Spanish basketball players Pau and Marc Gasol have been bestowed the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for Sports, as made public today in Oviedo by the Jury responsible for conferring said Award.
The Jury for the Award –convened by the Princess of Asturias Foundation– was chaired by Abel Antón Rodrigo and composed of Jesús Álvarez Cervantes, Alejandro Blanco Bravo, Miriam Blasco Soto, Óscar Campillo Madrigal, Miguel Carballeda Piñeiro, Marisol Casado Estupiñán, Josep María Casanovas i Punti, Joaquín Folch-Rusiñol Corachán, Jorge Garbajosa Chaparro, José López-Terradas Díaz, Gemma Mengual Civil, Javier Muñoz Gallego, Santiago Nolla Zayas, María Rodríguez Escario, Eduardo Roldán Oses, Juan Antonio Samaranch Salisachs, Amaya Valdemoro Madariaga, Josep Lluis Vilaseca i Guasch, Theresa Zabell Lucas and Julián Redondo Pérez (acting as secretary).
The Hospitaller Order of St John of God has been bestowed with the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for Concord, as made public today in Oviedo by the Jury responsible for conferring said Award.
The Jury for this Award –convened by the Princess of Asturias Foundation– was chaired by Javier Fernández Fernández, President of the Principality of Asturias, and composed of Íñigo Abarca Junco, Ramón Aguirre Rodríguez, Fernando de Almansa Moreno-Barreda, Viscount of Castillo de Almansa, José María Arias Mosquera, Count of Fenosa, Rosa Isabel Aza Conejo, Adolfo Barthe Aza, Antonio Basagoiti García-Tuñón, Antonio Brufau Niubó, Isidro Fainé Casas, Pedro Luis Fernández Pérez, José Antonio Fernández Rivero, Emilio Ferré Solé, Francisco de la Fuente Sánchez, José Luis García Palacios, Ignacio Garralda Ruiz de Velasco, Antonio Huertas Mejías, Alicia Koplowitz Romero de Juséu, Marchioness of Bellavista, Wenceslao López Martínez, Teresa Mallada de Castro, Carmen Moriyón Entrialgo, José Oliu i Creus, María del Pino Calvo- Sotelo, Mariano Puig Planas, Matías Rodríguez Inciarte, Pedro Sanjurjo González, Antonio Suárez Gutiérrez, José B. Terceiro Lomba, Gonzalo Urquijo Fernández de Araoz, Ángel Antonio del Valle Suárez, José María Villanueva Fernández, Santiago de Ybarra y Churruca, Count of El Abra, and Pedro de Silva Cienfuegos-Jovellanos (as acting secretary).
This candidature was put forward by Marta Elvira Rojo, member of the Jury for the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences.
The Hospitaller Order of St John of God (HOSJG) is an international organization that provides health and social care to the needy, regardless of creed. It is a non-profit Catholic organization within the Catholic Church whose mission is expressed through hospitality and the humanizing of care services. It was founded in Granada in 1593 by Juan Ciudad, who established the first hospital for the care of poor patients, financed via donations. By the end of the 16th century, more than 50 hospitals had been established, mainly in Spain and Italy. The Order continued to expand through the Spanish colonies in America and through Europe (by the late 18th century, there were 256 centres). Its expansion in Latin America reached a peak in the 19th century, with the organization spreading through Africa, Asia and Oceania in the 20th century. In 2004, they were the first Hospitaller Order to open a centre for palliative care in China, in Yan-Ji. The Order currently provides care to 27 million people each year.
By adapting its work to the requirements of the times, the Hospitaller Order of St John of God has maintained the solidity of its services, in particular in palliative care, making a special effort during the Ebola epidemic declared in several African countries in 2014. At the time, the Hospitaller Order and the Juan Ciudad NGDO launched the Stop Ebola in West Africa campaign –the virus had already caused 518 deaths–, asking for donations for their hospitals in Lunsar (Sierra Leone) and Monrovia (Liberia) to provision isolation areas and acquire materials. Both hospitals were closed for disinfection and quarantine purposes. Part of their staff was infected, with 18 brothers and co-workers dying there. The Order continued to work for the prompt reopening of the two centres, training staff in safety protocols to fight the virus in coordination with the health authorities and other international institutions and continued to provide information and care to quarantined families (food, medicines and psychological support). The HOSJG currently has 350 centres, more than 70 in 27 impoverished countries out of the 55 in which it is present. It is also equipped to provide social and healthcare services within the spheres of hospitals, health centres, mental health, disabilities, geriatric health and social services. In this last area, it provides care to migrants, the homeless, those at risk of social exclusion, AIDS sufferers and drug addicts. The efficacy of the care it provides is maintained by constant updating of its structures and the promotion of research and health and social education. It consists of over a thousand brothers working alongside 55,000 professionals and around 9,000 volunteers.
It has more than 300,000 benefactors/donors, who lend economic aid through individual, periodic or one-off donations and in the form of legacies and bequests. The HOSJG joins forces with local institutions and organizations for the purpose of developing numerous action programmes. In recent years, the Brothers have helped earthquake victims in Peru (2007), victims of the typhoon Yolanda in the Philippines (2013) and those suffering most from the economic crisis in Spain. In January 2015, the Order received the European Citizen’s Prize 2014 granted by the European Parliament.
This year a total of 27 candidatures from Arab Emirates, Argentina, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Lithuania, Mexico, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Thailand, the United States and Spain ran for the award.
This is the last of the eight Princess of Asturias Awards to be bestowed this year, in what is their 35th edition. Previously, the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts went to American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, the Princess of Asturias Award for Social Sciences was conferred on French-American economist Esther Duflo, the Princess of Asturias Award for Communication and Humanities went to the Spanish philosopher Emilio Lledó Íñigo, the Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research was jointly bestowed on biochemists Emmanuelle Charpentier (France) and Jennifer Doudna (United States), the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports went to the basketball players Pau and Marc Gasol, the Princess of Asturias Award for Literature went to Cuban-Spanish writer Leonardo Padura and the Princess of Asturias Award for International Cooperation was conferred on the freeaccess digital encyclopedia Wikipedia.
The Awards will be presented in the autumn in Oviedo at a grand ceremony chaired by TM The King and Queen of Spain.
HM King Felipe VI has been the Honorary President of the Foundation since it was established in 1980. Following his proclamation as King of Spain on 19th June 2014, HRH Leonor de Borbón y Ortiz, Princess of Asturias, is now the Honorary President of this institution which annually convenes the Princess of Asturias Awards. The Board of Trustees of the Foundation decided at an extraordinary meeting in Oviedo last October to rename the institution and its awards, which are now called the Princess of Asturias Foundation and Princess of Asturias Awards, respectively.
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