Proyecto Hombre celebrates its 40th anniversary in Malaga province
An average of 1,000 people pass through the organisation's facilities in the province every year
The heroin pandemic was sweeping Europe's youth in the 1980s. Italy launched a movement to prevent people from falling into drug addiction or pull them out of it. The great ideologist of the Progetto Uomo initiative was Father Mario Picchi, who died in 2010. The project is also implemented in Malaga province, under the name Proyecto Hombre.
At the 40th anniversary of Proyecto Hombre, which was held in Malaga on Tuesday, the former bishop of Malaga diocese, Jesús Catalá, said that the initiative's aim was to rebuild drug addicts and give them a divine purpose. Malaga was the first Andalusian province to implement the programme. Catalá expressed his gratitude for the people, institutions and organisations that played a key role in Proyecto Hombre's arrival in Malaga.
"Addiction is a problem with increasingly blurred contours, but one that is becoming more and more deeply rooted in society"
National director general of Proyecto Hombre Elena Presencio highlighted the role the programme has played in the lives of "people who have found an answer" and given "meaning to their lives". She thanked the staff of 50 professionals, from healthcare to psychosocial experts, and the 100 volunteers who work at the Malaga headquarters. Drawing attention to the problem, she said: "Addiction is a problem with increasingly blurred contours, but one that is becoming more and more deeply rooted in society." Nowadays, addiction has different faces that might have nothing to do with substance abuse: social media, video games and sex, among others.
Presencio said that the most exciting part of their job is persuading people that "reclaiming life is more than overcoming addiction": it involves the recovery of family ties, work life, health, economic autonomy and joy. "It means rebuilding the person from another place, giving meaning to life," she stated.
"Reclaiming life is more than overcoming addiction"
Presencio quoted philosopher Adela Cortina: "Man can tolerate unhappiness, but not the lack of meaning." "We accompany people in their search for meaning," she said. An important part of Proyecto Hombre's principles is that the staff do not judge the past of those who participate in the programme. Instead, they believe in their future. "Thousands of people have rebuilt their families and are an active part of this society," Presencio said.
According to Belén Pardo, director of Proyecto Hombre in Malaga, an average of 1,000 people pass through the organisation in the province every year, which means that the total number of beneficiaries up to this point could be around 40,000. Pardo stated, although addiction has different faces, it always stems from inner emptiness.
"There are more beautiful ways to be happy than being a slave: freedom"
During the ceremony, Malaga mayor Francisco de la Torre proposed a slogan for the organisation: "There are more beautiful ways to be happy than being a slave: freedom." With this, he highlighted the main goal of Proyecto Hombre, besides helping people lead a healthy life: helping them regain their freedom and independence.
De la Torre insisted on the importance of education in the prevention of drug addiction, which is why he announced an increase in the yearly budget for such initiatives from 100,000 to 150,000 euros.
President of the provincial authority Francisco Salado stressed that it is "fundamental and essential" to support organisations such as Proyecto Hombre, "because they go where public administrations do not reach". "Every euro that we, public administrations, invest in the third sector turns into gold, which is why we have to move forward hand in hand," he stated, highlighting the interdisciplinary issue of addiction, which often starts due to other issues in a person's life and spirals from there.
Salado reminded attendees that Proyecto Hombre provides educational, social, health and legal help.
"We are in a society that modernity has swept away. We have technological advances and instead of filling what they provide us with hugs, we fill with stress"
Delegate for the regional health ministry Carlos Bautista focused his speech on Byung-Chul Han's book The Spirit of Hope, which won the Princess of Asturias Award in 2025, and other thinkers such as Hartmut Rosa and Steven Pinker. "They speak to us of a society that is at a very critical moment and that has abandoned the most vulnerable. We are in the most interconnected world in history and yet society has never been so alone. How is it possible that our young people, who communicate through a tablet or a mobile phone, feel so lonely, that we have so many addiction problems, so many suicides, so much loneliness. Loneliness generates fear, isolation, addictions and mental health problems," he said.
"We live in a society that modernity has swept away. We have technological advances and instead of filling what they provide us with hugs, we fill with stress. The stress of the population is very high, related to real situations, wars, pandemic, but also to invented situations and we expect our young people to come out of this unscathed," Bautista stated. So he encouraged: "We have to draw a kinder society and provide the people who suffer with certainty. We don't have to be there with a WhatsApp, we have to embrace each other. A calmer society, a hug and a conversation can solve many things."
