Gleiber Carreño Lasso - Active Miller

"Many clubs and installations need support"

This month we went to La Oliva so that the Sports' councillor of the municipality could tell us about his achievements and projects, Tell us...

I have a Bachelor's degree in physical activities' sciences and sports and I also studied professional massage, I have, therefore, always been involved in some way with sports. I had the opportunity to leave the country in order to study English and when I came back I was offered to be sports' councillor. At least you are involved in a council that is related to your profession and that you understand quite well. That's true, that was the best, because when I first arrived it was quite a shock, as I had never been involved in politics before. My first impression wasn't that good, my head was telling me: NO! Then, I thought about it again, I talked with my family and friends and I tried to see the positive side, which was to make sports progress for the municipality of La Oliva, which is where I grew up and here I am!

" I talked with my family and friends and I tried to see the positive side, which was to make sports progress for the municipality of La Oliva, which is where I grew up and here I am! "

You are quite new to politics then?

It's only been one year, I started with Isaí Blanco. This is good, because, although you don't have much experience, which you will acquire day after day, on the other hand, there is nothing to cloud your ideas. It is now a question of discovering politics from the inside... It isn’t as easy as we could think from outside. I used to wonder why things don't get done or why there is so much delay and now I understand the long procedures that are involved for any type of action and they don't depend from just one person but also from other institutions. Furthermore, we have been hindered a lot by the new Law on contracts and by the Law on land and many changes that we had to adapt to in order to keep on working.

Out of what you have achieved during this short time, what are you most proud of?

I have always said that the subject of grants was very important for sports' clubs. We had to work at the beginning with an extended budget but for the new budget this year, we have extended the generic grants by 50% and we hope to double it next year. We know that transport, referees, sports equipment and anything related to the life of the club depend from that budget. Also, regarding the premises, we have also injected some money for investments, such as the renovation of the pitch of Corralejo's football club and the improvements of the Nautical School. With the Cabildo, we have started work on the athletics' facilities and also many renovations such as the gymnasiums and La Oliva's swimming-pool where we have invested 14.000 Euros to renew accessories and obsolete materials.

And what are your projects for the future? You have at least one more year ahead.

I want to work on the events organised in the municipality with races or some triathlon event. The municipality is asking for this type of event that we don't have at present, in addition to the events we already organise. There is a pioneering project in the municipality which is a sports' event for people with functional diversity. We have already started working on it with the training of instructors in schools. We also organised an event at El Combrillo with the Nautical School with children who have some kind of disability and we now want to include them in one of the municipality's summer camps. Slowly, we want to start offering various sports' modalities to all children and adults who want to participate, even if they have some kind of limitation. This is a project that will keep on growing in the long term, but at least we have started. I would like the population to understand that we can't look after everything at the same time, as there are many clubs and installations that need support and we are prioritising depending on the use and demand for each location.