the Department of Social Welfare of the City Council of Ponferrada will organize the Sunday October 16 a new edition of the renowned annual soldier’s march. If last year the Ponferradina generosity obtained 3,400 euros to implement a community nursing consultation in São Tomé and Príncipe, this year the collection of the inscriptions will be used to improve the water supply in the village of Ngalu, in Kilela Balanda (Democratic Republic of the Congo).
This charity march will start at 10:30 a.m. from the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, to then head for 10 kilometers around Mount Pajariel. The funds raised will go to guarantee the right to access clean water, with which the nearly 2,800 inhabitants of Ngalu will substantially improve their quality of life and their health, in addition to lightening the workload of women, children and girls who walk long distances in search of this essential resource.
The councilor for the area, Lorena González, wanted to highlight “the commitment, solidarity and social awareness of the more than 500 participants of the last edition and thank those who can afford to collaborate in an initiative like this, do not forget the lives or the needs of historically plundered countries to which we owe many of the comforts and resources that we have in developed countries. 80% of the coltan mines -used to make mobile phones, laptops, GPS or tablets- are found in the Congo. The control of this resource has led to systematic violations of human rights in the countries that possess this mineral, such as armed conflicts or the child exploitation of more than 40,000 boys and girls in the Congo alone. Cooperation and solidarity must be accompanied by a global Social Awareness, that crosses borders and transforms the way we understand the world”.
Registration, at the price of 10 euros per person, opens on September 26 and can be formalized on the web marchasolidaria.ponferrada.org.
