ISSUE NO. 1434
27 DECEMBER 2012 - 2 JANUARY 2013
EWN WISHES
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Happy New Year
Homeless in Spain have little to cheer! CHRISTMAS - and the rapidly approaching New Year - are bringing some added cheer to the estimated 30,000 people living rough on the streets of Spain. Some local shelters over the Christmas period scheduled in special arrangements, providing in some cases hot festive meals, while frequent queues continued to form throughout the month at the soup kitchens where often a little added seasonal cheer was on offer from the volunteer helpers. And this will be ongoing over the New Year and start to 2013. But given the ongoing economic challenges facing the whole of Spain, 2013 will hardly be rung in with much enthusiasm as a joyous
time of hope for those within the local community who have few - if any - close friends, and no home or family to go to each night. In November, Global Aid Network España launched a campaign to collect warm clothes and blankets and other items, including sleeping bags, and these have in recent days been distributed among the homeless in the major cities. The reality of modern life in every community now all too often includes homeless - the vast majority expatriates and men - frequently forlorn-looking, and forced to beg to eek out survival at street level. For them, the roof over their head is all too often an open sky, as
BY RUTH JONES
Time to remember
Briton ‘JR’ Fraser has been homeless for the last two years following a career as a chef in the UK, which he was forced to give up through sickness. After travelling widely he settled in Spain. He survives through occasional money from his mother, food hand-outs and odd coins from passers-by. But for ‘JR’, who chooses not to beg
they grab sleep on park benches, in sheltered doorways, in rubbish containers, and others in cardboard boxes in alleyways.
None offer much protection, especially during the colder winter months, though accompanying stray dogs that have fondly become their closest friends, often huddle nearby, providing a little extra warmth and company. Many of Spain’s homeless have serious mental health problems and infectious diseases. As a result their death
rate is four times higher than for the general population. It is estimated one homeless person dies every five days in Spain, 27 per cent of them from attacks, 14 per cent from burns from fires lit to keep them warm, and 8 per cent from hypothermia. Other frequent causes of death are poisoning, drowning, heatstroke, falls, road accidents and being crushed after sleeping in rubbish containers. Only a quarter of the homeless die from natural causes. The average age of the victims is 47 and one in 10 is a woman.