This June, the religious congregation Hermanas Hospitalarias del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús will close the community after more than half a century caring for children and adults with intellectual disabilities in Tenerife. In 1969, sisters from the Peninsula established themselves in the Finca España area in La Laguna, where they opened their first headquarters and created the community to provide shelter, education, and dignity to girls with intellectual disabilities. Almost six decades later, they are withdrawing their religious community, although their immense work continues with the Hospitalarias Foundation, sponsored by the congregation, which took over the management of their centers this January to continue a legacy of service and comprehensive attention to this group.
Currently, the religious community in Tenerife is comprised of three sisters who will leave the island on the upcoming June 9th, after receiving tributes from users and their families, staff, public and private entities that have established a close relationship over the years, as well as authorities. The recognition and farewell event will take place this Friday, the 6th, at the foundation’s headquarters.
Prior to this, on Wednesday, June 4th, the sisters will hold a thanksgiving event for all these shared and lived years in Tenerife, with a mass officiated by the bishop of the Nivariense Diocese, Eloy Alberto Santiago, at the Holy Cathedral Church of La Laguna, at 7 PM. The superior of the Congregation on the Island, Sister María Ángeles Perdomo Pío, has invited anyone who wishes to “share with us such an important moment and extend our gratitude for so many years of collaboration.” This marks the closing of the religious community with the same spirit with which they created and grew their work over these 56 years: humility and simplicity.
As Sister María Ángeles Perdomo Pío recounts, the lack of vocations among the new generations and of sisters to maintain the religious community has forced their departure from the island, but not their mission “which will continue with the Hospitalarias Foundation, comprised of great professionals with multidisciplinary specialization but, above all, very good people with vocation and absolute dedication.”
Hermanas Hospitalarias Sagrado Corazón. / E. D.
The current headquarters, in the Geneto neighborhood of La Laguna, will continue with its doors open, offering personalized attention to 515 children and adults with various types of intellectual disabilities and acquired brain injury, in numerous resources such as day attention centers, Acquired Brain Injury Unit, Personal Autonomy Promotion Service, “Acamán” Special Education School and Adapted FP, labor area, functional homes, and residences located at different points in the North, South, and Metropolitan area.
The CEO of the foundation, Carmen Delia Álamo González, states that “we take up the challenge and responsibility of continuing this wonderful work to which we owe so much and express our gratitude.” Álamo González congratulates the Hermanas Hospitalarias for “their bravery, for their exemplary solidarity, and for their tireless work to ensure that the most vulnerable have all the resources. We will continue working here with the values they have instilled in us.”
In the 56 years of hospital mission the religious order has developed an immense work that has earned them numerous recognitions, such as the Gold Medal of Tenerife in 2019, among many others. Their trajectory has marked the history of the city of La Laguna, earning the respect and admiration of the citizens of La Laguna and the entire island.
Trajectory
The Hospitalarias Foundation is a canonical non-profit organization that continues the care work started in 1881 by San Benito Menni, when he founded the religious congregation Hermanas Hospitalarias del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in the Madrid municipality of Ciempozuelos, along with religious sisters María Josefa Recio and María Angustias Giménez. Its mission is to offer comprehensive assistance —social, educational, and labor— to individuals in situations of vulnerability in the areas of acquired brain injury and intellectual disability.
In 1969, the religious congregation was established in Tenerife to carry out their care work, and in 1974 they founded the Acamán Special Education School, to which more services have been integrated over the last half-century. Currently, it boasts a committed team of 314 professionals attending to 515 people from across the island.
Through research and innovation applied to care processes, the foundation incorporates the latest technological advancements in the field of multidisciplinary rehabilitation and education, focusing on what matters the most: providing quality humanized care based on excellence.
The Hospitalarias Foundation’s core values are the same instilled by the Hermanas Hospitalarias: hospitality, humanity in care, sensitivity to the excluded, service to the needy, professional quality, ethical behavior, liberating welcome, and historical awareness.
