Barca Foundation and SNF Join Forces to Support the Most Vulnerable in the Fight Against Covid19

Photo showing a table on which there are two glasses of water and two plates of food and two little girls where one is holding a spoon to eat and the other is blowing on her plate to cool down

Τhe Stavros Niarchos Foundation, as part of its newly launched $100 million global relief initiative against COVID-19, is joining forces with Barca Foundation. Thanks to this support, the Barça Foundation will be convening coordinated emergency response and relief projects in Catalonia in collaboration with the Red Cross and the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Education.

The collaboration between the Barça Foundation and SNF will be directed towards grants to support at-risk families and individuals, support to the homeless, psychological support to the elderly and awareness to help curb the spread of the epidemic.

These activities will be channelled through the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Education and the Catalan Red Cross’ Creu Roja Respon programme aimed at families and groups who need such support in these exceptional times.

The SNF has been working with the Barça Foundation since 2016, supporting the refugee and migrant programme and the construction of the Sant Joan de Déu Foundation’s Pediatric Cancer Center.

Part of the grant will be used to support food grants issued by the Government of Catalonia’s Ministry of Health, which involves distributing wallet-sized cards that are charged with a daily amount for the total number of days of lockdown. The amount is €4 per student, per school day, and fortnightly payments are made. These cards can be used to buy food at any store in Catalonia.

In the context of lockdown, with the interruption of school activity, the Government of Catalonia set up this emergency mechanism in order to adapt the lunch grants received by Catalan children in vulnerable situations.

Through the Catalan Red Cross, the grant will also meet the needs of more than 700 people in vulnerable situations, such as families at risk of social exclusion and homeless people, among others.

This action forms part of the Creu Roja Respon programme, which in the first phase of the emergency response is providing the most vulnerable populations with the following priority services:

Distribution of basic necessities (food, personal care products and household cleaning products) to vulnerable families;
Health prevention, through campaigns on preventative measures against Covid-19, aimed at the general population;
Psychosocial support for the elderly, especially those affected by the pandemic, and caregivers; and
Support for people in situations of extreme vulnerability such as the homeless.

Jordi Cardoner, First Vice-President of FC Barcelona and Barça Foundation
“Here at the Barça Foundation we are working every day to help overcome this pandemic that affects everyone by seeking resources and medical equipment and supporting the most disadvantaged. We are doing this in collaboration with others, which is why I want to stress how invaluable it is that the Stavros Niarchos Foundation is once again helping us, and which further showcases its commitment to helping the most vulnerable groups”.

Andreas Dracopoulos, Co-President, Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)
“During these challenging times we are turning to our partners and collaborators around the world and we stand by them, as we collectively work, each to the best of our abilities, towards alleviating the effects of this global pandemic. Barça Foundation is a valuable partner that the Stavros Niarchos Foundation has worked with closely during all these past years, in our joint mission to stand by those most in need, wherever they are. We find ourselves together once more, joining forces amidst this unprecedented challenge, guided by our common philosophy to try to do good.”