The Tenerife en Verde project is aimed at the socially excluded, homeless and long-term unemployed

On Friday 23 June Boluda Corporación Marítima collaborated again with Cáritas Diocesana de Tenerife, donating a 40ft container towards its Tenerife en Verde green project, subsidized by the Cabildo (Canarian council), to train 40 participants to become organic farmers. The training is targeted at people at risk of exclusion, the long-term unemployed and homeless people currently residing in the facilities of the charity organisation Cáritas.

Half of the container supplied by the maritime company will be reused as a training classroom, the other half being used as a tool shed for the courses to be offered in the town of Granadilla de Abona, Tenerife. Boluda Corporación Marítima is collaborating with this non-profit association for the second time, having also donated a container In January 2016 for use as a kitchen, changing room and tool shed at La Rosita farm, in the municipality of La Guanca.

Boluda Corporación Marítima supports initiatives of these types of charitable associations and non-profit organisations as part of their corporate social responsibility program.

In line with this policy, Boluda Corporación Marítima is supporting a charity project through an association currently collecting all types of equipment to construct the facilities needed for the project.

Tenerife en Verde project

Tenerife en Verde is a green project recently started up on abandoned farms in the La Guanca, La Victoria, Tara Conté and Granadilla de Abona areas of Tenerife. The training provided by Cáritas is sorely needed in Tenerife as the island only produces 10% of what is consumed, while 90% is imported from outside.

The José Antonio Saiz, technical supervisor of ecological agriculture projects in Cáritas Diocesana de Tenerife, noted that Tenerife en Verde “aims to provide professional opportunities which respond to inevitable generational change, a shortage of organic producers and a market demand for their products”.

Cáritas Diocesana de Tenerife has been organising training projects and programs related to organic farming for the last 18 years. During the last five years this training has been supplemented with entrepreneurship, an initiative that open doors to people who want to learn by organizing technical conferences on organic farming.

During these years the association has trained up 50 people, 22 of whom have entered the labour market or become entrepreneurs. In August 2016, Cáritas in Tenerife created a work integration social enterprise that has already hired four participants trained in this entity.

José Antonio Saiz stated that “with independently functioning entrepreneurs, such as in farmers markets, we have created a network of producers where we all help to market the products, supporting other local producers with marketing problems. At Cáritas we look for new customers such as restaurants and hotels to buy from local producers, thus creating jobs and local products. We help local producers without intervening in their business activity”.

Along these lines, the technical supervisor of organic agriculture projects at Cáritas Diocesana de Tenerife stated “we carry out training on abandoned farms so students can start from scratch, and undertake all the work that needs to be done, up to entrepreneurship, product management and marketing, enabling them to learn how to operate in the labour market”.

Boluda Corporación Marítima’s donated container already forms part of the tools needed to promote ecological agriculture in Tenerife, helping people in risk of exclusion, the long-term unemployed and homeless people enter the labour market.

Staff of Cáritas Diocesana de Tenerife’s Tenerife en Verde project, alongside the 40 ft container donated by Boluda Corporación Marítima.