‘Yala’ and ‘Sortarazi’ are two of the associations which face social inequalities
Social crisis and inequalities have grown in the last years. Immigration, an issue treated every day in parliaments and important people´s offices, has also increased. Nearly ten years ago it already was of a million the amount of African immigrants in Spain, according to studies made by the NIS (Spanish National Institute of Statistics). Poverty and social exclusion are also growing. In 2019 a 25.3% of the Spanish population was in risk of falling into poverty or social exclusion, also according to the NIS. In the Basque Country, it was a 10%.
Facing the economic crisis started in the first decade of the 21st Century made society start to recover normality. Between 2008 and 2011, the poverty rate in Spain made it to a 26.5%, reaching its biggest value in 2014, a 29.2% of Spanish inhabitants was in risk. Now, a few months before starting the third decade of the Century, the pandemic is making these values grow again. Professionals’ forecasts announce that poverty rates are going to grow again without control.
Interactive graphic of the percentage of people in risk of falling into poverty in the European countries:
Against this the only thing we can do is act. In ‘Gran Bilbao’, the most populated area of Biscay, ‘Sortarazi’ and ‘Yala’ are two of the lots of associations which work to help their nearest environment. Both of them, without profit wills, work with different situations, but have something that links them. ‘Sortarazi’ was founded in San Francisco neighbourhood, Bilbao, in 1996. Paola is currently the volunteers’ coordinator, as well as the responsible of the quality control. She is in charge of collecting the new volunteers’ requests. “I see if our interests are the same, but especially, the schedules”, admits.
From its beginning, the entity has developed a lot of projects. They provide two daily centres, one in Bilbao and the other one in Getxo, in the same building in which the ‘Charity Nuns’ live. “This are low requirement centres –affirms Paola–, in which we offer different activities to the embraced people”. She tells that they do not force them to do anything, as they are people who have gone through very tough experiences. In this way, ‘Sortarazi’ also manages hostels in which they look for personal development. “We work for improvements that guide these people to their personal development and social inclusion”, adds Paola.
Apart from this, the association also provides a job orientation centre in Algorta, in the parish of ‘San Martin’. To participate in it, embraced people must be in search of a job and have all the legal documentation required for work. In addition, they also provide of professional courses at this centre. They are done in agreement with ‘Lanbide’, who emits the titles when these are finished. ‘Yala’ also gives the option of receiving courses to the people it works with, the same ones that ‘Sortarazi’ offers.
‘Yala’ is a project raised by ‘Harribide Foundation’, in charge of attending, helping and accompanying immigrants. This is carried out in collaboration of different entities, such as ‘Sortarazi’ or the nearest parishes. In this case, ‘Yala Algorta’ makes use of the ‘San Nikolas’ parish installations. Javier Garai is the priest of it, also one of the founders of this association and the coordinator of all of its volunteers. Javier says that one of Yala’s clues is to “promote the autonomy and the immigrant’s own capacities in ways that help them be autonomous”. According to him, they have to develop their own abilities, avoiding paternalisms so that they don’t accommodate and keep on working.
The association makes all this through various projects. On the one hand, Yala manages a hostel which will be soon reformed and transformed in a living place. In addition, it manages another two apartments, in which the young immigrants live with local people. One of those two apartments is the one of Javier Garai. The hostel is known as ‘Gauean’, because for the moment it’s enabled just to spend the night. On the other hand, they give Spanish courses so that the social insertion process of those immigrants can be easier.
Covid-19
However, it was unavoidable that Covid-19 would have such an impact on these activities. Yala has suffered a lot with it. All the classes were stopped during the confinement, which was as Javier says, time lost. The young boys’ formation programmes were stopped, as well as all the activities, their excursions… However, their social spirit didn’t disappear. “San Nikolas parish priest embraces at his home 24 people in need” was the title of the report ‘Cadena SER’ published on its website, making reference to the labour of Javier. “For me, helping people in need is a life option, as the gospel says”, affirmed the priest to ‘Cadena SER Bilbao’.
‘Sortarazi’ had to work through phone calls with the people that went to their daily centre, so that they could continue with all the tracings. They could also do visits to people that were in a worse situation and needed them. But, all the classes as well as the group activities that they organised were stopped.
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