MAKING ENDS MEET

As they continue to flow in from Northern Africa, it is not only the ever increasing number of immigrants and their families who are going through a hard time, figures now show that many local residents are also feeling the pinch of the current economic situation with a growing number having to resort to ‘soup kitchens' in the hope that they, and their children, will get at least one hot meal a day.

In the case of immigrants, very few have any paid work and they are increasingly seeking help as they bid to survive.

At the first signs of crisis, people started losing their jobs. For the most part they were able to keep their heads above water by scrounging, scavenging and in many cases begging. The more fortunate were a little better off.

They were managing to survive with the savings that they had put to one side for such situations. But then came the second phase with even those people now having trouble to keep their apartments.

They too were without work, they had no source of income and they were unable to meet their mortgage payments.

Whole families, parents and young children, are now finding themselves thrown out on the streets.
Illegal immigration is one of the most emotional topics we deal with as a newspaper.

People are breaking the law to get to Almeria and frequently breaking other laws to stay here. The size of the illegal immigrant population is alarming, on many levels. Provincial resources are being drained in many communities to pay for the educational and health needs of illegal immigrant families.

Yet illegal immigrants are also real people, working in the shadows of society in ways we don't often see or understand. But despite all the problems that they face on a day to day basis, rather surprisingly, for most Latinos, who form the largest group of immigrant workers in the region, leaving is out of the question.

This is the situation that exists today in many parts of Almeria, where an increasing number have no other option but to resort to aid from institutions such as Caritas, the Red Cross or their local churches.
But on speaking to the Caritas charity, an organization linked to the Catholic Church, they say that the people now turning up at their doorstep in search of help are increasingly a mixture of Spanish Nationals, permanent foreign residents and people who were born and have lived all their lives in the area.

Many people in Almeria say that they too are now noticing how their friends are starting to struggle. In a short time many are beginning to realise that "the poor man is also my neighbour".

Rita is one such regular at Caritas. She is a 60 year old woman with four dependent children. For the last two years she has relied on the goodwill of her neighbours who have provided her with what little they can, just enough for her to survive. Now they are unable to provide that help any longer as they too struggle to make ends meet within their own family environments.

Rita does occasionally sell junk, most of which she finds by scouring the local waste sites but that hardly covers electricity and water she says. Although she is still better off than many and is grateful to have a ‘mortgage free' roof over her head she says that the bad times have taken everyone by surprise. Her age is one particular obstacle to finding an employment contract, she continues.

All her adult life has been spent with her husband but five years ago he walked out. The couple are now divorced and he has no contact with Rita or their children.

She kept the house and he disappeared
Since then the family have managed to live humbly on their moderate savings, but for the last two years the situation has deteriorated further and Rita has been finding it increasingly difficult to feed her children, the result of which is that she has been forced to turn to her neighbours and more recently the soup kitchens.

In just a few short months the city has seen a proliferation of homeless people, may of whom are now living permanently on the streets.

They are even beginning to colonise various parts of the city where they sleep, eat and drink, the Plaza Marqués de Heredia and Parque Nicolás Salmerón.
Every night, Red Cross volunteers and local police officers now roam the capital in search of these people to inform them of the services that are increasingly available.

Rita's story is similar to dozens of families in Almeria who are having to rely on charity to survive. "I'm not ashamed to say that I eat in soup kitchens” she said. “Shame would be if I was forced to steal and, whatever situation I find myself in, I will never do that”.
So if you are approached by Rita or any one of the hundreds of homeless that now roam the province you could do well to remember that people become homeless for a number of reasons - many of which aren't their own fault. They are not all drug dealers or alcoholics and it is a much more common situation than many people realise.

So even if you don't have much empathy with homeless people or beggars, by supporting the agencies that are working to find solutions to their plight you'll actually be helping to reduce the problems in the region.

One such charity, Caritas Almeria is situated on Alcalde Muñoz 10, telephone: 950 23 11 33 Alternatively you can email them at caritas@cdalmeria.e.telefonica.net