The Guardiola Sala Foundation has worked alongside Proactive Open Arms for many years. This NGO carries out extraordinary humanitarian work in different areas – the most important being the rescue of refugees who face dangerous conditions in their attempts to reach Europe by sea.

Pep Guardiola and his family have helped in various ways over many years, according to Òscar Camps – the head of Open Arms. In 2018, the football manager paid for repairs to a rescue boat being held in a Sicilian port.

The fruitful relationship between the Guardiola Sala Foundation and Open Arms led to Guardiola being chosen to honour Òscar Camps and Carola Rackete when they received the Gold Medal of Honour from the Catalan parliament. Carola Rackete is the captain of the German ship Sea Watch 3 which also rescues immigrants.