A (third) sector with confidence

For more than twenty years I have been interviewing people, with interest or for interest, and the fact is that I would never stop doing it, because, in one way or another, I always discover new worlds thanks to them. It doesn't always happen, of course, but when through an interview, I meet someone that if it hadn't been for being a journalist I would have missed, I mentally reconcile myself with a profession in existential crisis. And when through that someone with added value, I learn things or become aware of something worthwhile, I simply feel like saying thank you. So I do it here now, for having been able to meet Marta Lacambra, with the fantastic excuse of a new session of the cycle The New Barcelona – Moments Estel·lars on the social contribution of foundations.

I had her in mind, but like so many other names that must be identified in the "who's who" of this small country of ours. It's up to journalists and opinion-makers. Or, at the very least, I am clear that I must have, regarding the country, the State, and part of abroad, a mental map of who is in the know here and there. Or, simply, in Mariano Rajoy's terminology, who are those Catalans who "do things."

The general director of the Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera is one of them. And this Monday, in conversation with the conseller of Social Rights, Carles Campuzano, and with me, she dropped some insights about the great work her entity does in service of worlds as different as natural heritage, cultural heritage, or a heritage that we all undoubtedly love, such as our elderly people.

I had little idea, until now, to what extent a tourist's entry into Antoni Gaudí's modernist building La Pedrera can impact social programs that ensure dignified aging and that help and conduct workshops for people with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. I little knew that, at the same time, through Món Sant Benet, the foundation itself is the third source of job creation in Bages.

And I could go on. Job creation in the field of sustainability, environmental education, and territory protection. The improvement of nutrition, with the Fundació Alícia. The promotion of programs to foster scientific and cultural education and talent. The promotion of critical thinking and reflection through the organization of major art exhibitions, like the current one, at La Pedrera, with ceramics by Miquel Barceló.

One world. Many worlds. And this week, at least for me (but I think I haven't been alone in this), Marta Lacambra has put it right in front of us with the best of attitudes and with a single request to the authority present there, a Carles Campuzano with great knowledge and appreciation for the Third Sector: trust. And, from there, to let talent and good work flow. With the fewest possible obstacles from an Administration that, if it also helps, fantastic.

The best of spirits. That of people who, without gestures or spotlight, make this world a little better in their daily lives. Of people who, with their way of doing and their way of being, make you have confidence, despite everything, in a little bit of everything.

I leave you here the links to recover the conversation via Spotify or Youtube.