“Either they give us a place now or we will leave the food at the door of the southern town halls.” This was warned yesterday, in statements to this newspaper, Alicia Rodríguez, president of Inclúyeme, an association that was born two years ago in Los Abrigos (Granadilla) and that since the pandemic began has distributed food, hygiene products, cleaning supplies and toys to more than 3,000 needy families throughout the southern region derived from the social services of the municipalities.
For 11 months, the association had a premises in San Isidro, but the contract for the transfer of the property expired last week, coinciding with the death of its owner. His family has allowed him to have a couple more weeks of the space, where the social group pays for water, electricity, insurance, but not rent and where today all the food from donations from entities, companies and individuals is stored.
As Rodríguez explained, Arona was the first city council that contacted us, “but the mayor asked us for more time, time we don’t have; He told us that if we could get another small place, we would take it provisionally until the City Council had a larger one ”. Now, hopes are pinned on a meeting that the association will hold tomorrow with the mayor of Granadilla, José Domingo Regalado. “We went to see a place in San Isidro with the City Council, it is small, but there is nothing else. Either that or we close, ”said the president of Inclúyeme. “I just hope that at that meeting they give us the papers and we can sign them, because today we begin to collect food and, if we do not sign tomorrow, all the food that we have collected we will leave it at the door of the town halls.”
“We are praying that tomorrow they will give us the key and on Thursday begin to move,” reiterated Alicia Rodríguez, who indicated that from the public administrations “we do not want money, in fact we do not receive it, the only thing we ask is that they give us a local and, above all, that they do not leave families without eating and refer them to associations like ours ”.
Loaned property
Provisionally, the association, which has 25 volunteers, has had to borrow a private room until January to store the toys for the Christmas and Kings campaign, “because food and toys do not fit in the same place; in fact, most of the clothes have been sent to La Palma ”. In addition, the president of Inclúyeme thanked the offer “with the soul” of a property by the Vilaflor de Chasna City Council, “but it is not feasible to send a family by bus from El Fraile to Vilaflor”.
The deputy of the Common, Rafael Yanes, yesterday visited the premises that must be evicted in a few days. There, he held a meeting with the representatives of Inclúyeme and promised to contact different municipalities in the South to seek an urgent solution and prevent the end of the social work provided by the association without a physical headquarters, which would have serious consequences for the most disadvantaged families in the south of Tenerife.
