EMAÚS Woman’s Shelter
Centro Respiro - Altea
by Carole Saunders
June 19th - 06

The Shelter has been open for nine years and works in conjunction with the Social Services. They take in women from all over the Valencian Community, housing up to nine women and their children at a time. The largest amount of children they have had is twelve.

The Shelter is run by three Social Workers, and a Psychologist, who have received special training for the purpose. The Shelter is funded by the Social Services, but as always there is never enough money to cover everything, and they rely heavily on donations.

When a woman is brought to the Shelter in need of help they enter her into a twelve-month plan. The first six months they gently rehabilitate the woman and her children if she has any.

At the end of the six months they hope to have given the woman enough self-confidence to start thinking about supporting herself and her children by going back to work.

If the woman has a skill and is ready to go back to work EMAÚS helps her find a job. She is allowed to stay in the shelter for another six months and is asked to contribute to her expenses at the Shelter.

If it is found that the woman has no special skills, she can train as a cook in the workshops they hold in the large kitchen there, or, is put on an official Care Assistants course at the end of which she will receive a qualification in that field.

On arriving at the Shelter you walk through the offices into two large day areas. One being a dayroom for the children and the other a communal dinning room. Though these rooms are spotlessly clean they are very utilitarian. There is a large kitchen with fairly modern catering equipment. There are nine bedrooms, all with showers and toilets. The bedrooms are not enormous but the woman make them as comfortable as possible. They also have the breakfast/day room next to their bedrooms, which is their pet project.

When the shelter is full the women, they have to queue up to make breakfast for themselves and the children. Also the door next to it is not 100% secure. With a small extension of approx 3 sq. Mts. the woman’s “home life” would be improved considerable.

There is a medium sized terrace garden area ideal for children’s playground equipment.

After my visit the Social Workers made a “Wish list” which I have translated into English. I hope you will agree to help the Shelter as much as we possibly can. My experience so far of the personnel running the EMAÚS Association is that they will do anything they possibly can to improve the lives of the people in their care. To them it is more of a vocation than a job. The people in the Valencian Community should therefore give them as much help as possible.

“WISH LIST”

1.      Enlargement of the Breakfast/dayroom including making the side entrance more secure. They are waiting for a quote from a builder.

2.    The following various items for children under 5 years of age:-

• High Chairs

• Car seats

• Cots

• Prams – Pushchairs

• Garden Toys – including a Paddling Pool

• Clothes

• All types of toys, especially interactive.

• Computers

• Any kind or decorations, prints and ornaments to make the Shelter more homely.

• Shelving and cupboards.

• All forms of household linen.

• All forms of kitchen equipment manual and electric.

So as you can see - there is a great choice of things that we can help them with. Looking out at the searing heat at the moment, I think a large paddling pool should be the first thing on our agenda.