- For the first time, no funds will be collected at the traditional petitionary tables nor via the popular collection boxes, and in Mojácar this “celebration of solidarity” has been underway since the 11th, visiting schools, institutes and local councils, thanking and highlighting the importance of their collaboration during the pandemic.
Mojácar October 2021. The solidarity of the people of Almería has allowed the Red Cross to assist dozens of thousands of people in a vulnerable situation over the year and a half of the pandemic we have been living through. For this reason, the Organisation wants to dedicate its traditional Day of the Little Flag, which will be celebrated on 21st October throughout Andalucía, to giving THANKS. Instead of asking for donations, the Red Cross volunteer service will be getting out onto the street to thank citizens.
It will therefore be the first Day of the Little Flag in the history of the Red Cross without collection boxes. Nor will there be petitionary tables distributed throughout the city and localities.
In Mojácar for example, the Day of the Little Flag has been celebrated for several days with a tour of gratitude to schools, institutes and local councils for their collaboration during the pandemic and on the social and humanitarian projects which the Red Cross runs for vulnerable people.
Mahor collaborators
The local assembly of the Mojácar Red Cross is concentrating on visiting the following schools and institutes of these localities which have got involved with the work of our institution, demonstrating their solidary, generosity and responsibility for people in social difficulties.
Turre: Colegio María Cacho. Garrucha: Guardería Bambi, Guardería Sirenita, Colegio Ex Mari Orta, Colegio Hispanidad, IES Mediterráneo. Mojácar: IES Rey Alabez, Colegio Bartolomé Flores, Guardería. Carboneras: IES Goytisolo, Colegio Simón Fuentes, Colegio García Lorca, Colegio San Antonio de Padua. Bédar: Colegio El Puntal.
Among the expressions of appreciation and collaboration among institutions the local councils of Turre, Garrucha, Mojácar, Carboneras, Los Gallardos and Bédar stand out.
Despite the novelties, the Organisation personnel will continue placing the traditional stickers or “little flags” on the lapels of those who take an interest in this “Celebration of Solidarity”. This is how Mojácar Red Cross Local Assembly President Concepción Rivero has looked back on the details of the Red Cross activity through 2020 and 2021, in “this very long year and a half of pandemic which we have lived through so intensely at the institution and in the whole of society.
This year is special. We are back out on the street and we doing so also in a unique way: we are giving THANKS to all the institutions, companies, people and society in general who have collaborated so that those who need us most can keep going in these such difficult times.” Specifically, in 2020 the Almería Red Cross assisted 110,000 people throughout the province.
Almost 200 volunteers, partner companies and members in Mojácar
Among the data highlighted by the local president, she underlined the involvement of nearly 40 people as Red Cross volunteers in Mojácar and the expert personnel, alongside the more than 130 members and partner companies who contribute to sustaining all the humanitarian work: “The sum of the volunteers’ efforts, the commitment of our members, the great generosity of those who have made donations, the social responsibility of companies and the backing of the public administrations have made it possible for the Red Cross to have given a historic response to a never before seen emergency”, explained Concepción Rivero, who highlighted the increase in volunteers and of members, despite the difficulties.
“On the 21st of October we are going to get out throughout Andalucía, including in Almería province and the local assemblies, to say THANKS to the whole of society: the people, the institutions and the companies who have been by our side and who always have a special role”, affirmed Rivero.
The Mojácar Red Cross President recalls the nearly 1,000 people assisted in Mojácar in 2020 by the Institution, more than 900 beneficiaries of the Red Cross Responds Special Plan, which was launched at the start of the first state of alarm to reduce the consequences of the crisis caused by the coronavirus.
The Red Cross Responds Special Plan included emergency assistance to buy foodstuffs and hygiene products, aimed at those families who overnight found themselves without resources, but also actions to improve education in infancy under lockdown, such as giving out tablets and internet access points, measures for improving the search for employment, to continue guiding and training unemployed people online, and many psycho-social support and backing actions at a critical moment for those suffering the impact of the illness.
As well as the special Plan in the face of Covid-19, the Red Cross kept up its activity in practically all the programmes it runs in Almería province, the majority of them adapted to the new circumstances and restrictions imposed by the pandemic.
For example, the programmes aimed at the care of the elderly were transformed so the volunteer service could remain at the side of the participants without putting them at risk: through support by telephone, sending memory activities, medicines and foodstuffs to their homes, and above all a continued monitoring of their state of mind, emotional state and health. As time has gone by, the group activities with the elderly have returned in order to continue promoting active ageing, which overcomes another major silent pandemic: loneliness.
In 2020, something more than 200 elderly people received assistance from the Mojácar Red Cross voluntary service.
The Red Cross Mojácar local assembly president also explained that in 2020 a total of 330 people in a situation of extreme vulnerability were assisted, while more than 700 people received primary need aid for food, clothing, teaching materials and sanitary products.
Other projects considered essential have continued operating since the start of the pandemic with extreme rigour in terms of the safety measures to prevent possible risks; the assistance of Humanitarian Aid Emergency Response Teams, the protection of women who are victims of gender-based violence and assistance on the street for homeless people are good examples of these kinds of projects, with its voluntary service on the front line.
