Hana

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HANA, A VERY SPECIAL LADY

I would like to pay tribute here to a very special lady. Her name is Hana and she is blind. She studied at Sebeta school. She is a single mother with two daughters. Life has thrown many trials and tribulations her way but she has come through these with incredible strength and positivity which cannot be expressed in words.
Mekdes, Hana’s youngest daughter is sponsored. She goes to the nursery at Abugida. Her older sister acts like a guide dog for her mother and accompanies her everywhere when she’s not at school. She attends Fita school. Whilst her daughter was at school Hana had the idea of investing some of the sponsorship money in a sweet stall at the school entrance. This is exactly what she did and she increased her income. With the profits, along with the sponsorship and a loan we gave her, she was able to get one of the homes built by the state for the poor, which has clearly made her very happy since she used to live in sub-standard housing of the kebele.
Hana is very clever. At the small party we held for the sponsored families they asked us about Spain, some of them had heard that Spain was at war, others were aware of the crisis but they were not really sure about anything (neither are we really sure about things...).
Hana asked us if she could give us some ideas to improve the situation of our country.
We are sure that if there were more people like her and less corrupt people here, things would be a lot better for us...

CHAIN OF SOLIDARITY

Chain of Solidarity in Solleric

Although quite some time has passed since this event we wanted to let you know that Mediterránea and its young volunteers took part in the Nit del Born activities, along with the association Mallorca Without Hunger. We used the structure especially created for this event by Susy Gómez in the Casal Solleric palace and staged the chain of solidarity on the scaffold framework, from where we distributed the food which we give to the most needy. Young people from Agora and BIC schools passed food items from one to another along the line until they filled the bags laid out on the last level of the structure, each bag featuring the words: “Yes, you can help us with your solidarity to fill these bags with food to deliver to the needy”.
The activity was applauded by the public who had gathered to watch and was well received.

The event was rounded off by the reading of a letter to the Three Kings:

The Three Kings and Father Christmas, this year is complicated here in Spain and we know that you will really have your work cut out.

At Mediterránea we are helping you so that all the children in a town just a few kilometres away from here, Sa Pobla, will get at least one present. We are collecting them in the Juega y Educa shop which is in Calle Jesús, 13. Maybe some of you here listening to us have a toy at home you could donate – you will be rewarded with a child’s smile.

We are also helping, together with Mallorca Sense Fam, to collect food and distribute it in lots of places, but with the children being a priority. It seems really unfair to us that according to María Dolores, the nurse at the Sa Pobla Medical Centre, there are 320 children who are undernourished.

If they don’t eat well they won’t grow properly and they will face severe consequences. We have created for them the Book of Recipes Against Hunger which you could perhaps add to your list as a practical, supportive gift which has been made by children who are much more privileged.

They are children from Queen’s College, The Academy, Bellver College and Baleares International College, who have put together a book featuring their 30 favourite meals. All money raised from the sale will be turned into food, so perhaps you could take note and leave one in our shoes on Three Kings Day or in our sack, dear Father Christmas.

We would like you to know that Mediterránea distributes 2000 kilos of food each month to a total of 900 needy people. In 2011 Mallorca Sense Fam delivered a total of 111.857 kilos of food to 752 families, from which a total of 1.305 people benefited. 

We can try to beat the crisis with solidarity. There will be better times ahead but right now we must help those who have hardly anything.

Recipes Against Hunger

THE INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS OF MALLORCA SHOW THEIR SOLIDARITY WITH MEDITERRÁNEA

This afternoon the directors and representatives of Bellver International College, Queens College, The Academy School and Baleares International College have presented the president of Mediterránea NGO, Dr Michael Stoma, with the money they raised from two charitable iniciatives. One being the sale of the solidarity books ‘Recipes Against Hunger’, edited and illustrated by the pupils at these four international schools; and the other, the performance of a fundraising ballet show by the María Antonia Màs dance studio, which took place in Paguera on 27th December.
The money from this Christmas campaign, 4,364€, will be used to purchase food for the most deprived families in Sa Pobla, a project which our organisation has been running since 2012.
In the photo are Mr Albert Loddo and Mrs Browen Griffiths, director and teacher from Bellver College, the director of the primary section at Queens College, Debbie Eaves, the president of Mediterránea NGO, Dr Michael Stoma, the director of The Academy, Clare Mooney, and Gema Izquierdo, representative of the Baleares International College.

HUNGER FOR JUSTICE

Letter from sister organisations :

HUNGER FOR JUSTICE
The solidarity shown over the last few years by the Mallorcan people towards those who are deprived of the basic means of survival has been extraordinary. However, the generosity shown this past Christmas has grown to heroic proportions as so many people have shared with the poor and given them things they desperately need.
We would like to speak on behalf of the needy people to whom we distribute food, who suffer from hunger in their own homes, expressing our thanks to all those of you who make this human kindness possible. If the extreme needs of many of the people who live in Mallorca were the result of a natural disaster then we could speak proudly of such generosity. However the reality is that the desperate situation of this new poverty is caused by the perverse society we live in and the cynicism of people who abuse economic, social and political power. There are reasons and guilty people behind our crisis.
We want to continue helping the hungry by collecting and distributing food but we cannot give up our rights and our dignity. For us, silence would be worse than ignoring the misery.
We, the poor and needy refuse to be used to reinforce the system. In addition to our hunger for food we are suffering from hunger for justice.
We are not talking about a Utopian justice as a synonym of revolution, for which we have long given up hope. We demand a justice which is palpable and real as in the classic sense of the word. In other words, equality of rights, opportunities and responsibilities for everybody.
Justice means that the public money grabbers give us back everything they have stolen from us. Justice means that astronomical differences in wages are suppressed. Justice demands that public and private funds that have gone missing and have been hidden away are invested in the creation of jobs. While there continue to be around one hundred thousand people out of work in Mallorca, our society will be drowned in misery.
We can only dispel the stench of charity which is given off by our good deeds by complaints, criticism and self-criticism. We can only bear the pain of helplessness by shouting aloud about our hunger and thirst for justice.

Can Gazà
Fundació Minyones
Parròquia de sant Francesc de Paula
Caputxins, “Pa de sant Antoni”
Associació altruista El Refugi
Associació Zaqueo
Ciutat, gener 2013

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