 2017.

- O solicitando en tu Departamento de Personal que lo aporten y lo descuenten de la nómina de diciembre que se abonará el 5 de enero de 2017.

All the toys will be delivered to the town halls in the area and distributed among families in need.

With everyone’s help, no child in your area will go without a toy this Christmas.div>