Andrés lives in Tortosa, where he should now enjoy a golden retirement "after starting to work as a child and performing almost all trades." But he can't make ends meet with the meager 450 euros he charges. “Right now I have nothing in my pocket and I think I only have two euros in my wallet. I don't have money, but I have the Red Cross." This entity helped 422,324 people in Catalonia last year.
They are not numbers. They are citizens (poverty has a woman's face: 57% of those assisted are women). And they are extremely vulnerable, a situation that has grown by 31% in Catalonia. Responsible for the Red Cross in this autonomous community have alerted with figures of the drama of the lack of resources. Anna Sabaté explained that “when we talk about vulnerability we talk about poverty, but not just about poverty”.
“We also talk – added this coordinator of the institution – about people who suffer from addictions or illnesses. Of old people who live unwanted loneliness. Of students without leisure and without the same opportunities as their classmates. Of migrants who require immediate attention. Or of victims of violence, especially gender violence, like the 4,000 women to whom we provide protection”.
"We have all helped," explained Josep Quitet, president of the Red Cross in Catalonia, on Wednesday. The more than 422,000 people attended in Catalonia rise to 591,266 if the beneficiaries of international cooperation projects are also included. And the figures never reflect the real dimension of the problem. Here is an example: 157,656 people have received aid to cover basic needs.
But most of those people have families that depend on them. Of them, who have nothing. For this reason, the total number of people assisted in extreme vulnerability and who turn their faces and eyes to this 31% increase “are actually many more. Perhaps close to 200,000”, assured Josep Quitet. Anna Sabaté added that people who need help to meet basic needs break stereotypes.
“Not all are victims of structural poverty. Many have jobs, but with salaries so low that they face dilemmas such as: 'Either pay the gas bills or buy food.' It is that intermittent poverty, from which not everyone can get out. People like Mari Carmen, from Lleida, who had a broken heater for a year because she couldn't pay for it. Or like Juan José, who works but has to live in a caravan in l'Hospitalet de Llobregat because the salary is not enough for him.
The x-ray of vulnerability in Catalonia drawn by the Red Cross presents the highest figures in the last four years "and reflects a sustained increase in structural poverty, exacerbated as a result of the crisis caused by the covid pandemic, climate change and the Ukrainian war. The entity lends a hand to almost 158,000 people to fill their fridge or cover the most pressing needs.
Without that outstretched hand, such people would not be able to buy hygiene products, school supplies for their children, or help to pay electricity, water, and gas bills. It seems like the motto of a well-known sports brand, but it is also the spirit that guides the Red Cross: “Where is the limit? There are no limits!” said Josep Quitet when asked how many more people the organization could continue to serve at this rate.
“We are – added the president of the Red Cross in Catalonia – civil society. Our mission is to serve as many people as possible for help. We already did it during the covid health crisis, when we helped more than one and a half million people. And we will do it again in the post-covid era: we have a very large social base. The greatest treasure of the organization in Catalonia are its 20,272 volunteers.
Or should we say volunteers... both in Catalonia and in the rest of Spain they are the majority, 61% in the case of the Catalan community, where the institution also has 1,670 workers (74% women) and 217,781 members (the 59.7%, again women). The engine is completed with 4,326 partner or collaborating companies and with 231 alliances with other legal entities. "Without the Red Cross (the Red Cross in Catalonia), I couldn't live," says Andrés, from Tortosa, who has two euros in his wallet.
