From September 14 to 16, Juan Ciudad NGO held its annual meeting in Granada with its 14 regional delegations, which also served as a meeting with the other departments that comprise the Solidarity Area.
Among the 23 attendees were the entire NGO team based at the Madrid headquarters, as well as a large part of the 14 regional delegations, and members of the Solidarity Area of the San Juan de Dios Province of Spain, which includes social work, volunteering, and awareness-raising.
Gonzalo Sales, director of Juan Ciudad ONGD, highlighted that one of the aspects that the participants have valued most positively has been the space for mutual understanding that has been generated, "open to sharing and discussing the different aspects of international cooperation that concern all departments in the Solidarity area."
This has allowed us to work in depth on four major themes aimed at consolidating and promoting the international cooperation mission of San Juan de Dios, based on the various realities in which each regional delegation, the Territorial Units, and the solidarity area carry out their work. These four central themes were: territorial coordination between the regional delegations of Juan Ciudad ONGD and the San Juan de Dios centers, institutional relations at the regional level, the activities to be carried out annually, and awareness-raising and education for development.
The meeting concluded with a roadmap This will be completed as the objectives proposed at this meeting are implemented, among which three stand out. First, to achieve greater presence in the cooperation networks of the different Autonomous Communities; second, to create a training program on cooperation aimed at San Juan de Dios staff from both the Juan Ciudad NGO delegations and other cross-cutting areas involved; and finally, to promote awareness about cooperation and development education within and outside the Hospitaller Order.
At the opening of the meeting, led by Brother MoisĂ©s MartĂn BoscĂĄ, director of the Solidarity Area of San Juan de Dios in Spain, it was emphasized that, in the current international context, cooperation remains essential to continue the hospitality mission in so many places in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.
According to Juan Ciudad ONGD's 2021 Annual Report, the organization worked on 41 development projects in 15 countries, with its counterparts being the San Juan de Dios centers, with 400,000 direct beneficiaries, in addition to the shipment of 14 containers with more than 100 tons of aid and the management of 25 people who have collaborated in international volunteering.
