Laurence Dollimore
A MINI World peace became the goal for Marbella residents during a summit at the Laude International School in San Pedro on Tuesday.
Residents, charities and businesses met on the 5th April to discuss sustainability, community and integration of Marbella’s 137 different nationalities.
The event was run by Nicole King and the TV channel Marbella, and saw attendees brainstorm solutions to the town’s issues.
“We can carry on exactly as we are, as oil running over the Spanish people, or we can get more involved with one another and communicate,” said Nicole, “We need to be more empathetic and care more about each other.”
Director of Arboretum Marbella Alejandro Orioli – which has helped plant over 22,600 plants around Marbella – inspired the group to brainstorm environmental solutions, with allotments, car pooling and re-using bottles for water being firm favourites.
With his work already seeing 40 allotments constructed and 60 more penned, the community approach to sustainable food seemed to strike a chord with residents.
Following improving langauge skills, the most well received ‘integration’ idea was that of the girls in yellow, Ana and Antonella, the ‘Marbella Nights’ singing duo.
“Music speaks so many languages and can make us more open to each other culturally, what we need to do is have a huge music festival where performers from as many nationalities as possible can play.”
The idea was met with hefty applause, and led to calls for Marbella to become an international exhibition hotspot.
When discussion moved on to how to make the town an all-year-round location, one resident claimed this was the only option:
“We need to make Marbella a centre for international exhibitions, that is the only way we can keep attracting visitors and make us more than just sun, sea and sangria,” she exclaimed to raucous applause.
Plans were also made to consolidate fundraising efforts from the 350 Marbella charities into one big kitty.
“It is so difficult to raise money and it is incredibly difficult to run a charity,” said a representative from the DEBRA charity, “If we could find or create a hub of fundraising and delegate the money that would be ideal.”
Members from the Marbella Rotary Club and others offered to help move the plans forward, with a view to approaching The Lions Club.
Nicole King said afterwards: “Today has been really encouraging, it has been great to see that people in Marbella really do want to communicate more and integrate with each other and from what I have heard I think we have kickstarted something today.”
