Bag&block or how to turn lego into jewellery

A few days ago, while I was scrolling through Instagram, I came across a news item about some special bags. They were made with lego pieces! And not only that, the people who made them were special people who I am more than sure have more than a few of the necessary competences to be part of our P.E. community.

This is the Bag&Block brand, which started more than 20 years ago in France.

BAG&BLOCK’s goal is to involve as many people with severe and long-term mental illnesses as possible in the different production processes of our bags; to this end, we collaborate with organisations that guide this group in developing a professional career that will help them in their integration into society.

The team behind this idea is Fundación Intras and Salud Mental Zamora. This Foundation is a non-profit organisation created in 1994. It has a team of almost 600 professionals, who accompany people with mental health problems in the recovery of their life projects. They offer different professional services to meet their needs. They work in 6 provinces of Castilla y León (Valladolid, Zamora, Salamanca, Burgos, Palencia and Ávila), in Madrid and in a network with entities all over Europe through the development of projects.

One of the products made by people with mental health problems is a type of bag that is sustainable, resistant, very original and handmade with a lot of patience. To make them, they first create a flexible and resistant framework with lego blocks, then they place the metal pieces and, finally, they join the sides with threads and place the inner lining. One of Bag&Block’s objectives is to create bags with a different type of material to what we are used to, and to propose a new concept of personalisation where each customer can give free rein to their creativity by changing their bag whenever they wish.

You have to know that nowadays the production of a bag takes an average of five hours of work and that when they started to produce, back in 2006, the average number of hours was 40. Since then, many tests, prototypes and improvements have been carried out until reaching what we can acquire today, quality, sustainability, originality and comfort.

The technique of producing bags is safe for the people who make them and is also a way of keeping them busy while helping them to keep their psychomotor system active.

There are many models, just have a look here or here, and even almost from scratch to make your favourite model, just enter here and here, and get your imagination going. Also, you should know that the Bag&Block bags allow you to put on and take off lego blocks so you can adapt the bag to whatever you are wearing at the time and give free rein to your creativity. Oh, and the pieces are also compatible with Megablock and other standard brands.

If you want more information, I invite you to visit their website, their Instagram account or their facebook account.

By the way, it’s already April and Easter is just around the corner.

From Kenia to the world

A few weeks ago I rediscovered a project, ayudame3D, and an exceptional social entrepreneur, Guillermo Martínez Gauna-Vivas. I say ‘rediscovered’ because, after a bit of ‘research’, I realised that he ‘sounded familiar’, as he was one of the winners of the Princess of Girona Foundation‘s 2020 Princess of Girona Social Award. Today I would like to introduce him to you, because what he does contributes to improving the world and, above all, to changing the lives of vulnerable people.

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OMG, 10 years!

Who was to say to me that I would reach 10 years with this blog. It’s not that I don’t believe it, I have worked hard for it, but it seems like yesterday when one day in November 2014 I introduced myself and this blog.

Today I want to say THANK YOU to the more than 2,000 active subscribers, who week after week are there. THANK YOU for giving me part of your time, either to read the post at full speed, to read it calmly, to read it at the same moment you receive it, to read it “when the time comes”, to read it with “all the ones I’m accumulating”, or to postpone it “because life and its main path, does not let us deviate for a while” (although I think it’s worth it). THANK YOU to all the people behind each post, because without you, this blog would be nothing, but even less would the entrepreneurial world and the world “just like that”. THANK YOU Juan, Tamara, Ainhoa, Ellin, Marianella, Álvaro, Anaska, Amaia, Toni, Anik, Camelia, Diego, Germán, Javier, Itziar, Gaptain, Marisa, Nagore, Muxote Potolo Bat, María, Mamen, Miren, Iratxe, Go Basquing, Arancha, Emakumeekin, EntreComp y EntreCompEdu, DeustoStart, Garbiñe, Andoni, Patricia, Arruti Consulting, Kristian, Asier, La galga menta, Harri kontari, Alupé, Kietoparao, Nuria, Ro, Mikel, Perico, kekelis, WOP… Hey, but I thank you as representatives of the many women entrepreneurs and men entrepreneurs, in short, P.E. that have passed through these pages, and as representatives of the projects and ideas that I have been able to talk about and echo. You are so many people that, from the bottom of my heart, I would love to have you all together and thank you with a huge hug (even more than the one you see in the photo) and “something else” that you deserve, I have no doubt at all.

This week I also have the pleasure and honor of being able to celebrate these 10 years with the Bantani Foundation, in Brussels, working with them and, in addition, being able to participate in the event, for me, of the year: Being Entrepreneurial 2024: Innovate Learning. Because, as you know, for me, being an entrepreneur is one of my passions, and being a teacherpreneur and being able to “shout it to the four winds” so that the attitude, mentality and entrepreneurial spirit reaches more people, is even more so. At this point, I have to give a special THANK YOU to the University of Deusto for giving me the opportunity to develop this facet. ESKERRIK ASKO, BIHOTZEZ!

By the way, I attach the agenda of the event, in case anyone is a little late but would like to come to Brussels and share with many people passionate about entrepreneurship that day.

Shall we go for another 10 years? Come on, let’s go for the next 5.

“Hacia el sur” (English version) (Southward)

The person I introduce you today is special for many aspects. Many of them are related to entrepreneurship and her powerful professionalism, but there are many others that, without being typical of an entrepreneur and without any doubt, are part of her added value. Her name is Ro Venegas and she is the CEO, image, soul and smile of Hacia el Sur (southwards), her dream project.

If you are interested in getting to know a person who defines herself as cheerful, social, extroverted, but serious and hard-working, and whose objectives include personal and professional growth by working with creative people who are capable of building things out of nothing to make people’s lives more entertaining, you just have to keep reading. (more…)