The Inclúyeme association, which in just two and a half years has distributed essential products to more than 3,000 needy families in the South derived from the social services of the municipalities, warns: the queue of hunger continues to grow in the region.
In recent weeks, the group has noted an increase in demand from families with minors in their care. “A lot of people are arriving from countries like Ukraine or Venezuela. A while ago I was talking to a girl who arrived 15 days ago and who lives in a room with her husband and her girl, they have nothing, ”Alicia Rodríguez, president of the association, explained to this newspaper.
“What families ask us for the most is vegetables for their children, because the Arona Food Bank provides pasta, rice, legumes, canned food and sometimes milkshakes and chocolate. We go to the San Miguel Farmer’s Market and there we collect donations from customers, but the needs go much further: we need meat, diapers, formula milk…”, Rodríguez indicated.
The association warns that “a lot of people are falling, and there are days when we ask ourselves: but what is this?” The situation is aggravated, says the president, with the delays in the Canarian Insertion Benefit (PCI) and the deadline for registration to access municipal aid.
Alicia Rodríguez and the 25 volunteers who make up Inclúyeme are powerless to meet such a demand: “You find every case you mention, my God, how is it possible that this is happening, especially when you see entire families with children who break your soul” . She points out that “there are many people from abroad, but also from here, who have lost their jobs.”
The situation is complicated by the limitations of the premises provisionally ceded by the City Council of Granadilla in San Isidro. “It is an office and it does not allow us to accommodate the capacity of people that a critical moment like the current one requires,” said Rodríguez, who is still waiting for a response from the Arona City Council: “They tell us that they are looking at premises and that they have us in mind, But nothing more”.
Arona and Granadilla
The efforts of the volunteers are multiplied throughout the South, but they assure that the largest pockets of poverty are located in the two municipalities with the largest populations: Arona and Granadilla. “Nobody can argue with that, and Arona is amazing, we distribute a lot of aid to families from El Fraile, Costa del Silencio, Buzanada, La Camella…”.
There are users who have left a special mark on the association, such as the case of a hotel cook, father of two girls, who became unemployed and found himself in a desperate situation overnight. Or that of a young Cuban who suffered the same fate. “They are two very good people who have already found work and now they help us a lot.”
Include me, which receives a direct subsidy from the Cabildo, bases all its strength on the volunteers, who see it and want it to load food boxes in their vehicles at the Farmer’s Market, where they stand guard on the days of activity from seven in the morning. “The best gift they can give us is to give us a small van that allows us to load and distribute the aid,” said Rodríguez.
