Summer School Funding for Emaus Children in Calpe 
Report by Carole Saunders
July 7th, 2006
Dear Ladies,
 
The EMAÚS Association has got a big problem this summer as they are having to support 14 children stay in the Calpe House. 

These children are from all over the Costa Blanca who are unwanted and have nothing to do all summer long. It is a great stress for the caregiver!

I was asked to help find some sort of Summer School that the older children could be sent to. 

The Lady Elizabeth School has very kindly cut their cost for the Summer School by half for the EMAÚS children. Some of the children started last week and they are absolutely thrilled with it.  

The Teachers say they are lovely children and very well behaved, in fact one teacher commented that she would love to take them home with her !!!! 

Many thanks,
 
Carole Saunders (WIBC Liaison to Emaus)
 

More Details 

There are eight or ten children going to the school, from a week to three weeks depending on how it fits in with the EMAUS House organisation. The full price is 149 euros a week, but the Lady Elizabeth has halved this amount. The Lady Elizabeth will give a receipt. The children starting the Summer School was my decision as things are quite desperate at the Calpe House, with 14 children sleeping in six bedrooms. This is because there has been an influx of children, as is always the case, the start of the holiday season. The Woman's Shelter is in the same predicament. To compound the matter the house has been infested with some sort of bug that bites. A Fumigation Firm are trying to get rid of them. As I am known at the Lady Elizabeth School they have trusted me to allow the children to start whilst I look for sponsors. No other similar facilities for teenage children are available in the area.

The youngest EMAUS children are two eighteen month old twins who both ending up in hospital at the same time with multiple fractures caused by their parents, if that is  not domestic violence what is. EMAUS does not take in sexually abused children, but physically and mentally they do. To second what Karla writes. We took on EMAUS at Christmas when we discovered it had expanded so much and decided to help improve the lives of the children. EMAUS is a name used quite often for a charitable Association as it is the name of a Biblical Town. Jesus appeared there after his resurrection. Terry Waite has just set up an EMAUS Association in the UK for homeless teenagers. The EMAUS Association we are supporting is based in Altea. It is a registered charity that has been going for nearly thirty years and has homes in the Costa Blanca only. These children have been taken into care as there is no relative prepared to look after them.

These children are referred by the Social Services to EMAUS.

I do not attend all the WIBC meetings so I may have missed out on something, but, as far as I know the money we have is not for emergencies only. I thought it was to be used for improving the life for the woman and children in these shelters. Garden furniture and toys are not an emergency for the EMAUS Woman's Shelter, but it would improve their lives greatly.