Anna’s life began to fall apart when she was three years old. Her mother and grandfather died, her father left never to return, and she and her brother were left in the care of her grandmother. A “bad streak” began that would last almost a decade. But Anna’s desire to learn had been with her since she was born. His enthusiasm for studies permeated everything and dedicating himself to them served as an “escape route.” An excellent student, he also felt that (good) grades were a way to see his effort rewarded. However, when she was at the gates of the university she began to feel that the magnitude of her efforts was not going to be reciprocated “by the State, by society,” and frustration grew within her.
Mar, also an excellent student, was at the same educational stage when she began to assume, also out of frustration, that, if she wanted to go to university and fulfill her dream of studying Law, she would have to complete her degree in more years than usual. . Due to the economic situation of her family, headed only by her mother, she would be forced to work while pursuing her degree in order to contribute at home.
Anna and Mar are part of those statistics that depict an educational journey as an obstacle course for people born into a humble family in Spain. Anna and Mar, according to the data, started, from base, with a 48.8% chance of repeating a grade between Primary and Secondary. The risk they had of ending up dropping out of school was between 20 and 40%. They are two of the 30% of young people who go to university, but do not have a parent with a “prestigious and well-paid” job and they could have been part of that 15% of university students who work while studying. Obtaining the title could have cost them up to three times more than a wealthy colleague, according to statistics.
That is why Anna’s grandmother, whom she deeply admires due to her “tenacity” and Mar’s mother, who had to raise her children as a single mother, felt that things began to ease when a foundation, at that time unknown to them, came into their lives to completely and more than assume the university expenses of the young women: the Dádoris Foundation.
“We created Dádoris due to a double factor: first, we are people who have been treated well by life. The 25 founders have been able to progress in our careers. It was a matter, first, of gratitude. The second factor had to do with the fact that we all had an interest in ensuring that certain values were not lost. We feel that society should not stop valuing the importance of talent, the need for effort, and generosity,” says Pedro Alonso Gil, president of the foundation.
Gil states that, although a good part of public opinion currently presents a critical vision regarding meritocracy, since “it does not work perfectly and there are people who take many infamous shortcuts,” for others “there is no alternative”: “For them, of course moment, that is the only way. Those who have personal relationships find others. “So-and-so’s uncle, who is a friend of… But these other young people don’t have that handle.”
Put the concept of “chain of favors” into practice
The premise of its initiative, which began in 2018, was the following: to look for “brilliant” students, but with severe problems in being able to successfully continue their studies, to, thanks to the help of patrons and volunteers who would support the project, comfortably assure them of good university studies. As the foundation would have no staff to pay – the people involved would work voluntarily – and no need to invest in administration or marketing, all the money invested in Dádoris would go entirely to these students.
They also decided that they would not obtain public resources of any kind and that 100% of their income would come from civil society. None of the donations from the different natural or legal persons involved could represent more than 7%-8% of the total funds in order to guarantee independence and the stability of the project – that the withdrawal of a sponsor would not bring down the project. . That’s how it was: the first year there were a few volunteers, around 30 donors, and five award-winning students. This year there are already 256 volunteers, more than 600 donors and 76 students have been awarded.
They operate from the concept of a “chain of favors”, so, in the case of accepting the award, young people must commit to doing around 50 hours of volunteering per year. Furthermore, they are expected (although not obligated) to help other students who may find themselves in a similar situation when they finish their studies. “We tell them that they don’t have to thank us, because we are doing it in gratitude for the values and support we have received from our parents, and with that we have fulfilled our debt. If they have a debt, it is not with us, but with the kids who in 20 or 30 years may need a helping hand. It is a matter of sustainability”, assures Alonso Gil.
Many profiles with a high risk of social exclusion have passed through the foundation, such as people who grew up in foster homes, young people whose families arrived in Spain in a boat or others belonging to the gypsy group, such as one of the winners, who, they say, goes on his way to becoming the first gypsy judge in the country.
Another notable profile is that of Amina Ashkat, a young woman who came to Spain at the age of 12 with her mother and brother from Kazakhstan. “This girl is now in 4th grade in the [Universidad] Charles III [de Madrid] studying Physics Engineering and has created an association that is present in 40 countries called Girls IN STEM (as Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics studies are known, for its acronym in English), a non-profit organization whose objective is empower girls to join various fields of science, with more than 4,500 women who have already participated in its activities,” says the president of Dádoris.
Requirements requested by the foundation and resources it offers
These awards are aimed at young people who have completed high school in Spain, with talent and brilliant results (average of outstanding, exceeding 9.5), ambition to access university studies and centers of excellence and whose family income does not exceed Threshold 1 from the Administration (around 5,500 euros of annual income per member of the family unit). Exceptionally, those students who are already pursuing higher education, who are having excellent results, but who are experiencing negative economic situations that are preventing them from completing their studies, could also be eligible for this. The call for the following awards opened on November 3 and will close at the end of February next year.
The winners receive up to 9,000 euros per year (depending on the case) for accommodation, food, household expenses, transportation, required academic materials, etc., and other resources such as a tutor (who will attend to their academic needs), a mentor (who will help them in your integration into the university world, will guide you and will be in charge of monitoring you and giving you support), and complementary training (language courses, Erasmus, internships, work in first-class companies…).
“There are boys and girls who come from unstructured families or with problems, and when any young person has difficulties, what they turn to is their family or their environment. But here there are times when the family is not that they don’t want to help them, but that they can’t. Most of them are the first university students in their family, so they do not have references of this type. The tutor provides guidance,” explains Aurelio Medel Vicente, volunteer and tutor at the foundation.
A way to break cycles of poverty
After studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Pompeu Fabra, Anna Llano is working in a consultancy, in the Sustainability department. He chose this career and this department because, he says, he needs to have a holistic approach to the world. His life has changed radically. It causes her “a feeling of horrible injustice” that there are people who cannot access a good future due to their economic circumstances and, she affirms, this serves as an impetus to contribute to improving that situation in the coming decades: “If I stayed “Only in anger would I be a sad person all my life, so I prefer to try to contribute something too.”
Mar Campos, after choosing Law because she considers it a “social work” – a lawyer, she says, almost fulfills the function of a “psychologist” by solving many headaches for families – and after studying at the University of Oxford, she finds herself completing the master’s degree in access to the legal profession. He imagines the future in an international office. She assures that she feels privileged, since “unfair situations occur on many occasions,” and her desire is to make the foundation known and continue helping. He is grateful for the peace of mind he has been able to have during his degree, which has allowed him to enjoy it “100%” by not having to dedicate himself to working at the same time to contribute financially to his family.
Alonso Gil remembers one of the conversations he recently had with some of the winners that, he says, sums up the spirit of Dádoris—a name that comes from the noun for “give” in Portuguese (giver), created by the poet and name giver Fernando Beltrán—: “The other day I told them: ‘There will come a time when you will be forty years old and have many responsibilities. Maybe you will already be paying the mortgage and you will have a standard of living in which it will seem to you that being a member of the country club, playing golf, traveling, or the gold card, is something essential, and you will think that where are you going to get it? one hundred euros to help. Well, that will be your dilemma: whether you want to continue helping or not. But at that moment, simply remember how you felt the day they told you that you would be able to continue studying. When someone who didn’t know you at all told you: ‘We’re betting on you.’”
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