Lourdes Ibáñez de Gauna Ruiz de Arbulo (Hondarribia, June 19, 1941) was a social worker who worked in the Villaverde district, south of Madrid.
After studying Teaching in Las Navas del Marqués (Vila) and Social Work at the School of the Daughters of Charity in Madrid, she focused her work on social and educational integration and the labor insertion of the most disadvantaged people.
In order to help those most in need, she settled in Villaverde in 1975 with her family: her husband, Javier de Iceta, and her son.
At that time, Villaverde was one of the poorest districts in Madrid, and the streets and drugs were the fate of many of the neighborhood's youth. That's why he founded the Semilla Association to integrate young people. In the late 1990s, when immigrants began arriving in Villaverde, Semilla transformed from a youth association into an association for the social integration of the most disadvantaged.
The association, which sought social integration through education, disappeared in December 2014 and until then had its own catering school, day centers to address academic failure, and integration companies.
Each year, she served approximately 3,000 people: minors with academic, social, and family difficulties; adolescents at risk or experiencing social exclusion; young people who had dropped out of school; unemployed people with limited resources, especially young people; women; immigrants; Roma; drug addicts; prisoners; or those in an irregular situation.
As a symbol of solidarity, empathy and struggle to free many young people from heroin and hardship, at the beginning of 2023, the Villaverde district board agreed to name the municipal building dedicated to social services on Villalonso Street.
Semilla has received various awards, such as the Miguel Hernández Award from the Ministry of Education and Science for helping socially disadvantaged groups access education (1995), and honorable mentions in the Queen Sofía Awards from the Foundation for Drug Addiction Care of the Spanish Red Cross (1996) and the Miguel Hernández Award (1999).
Within the 2010 Madrid Community Children's Awards, Lourdes Ib ez de Gauna received the Children's Outstanding Person Award.
She has captured her experiences in three books - Desde un balcón se ve un patio (1994); Acompañando la singularidad (1998) y Aprendiendo en lo cotidiano (2018) - and her biography has been published in El valor de ser persona. Lourdes Ibáñez de Gauna, pionera en acción social (Los Libros de la Catarata, 2024), written by journalist Lupe Calvo Elizazu with a prologue by Manuela Carmena.