Cantabria por el Sáhara receives fifteen bicycles from Bicis para la Vida by ŠKODA for its hostel in Ontón

The Bicis para la Vida by ŠKODA project travelled this weekend to the Cantabrian town of Ontón, in the municipality of Castro Urdiales, to materialise the donation of fifteen bicycles to the Cantabria for the Sahara Association, a non-profit organisation which has been working for nearly twenty years to improve the living conditions of the Saharawi people.

With this new cession of material, Cantabria for the Sahara will incorporate the practice of bicycle sports among the activities it offers each summer to young Saharawis, aged between eight and twelve, who stay for two months in the Youth Hostel located in the Talledo district of Ontón.

This residence, for the third year, and thanks to the cession of Red Cross, is managed by the association in order to develop the program ‘Vacations in Peace’ (Vacaciones en Paz), which seeks since 1979 that young people, as specified in the program, “enjoy a short vacation, away from the extreme harshness of the high temperatures of summer in the desert”.

“The volume of private homes has dropped a lot and that is why a group of people from Castro Urdiales decided to launch this initiative to continue with the program ‘Vacations in Peace’,” explains José Luis Aranburu, member of the Association.

“The children, ten young people, stay in the hostel with a team of monitors and enjoy two months away from the high temperatures of the desert, doing multiple activities, workshops, visits, … Thanks to this donation, the bicycles are incorporated into this program of activities. It is to be thankful that an athlete like Alberto Contador is involved through his foundation in supporting activities like this and from here we want to thank him,” he continues.

This donation is the second that Cantabria for the Sahara receives from Bicis para la Vida by ŠKODA. At the end of February, as part of a large shipment of material to the refugee camps of Tindouf, the Cantabrian institution managed the reception of 140 bicycles of all types and sizes, many of them for children, which were sent to Algerian soil.