Cáritas Diocesana de Mondoñedo-Ferrol presented yesterday, as every year in the week of Charity, its annual activity report, an “exercise of transparency that allows us to take a picture of what is happening in our diocese, which it helps to wake us up before sleeping realities and educate the gaze” as the Bishop of Mondoñedo-Ferrol, Bishop Fernando García Cadiñanos, pointed out in his presentation speech.
The bishop took advantage of the occasion to thank the volunteers, workers, Christian communities, partners and donors, as well as public and private institutions for their support and involvement in the work of Cáritas that “challenges to be part of social life” against the individualism. Hence the relevance of the slogan of this year’s Charity Day campaign “You have a lot to do with it. We are opportunity. We are hope.” According to Bishop García Cadiñanos, “Cáritas is hope for many people and families” and invites us to “discover ourselves as capable of generating hope.”
Next, the General Secretary of Cáritas Diocesana de Mondoñedo-Ferrol, Marta Pazo, reviewed the social action carried out in 2022, in a context of structural crisis in which 4,102 people were accompanied in accessing their rights in the different programs and services offered. In the overall data, the focus was placed on two that show the situation we are experiencing: 49% are young people under 35 years of age (including minors) and 45% are migrants, the vast majority of whom are in an irregular administrative situation. (compared to 25% in 2018).
During the presentation, emphasis was placed on the depth of the difficulties in the living conditions of the families accompanied by Cáritas, as well as access and maintenance of housing. A residential exclusion that, according to Marta Pazo, can be seen in the data of the 513 homeless people cared for at the social inclusion day center, as well as the 48 people who have passed through one of our 8 shelters.
Psychological and mental health problems were another of the issues addressed, a cause of special suffering for the people and families accompanied. Thus, in the year 2022, psychological support was provided to 90 people.
Cáritas is committed to breaking the cycle of poverty through the accompaniment of children, adolescents and their families through the Family and Childhood program, from which 100 people have been accompanied through groups of socio-educational reinforcement, but also through leisure activities and free time and guidance and individualized support for parents.
Marta Pazo also highlighted the importance of the socio-educational workshops from which 175 families benefited and which, in addition to the acquisition of skills, are intended to generate networks and links between people.
Another element that protects social exclusion is employment, and for this reason, 188 people were accompanied by the training and socio-labour insertion program, 67 of whom were under 35 years of age and 16 of whom were migrants who were able to regularize their situation administration thanks to a job offer.
Monsignor Fernando García Cadiñanos closed the presentation of the act by making a call for political advocacy, proposing invitations to action in four areas.
With migrants, he expressed the need for “measures to eliminate and prevent irregularities, to comply with the law on asylum and international protection to guarantee the rights of the most vulnerable, as well as a package of basic rights of social citizenship.”
Regarding housing, he highlighted the need for a social housing policy, an autonomous plan for rehousing people and families coming from situations of evictions, as well as the eradication of slums and substandard housing.
In the field of mental health, he opted to increase public health resources and reduce waiting lists and, finally, in terms of education, he asked to guarantee individualized monitoring of children with various problems from public schools.
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