"Inlingua" Project

On March 12th of 2009, don Quijote Foundation and School Aid Network signed an agreement of mutual collaboration in the implementation of the project called “Inlingua”, a pioneering initiative in the promotion of Spanish as a Foreign Language and in the training of volunteers. The collaboration between School Aid Network and don Quijote Foundation involves the combining of talents of the two foundations to prepare volunteers, offer the knowledge of learning the Spanish language and to give them the ability to step inside the mind and context of another culture.

The don Quijote Foundation is a private non-profit organization founded in 2007. The Foundation’s Board of Trustees has included the business groups IDEAL EDUCATION GROUP and DON QUIJOTE, both leaders in the teaching of Spanish language with years of experience educating over 20,000 students on a yearly basis. The mission of don Quijote Foundation is to internationally promote, foster and disseminate knowledge of Spanish culture and language. The Foundation aims to carry out this mission mainly in countries in which Spanish is not the native language, as a way to contribute to the development, promotion and execution of educational and research-related activities aimed towards the achievement of the Foundation’s objectives in Spain and throughout the world. One of the foundation’s principal activities is sharing mutual agreements and collaboration contracts with Spanish, foreign institutions and organizations who hold true to the Foundation’s objectives, such as opening cultural centres and schools of Spanish in cities and countries lacking official and institutional support in this area.

The School Aid Network was established in January 2005 in response to the Tsunami tragedy. The Network contacted over 3,000 schools across the UK, organizing fundraising activities which raised £1.3 million for the DEC (Disaster Emergency Committee) Appeal. They sought and achieved Charitable Status in July 2006. School Aid Network has established smaller projects in which schools involve students in various work that help contribute and count toward their studies. They have recently supported the work of another charity (ABS UK), where projects in Bangladesh have already provided considerable help to individual families.

There is now an aim to support this charity in building a hospital in Bangladesh. The School Aid Network was delighted to be sponsored by the F1Group in November 2006, which enabled us to link Schools/Further and Higher Education/Youth Organisations and Charities to a wider range of opportunities (i.e. curriculum materials, volunteering and job vacancies, fund raising appeals, celebrating successes, linking skills to needs, etc.). There is a great potential for creating a worldwide organisation.

This important mutual collaboration which will be signed at the INSTITUTO CERVANTES of London means the unification of two entities that are striving to develop and promote the importance of the Spanish language and volunteer programmes. This will enable UK students to embark on a full linguistic immersion programme that will be part of their Citizenship Award. At the event, we will be served Codorníu Selección Raventós and Codorníu Pinot Noir which will be complimentary collaboration courtesy of Codorníu, Spain's favourite sparkling wine maker.