Many still remember the welfare card, the one that served, when social security as we know it today did not yet exist, for those who could not afford a doctor to receive medical attention. Its beneficiaries had to sign up at their town hall in order to receive this assistance. Those who were in charge of managing these cards, but also helping the homeless, and in general those most in need, were the social workers. In Santa Cruz, two women were the pioneers in providing this assistance: Lucía Sánchez and María Dolores Tejedo.
On November 25, the Santa Cruz City Council, on the occasion of the International Day of the Homeless, wanted to recognize one of these women, María Dolores Tejedo, since she was the first social worker that the Municipal Center had of Reception, a recognition that also included giving his name to the awards that, from now on, will be given every year to people who, in one way or another, collaborate with the municipal shelter. Along with María Dolores, Josefa Armas, Social Work coordinator of the Primary Care Management of the Health Area of Tenerife; Félix Liendo, inspector of the Santa Cruz Local Police; María del Carmen Galván, owner of the Galván Navarro pharmacy; and María Jesús Hernández, administrative assistant at the Los Gladiolos Health Center.
Marta Sánchez Tejedo, daughter of the honored social worker, was in charge of collecting an award that, as she admitted to DIARIO DE AVISOS, filled her and her family with pride, although at the same time it was also somewhat sad. “It is a kind of mixed feelings because on the one hand there is pride and joy for the recognition of so many years of work, and on the other the pity that she cannot enjoy this tribute because the disease does not allow it.”
Marta remembers her mother always devoted to her work, helping others. “Now you see her work as something normal, but I imagine that at that time it must have been quite a challenge to work as a social worker.” “My mother -she continues- acted in many different things, from the shelter in its beginnings, to the development of projects in which she was very involved, such as support for dependency, and look where now she is the one in that transit,” she says excitedly.
The involvement of María Dolores with her work led her to take home many of her interventions. “My mother loved her work. On a personal level, I remember a very specific case of a woman he met in the social services, and that she is almost like family even today ”, recalls Marta.
“This woman lived in a ravine, in a cave, with her children, surrounded by rats and an abusive husband. My mother helped her, she even sponsored one of her children, and even today we have contact with her, ”explains the daughter of María Dolores. This is one of the stories that she remembers about her, but also how the homeless people who crossed the street, greeted her mother or stopped to talk to her to tell them how she was doing.
Marta recognizes that she has inherited from her mother that ability to take care of others, to worry about others, even more than herself, she admits. Her mother, 76, worked until she retired.
early years
Together with María Dolores, Lucía. She also remembers those first years in the Santa Cruz City Hall, which they arrived at after winning an opposition. “At that time there was charity, medical assistance for people who had no financial resources. That was in 1979, and attendance was done with a card given by the town halls, and there was also the shelter. Since there were two of us, she was at the Municipal Reception Center, also at the City Hall, and I was dealing with the issue of the cards and the cases that were beginning to come,” says Lucía.
She remembers that after four years of being the two of them alone as social workers, as they were called then, two more social workers joined “and then in 1986 Social Work Units were created, one in each neighborhood.”
Lucía remembers María Dolores in the shelter, a space that “has nothing to do with the CMA of now.” “Then there was only María Dolores, and an official, who was in charge of keeping the accounts.”
He points out that at that time the users of the shelter were mainly men and some family. “There was no dining room, and in the early years there were very chronic people, among whom there was a high percentage that had problems with alcohol. The level of resources has nothing to do with what is now.”
Lucía admits that there are still people on the street that she recognizes from that time. “Back then there were no resources to get them out of the shelter, and they stayed there. When they got older, there was the asylum, but there was nothing else, ”she details.
Among the cases that he remembers are those of many children from the Casa Cuna, who when they got older and could no longer continue in the institution, ended up in the shelter. “It was a very tremendous process,” recalls the social worker.
Another case he remembers is that of a man who was “an incredible character.” “Because of the alcohol issue, he had ended up in the shelter. He received the newspaper, read in English, it was very unique, but also a very sad situation ”.
Remember how they changed, together with the councilor of that time, Ángel Delgado, in addition to the regulations, the use of language, or the way of accessing the municipal charity card. “The profile of the people we attended also resembles those of the hour, without economic resources, but with infinitely fewer resources than now to attend to them, although now they are still insufficient,” he points out.
Lucía puts the turning point in her work and in the attention to people at risk of exclusion in the promulgation in 1985 of the Concerted Plan, by which the State forced the municipalities to hire social workers. “That allowed us to take a huge step, and we went from four to ten, which was a lot then, we were even able to hire a sociologist,” she recalls. Like María Dolores, Lucía acknowledges that she enjoyed her profession very much until her early retirement, just four years ago.
The evolution of social services
Regarding the evolution of social services, Lucía Sánchez points out that it is an area that will always need more financing, because its objective is to attend to existing and future needs, such as those that are going to cause, and are already causing the aging of the population. “Santa Cruz is a very aged municipality. 25% of the population is over 60 years of age, and this means that everything related to home help, care, adaptation of homes, will increasingly increase the budget to meet these needs old people”. The implementation of the Dependency Law is one of the advances that Lucía values most in recent years.
He understands that social assistance has given an important change, “now it is unthinkable that you do not have the right to medical assistance, but if you look back, that situation has not been that long ago either,” he concludes.
