Filipe Bidart, representative of the Etxauzia Association, and Begoña Pedrosa, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, signed the collaboration agreement
Filipe Bidart, representative of the Etxauzia Association, and Begoña Pedrosa, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, signed the collaboration agreement
Filipe Bidart, representative of the Etxauzia Association, and Begoña Pedrosa, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, signed the collaboration agreement
On Friday, November 17, Filipe Bidarte, representative of the Etxauzia Association, and Begoña Pedrosa, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, signed a collaboration agreement between the two organizations. The signing took place on the Eskoriatza campus.
On Friday, November 17, Filipe Bidarte, representative of the Etxauzia Association, and Begoña Pedrosa, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, signed a collaboration agreement between the two organizations. The signing took place on the Eskoriatza campus.
In this agreement, both parties emphasize their intention to consolidate mutual relations, which on the one hand means that, in the Northern Basque Country, the work of the Faculty of Humanities and Education will be publicized and contacts will be established with various agents in the area. Additionally, the Etxauzia Association will provide students of the Faculty of Mondragon University with the opportunity to learn about different situations that are being developed in the Northern Basque Country.
According to a statement by the Dean upon signing the agreement, the Faculty of Humanities and Education will contribute 13,000 euros to the Etxauzia project over the course of two academic years.
Annual contribution to various projects in the Basque Country
Mondragon University will contribute to the Etxauzia project through COFIP, the Contribution for Education and Cooperative Promotion and other public interest purposes. Payment of the financial assistance is divided into two parts. During the past academic year, the Faculty of Humanities and Education donated 6,890.66 euros to Etxauzia; the amount for this year has not yet been established (it will be decided in the General Assembly of February, 2018), but it is expected to be similar to the previous amount.
The Faculty includes in its yearly objectives the financial assistance it will grant to various agents and projects. To date, the recipients of this financial aid have included, among others, the Argia school in Tudela, and the Bagara and Debagoiena 2030 associations.
Begoña Pedrosa, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, made the following statement upon signing the agreement: “For us, it is very important to have an impact on the situation in which we live, since we are part of it. Our contribution is based primarily on knowledge and on the social transformation that it helps; thus, we support projects like Etxauzia. We believe that institutions that share values and objectives should work together.”
The cooperativist model and the national perspective
The representatives from the two organizations signing the agreement concurred in emphasizing the characteristics that the two projects have in common: “The work model of our Faculty is based on the values of collaboration and cooperativism. The Etxauzia project stems from a global vision of the Basque Country, which is why the General Assembly approved economic support for it,” stated Dean Pedrosa.
“Etxauzia is a project that is driven by the citizens themselves, with the collaboration of numerous cooperatives and domestic social agents from the Northern Basque Country. It arose originally in the Baigorri area, but with a global perspective of our country that includes a number of institutions, citizens, and agents who want to participate in the project,” added Filipe Bidart, representative of Etxauzia.
Etxauzia: a fundraising campaign for an open and dynamic project
Many residents, businesses, and organizations in the Baigorri area are leading the campaign to purchase Etxauzia, a nearly-1000-year-old castle that maintains long centuries of history within it, and whose next page will be written by all those involved. It is ultimately an economic, cultural, and linguistic project that will revitalize the Northern Basque Country, and that also examines topics such as the diaspora and history. In September of 2017, 400,000 euros had already been dedicated to the project, but there is still a long way to go to reach the goal.
For more information on the Etxauzia project, visit this site: www.etxauzia.eus.