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- The project, which starts in Ceuta, will cover Melilla and eight other autonomous communities, and deliver computers and provide digital training courses to almost 500 state schools.
- Endesa's has invested two million euros in this initiative as part of its €25 million Responsibility Plan against Covid19.
Endesa has begun to deliver the nearly 5,000 computers and internet connection cards to students in vulnerable situations as part of its project to tackle the digital divide caused by the COVID pandemic. In addition, both students and teachers will receive training in digital skills through this agreement with 160 Spanish towns and cities. Endesa, through the education departments and town and city councils in places where it carries out its power plant generation activity most intensively, seeks to minimise the risk the digital divide poses for students in vulnerable situations. Bridging this gap entails social and health benefits for the population by allowing a telepresence in schools.
The distribution of computers and internet connections has begun in Ceuta and will extend to Melilla, Andalusia, the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Castilla y León, Aragón, Galicia and Extremadura over the coming weeks. In total, 5,000 students from about 500 state schools will benefit, with 800 teachers also receiving training in digital skills. Through this programme, up to 64,000 students in total will benefit from this curricular training of their teachers during the school year. The project represents a two million-euro investment that Endesa has made in those who, since the arrival of the Covid 19 pandemic, have suffered the most from its consequences.
María Malaxechevarría, Endesa's General Director of Sustainability, explains: “This project is meeting the target the company set itself in March in its Public Responsibility Plan, to provide aid where and in the form it is most needed. After the purchase of health materials and basic necessities, the socio-economic reactivation of the entire country is now required, ensuring, as we have always said, that no one is left behind in this transition we are undergoing”.
The second phase of Endesa's Public Responsibility Plan will see an investment of 13 million euros, in addition to the 12 million euros that the Company made in March in Phase One of its plan.
That first investment was mainly used for the purchase of medical supplies to support the entities that were fighting directly against Covid at the time. For example, in the Autonomous City of Ceuta, Endesa donated 20,000 masks that were used to serve the most vulnerable population.
The second phase of Endesa's Public Responsibility Plan seeks to address the digital divide that the global pandemic has exposed. The Company has designed an aid plan that is based on two well-defined axes: families and economic activation.
Endesa Families
Endesa is working to reduce the digital divide between children and young people from different economic environments when education becomes virtual and specific tools are needed to access classrooms. In total, Endesa will reach almost 500 public schools in 160 Spanish municipalities, allowing some 5,000 students to access digital tools that allow them to continue their education.
Employment is another of the most pressing needs to emerge from this crisis, which is why training in this second phase of Endesa's Responsibility Plan has become a fundamental concern. To this end, Endesa has set up training courses to provide access to the job market, carrying out programmes to promote employability in groups that are vulnerable to unemployment as a result of the pandemic, through support, training and skills development.
Endesa Activa
Economic reactivation is another of the axes of the second phase of Endesa's Responsibility Plan. The Company has promoted measures that will revitalise the Spanish business fabric, through:
- Advice, digitisation and financial support for SMEs, the cornerstone of our business fabric. The crisis has highlighted the need to continue supporting the sectors financially hardest-hit by the health crisis and lockdown, through the creation of new, innovative ways of interacting.
- Specific local revitalisation plans through collaborations with organisations and institutions specialising in individualised mentoring of companies that allow them to adapt to the post-Covid situation and ensure their survival. Endesa is deeply linked to areas that need, more than ever, specific plans adapted to the idiosyncrasies of each area.
With this second phase, the company is looking to amplify a message that forms part of its global strategy: the need to leave no one behind, in any energy, economic or social transition that may arise.