Fundación Maga: present and future

Natalia y Javier Murúa nos cuentan en qué momento se encuentra la Fundación Maga, justo cuando esta entidad sin ánimo de lucro fundada por la familia Murúa está a punto de cumplir su primera década de actividad.

What is Fundación Maga?
It is a family foundation supporting education and children in Sierra Leone and Cambodia. It was born as a tribute to our mother ?she instilled in us the values of cooperation and helping others. Over time, Fundación Maga has helped us to act effectively and receptively.

It is almost 10 years since Maga was launched. What?s your general impression of this period of time?
Highly positive; the number of schools that we have built and refurbished is much higher than expected when we launched the programme. Almost 1,000 children now have access to quality education; it helps them to grow and gives them a chance to build a future for themselves with more opportunities.
The work of missionaries and volunteers is commendable: thanks to them, projects are carried out, schools work and children are cared for. Having them there makes everything easier for us.

Girls at Lunsar school, in Sierra Leone. We rehabilitated it at the beginning of 2018.

What are your goals for the next 10 years?
We would like to build upon existing projects and give them continuity. We don?t intend to increase the number of projects; instead, we like to maintain direct contact with each one of the communities we help, visit them at least once a year and try to provide them with all the infrastructure required for their development. If we help children gain access to quality education, they will in turn help and strengthen their communities when they grow. In our opinion, that?s where the opportunity for change resides.

On a personal level, which projects have left a strong mark on you?
Perhaps the first ones we launched in both countries: we really felt their impact. And the meaning and value of Fundación Maga. Beyond that, it is really impossible to pick one. Each action we have carried out has been and still is special, both in terms of the project and of the people involved. They have all helped us to improve our understanding of the situation in each country and community. And feeling the gratitude of the locals is truly rewarding.

Local volunteers at Odam Chrey rural school, in Cambodia

Is there a particularly relevant experience or situation?
There are many, especially those that put you in front of a reality that has been so alien to us. A case in point is when you realise that children in Sierra Leone walk two hours to go to school. Or that girls often cannot attend school because they must fetch water from the river for their families. Or seeing how children who have been left crippled by anti-personnel mines help each other and manage to get ahead.
Thinking about infrastructures is very important. Both in Cambodia and in Sierra Leone, the weather seasons must be taken into account when you build a school ?nothing can get done during the rainy season. The Kathombo school in Sierra Leone is in such a remote, hard-to-reach area that off-road vehicles were unable to get there. Locals themselves walked down to the river to fetch stones and sand and carried them in 50kg sacks on their heads to make the concrete to build their school.
On a personal level, the bond with the local realities and projects is really powerful ?to the point that Javier and his bride travelled to Sierra Leone to get married! Around 1,000 people came from neighbouring villages to take part in the wedding banquet. And our sister Elena got married in a beautiful traditional ceremony in Cambodia.

What would you like to achieve with Maga?
Above all, to know that education will provide a more promising future for the boys and girls that we have helped. The schools are much more than just a place where they go to learn or where they are offered a better future; they are also a place where they can feel and act like children and briefly forget the situations they face in their family and social environment.
We believe that education is a fundamental vehicle for promoting peace, peaceful conflict resolution, respect and tolerance. Our role is insignificant compared to other organisations, but if we manage to bring visibility to the invisible and to solve the problems that we identify in the places we visit, then people might be more aware of them and we may contribute to reducing the differences between developed and underdeveloped countries.

What is needed to achieve that? How could you gain visibility and greater impact?
Rather than visibility in itself, the goal is to make Fundación Maga better known to increase the number of donations. Our funding depends on the sales of Fundación Maga wine, which is made in Rioja by Muriel Wines, the family?s group, so our challenge is to reach the largest number of consumers and wine lovers. We want everyone who finds, tries or buys the wine to understand the real value of their purchase: to fund the projects of Fundación Maga.

More information about Fundación Maga at www.fundacionmaga.org

Recently the blog Fashion Blend, written by Patricia González within Hola's Look & Fashion community, has published a wonderful interview with Natalia Murúa (in Spanish). The photographs that follow belong to this publication.