SPAIN: 50 years and 478 solidary projects for Intermòn

Intermón is present in 53 countries of Africa, Asia and America where its main aims are to combat poverty and injustice, although it also develops campaigns for social mobilisation and helps people in situations of emergency. These are the very objectives which led to its creation 50 years ago in Barcelona. Intermón appears anywhere in the world where there is an emergency, as is the case now in the Lebanon. At the same time it maintains a permanent presence in a number of countries where 478 solidary projects are currently underway. In contrast to other organisations that provide temporary support, Intermón usually prefers to settle in those countries it considers in need of help. Once there and with the support of local organisations, Intermón tries to change some habits with a view to improving the living conditions of their nationals. Those in cherge of Intermón insist that their key objective is to enable underdeveloped countries to be self-sufficient. With this in view, it works with coffee, sugar or cotton producers in order to guarantee their survival. Intermón also favour fair trade. In 1994 it created a specific department which currently has 160.000 customers. In Spain, products from Third World countries are sold in 36 shops. Intermón sets a number of requirements that must be met before these articles can be sold in their shops, for example: workers must have been paid decent wages, there must have been no child labour involved in their production and healthy working conditions must have been ensured. In order to carry out all these tasks, Intermón has around 5.500 volunteers and has recently joined the international group Oxfam. www.intermonoxfam.org/page.asp?id=1&idioma=1