This June, the religious congregation Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus will close the community after more than half a century serving children and adults with intellectual disabilities in Tenerife. In 1969, the sisters from the mainland settled in the town of Finca España 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 Almost six decades later, their religious community is being withdrawn, although their immense work continues with the Hospitallers Foundation, sponsored by the congregation, which has taken over the management of their centers in January this year to carry on a legacy of service and comprehensive attention to this group.
Currently, the religious community in Tenerife consists of three sisters who will leave the island on June 9, after receiving a tribute from the 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.
Previously, this Wednesday, June 4, the sisters will conduct a thanksgiving ceremony for all these shared years lived in Tenerife, with a mass officiated by the bishop of the Diocese of Nivaria, Eloy Alberto Santiago, in the Cathedral of La Laguna, at 19 hours. The superior of the Congregation on the Island, Sister María Ángeles Perdomo Pío, has invited all those who wish to, to “share with us such an important moment and to extend our gratitude for so many years of collaboration.” This marks the closure 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 explains, the lack of vocations among the new generations and of sisters to maintain the religious community has forced the cessation of their presence on the island, but not of their mission “which will continue with the Hospitallers Foundation, comprised of great professionals with multidisciplinary specialization but, above all, very good people with absolute dedication.”
Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart. / E. D.
The current headquarters, in the Geneto neighborhood of La Laguna, will continue to keep its doors open offering personalized care to 515 children and adults with various types of intellectual disabilities and acquired brain injury across numerous resources such as day care centers, the Acquired Brain Injury Unit, Self-Sufficiency Promotion Service, “Acamán” Special Education School and Adapted VP, labor area, functional homes, and residences spread across different points in the North, South, and Metropolitan area.
The managing director of the foundation, Carmen Delia Álamo González, states that “we take up the baton and accept the challenge and responsibility to continue this wonderful work to which we owe so much and are grateful for.” Álamo González congratulates the Sisters Hospitallers for “their bravery, their example of solidarity, and their tireless work to ensure the most vulnerable have all the resources. Here we will continue working with the values they have instilled in us.”
In the 56 years of hospital mission the religious order has carried out immense work that has earned them numerous recognitions such as the Gold Medal of Tenerife in 2019, among many others. Their journey has marked the history of the city of La Laguna, earning the respect and admiration of the people of La Laguna and the entire island.
Trajectory
Hospitallers Foundation is a non-profit canonical organization that continues the care work initiated in 1881 by Saint Benedict Menni, when he founded the religious congregation Sisters Hospitallers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the town of Ciempozuelos, Madrid, along with the nuns María Josefa Recio and María Angustias Giménez. Its mission is to offer comprehensive care—social, educational, and labor—to people in vulnerable situations in the areas of acquired brain injury and intellectual disability.
In 1969, the religious congregation settled in Tenerife to carry out its assistance work, and in 1974 founded the Acamán Special Education School, to which more services have been integrated over the last half-century. It currently has a committed team of 314 professionals attending to 515 people across the island.
Through research and innovation applied to care processes, the foundation integrates the latest technological advances in the field of multidisciplinary rehabilitation and education, to focus on what matters most: providing quality, humanized care based on excellence.
The Hospitallers Foundation has as its core values, the same ones instilled by the Sisters Hospitallers: hospitality, humanity in care, sensitivity to the excluded, service to those in need, professional quality, ethical conduct, liberating acceptance, and historical awareness.
