- Quote: ‘There are many Bartolomés in our city – men and women sleeping on the streets – in parks, arcades, abandoned lots. Let’s rebel against this reality, let’s change it’
By Andrew Atkinson
Rodolfo Carmona, Torrevieja Councillor for the socialist workers party, has backed a call for a Municipal shelter in the city by the Adenis Association.
Speaking of concerns, surrounding homelessness, Councillor Carmona who studied Sociology at the University of Elche, said: “I would like to speak to you about Bartolomé, a human being, who lives in our city, and who has made his home out of a municipal park – since he has no other place to go.
“Along with two other people, Bartolomé shares his makeshift shelter of cardboard and blankets under the icy sky.
“In his sixties, he has serious vision problems and has undergone heart surgery, although he has not lost his smile.
“He subsists on the solidarity of some neighbours – but Bartolomé, oblivious to everything, perhaps without even suspecting it, has lit the flame of solidarity and social commitment.
“An initiative supported by numerous residents of Torrevieja – who have decided to stand on the wall and started a campaign on social networks, to reverse his situation and that of many others.”
Councillor Carmona, ex-secretary of the PSOE Torrevieja, added: “Some say that destiny is forged by oneself and if it has ended there for a reason, it will be. “Given this, I can only say that we do not make his tragedy and that of other people something inexorable. Let’s refuse it.
“There are many Bartolomés in our city – men and women sleeping on the streets – in parks, arcades, abandoned lots. Let’s rebel against this reality, let’s change it.
“We must give them a different alternative to the current one, which is, after loneliness, loneliness.
“Let us do what is necessary, so that this painful reality becomes, after loneliness, dignity.
“From the universe of the street and poverty it is almost impossible to get out – without external help.
“One enters a loop of social invisibility that destroys the individual, the person, which reduces it to extremes that are hardly bearable.
A better Torrevieja every day is also a more conscientious Torrevieja, attentive to those who have lost everything, willing to work hard to change things, determined to cauterize the horror with action, not remain idle in the face of the social reality that many suffer. “We all have the right to a second chance. We all have an obligation to at least try to make it possible.
“Local politics cannot be decaffeinated, it cannot be an activity alien to hope, turning its back on the search for solutions to these desperate cases.
“It is urgent to set up a municipal shelter and a social majority supports it, as the promoters of this idea have demanded.
“This initiative of the Adenis Association – founded by a group of brave women and with the objectives of sustainable development as a guide, among them that of putting an end to poverty in all its forms – was born within a certainty that is clearly installed in the Torrevieja society as a whole.
“To them, to those women who have taken the first step – the most difficult and necessary – who have said enough is enough, we have to act, deserve the merit and success of a municipal shelter, that sooner rather than later, will end up being a reality in Torrevieja.
“Members of the Adenis Association contacted me and explained their project and Bartolomé’s situation. Naturally I put myself at his entire disposal.
“They are the true heroines of this story. An example that we should all support and value. At the moment collaborating with the collection of signatures, that will start shortly.
“Thank you Christina, Ainara, Mar, Gemma, Angel. Your fight is our fight. We need a Municipal shelter now!”
Caption: Rodolfo Carmona: Backed call for Municipal shelter in Torrevieja.
