The ALMAYUDA FOUNDATION supports the work of the Company of the Daughters of Charity in Barcelona by contributing to the financing of artistic, play and training activities at the Pau Shelter and the St. Louise de Marillac Community Project centre.
The Company of the Daughters of Charity was founded in Paris in 1633 by Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac and today has almost 19,000 members in more than 90 countries.
Helping the men and women at the Pau Shelter and St. Louise de Marillac Community Project centre to experience a more tranquil and satisfying life.
The Daughters of Charity arrived in Spain in 1790 and have devoted themselves to health, education and social work. In the field of social work, they support people who are or are at risk of being excluded, helping them to recover their dignity and to reintegrate into society.
In Barcelona, they help out every day at two support centres financed by municipal subsidies and private donations.
The Pau Shelter Convalescence Home provides temporary accommodation to 25 homeless women suffering from AIDS or who are recovering from serious illnesses. It offers day centre services to another ten people and runs a shelter for women, and their children, who are victims of violence.
The St. Louise de Marillac Community Project centre provides temporary accommodation to 34 homeless men convalescing from an illness. It also has around 40 day-care places for homeless men and women who are in the process of reintegrating into society.
Self-esteem
The ALMAYUDA FOUNDATION is convinced that creativity is an effective factor in helping people to recover their self-esteem and consequently decided to contribute to financing artistic and play activities, as well as the educational and personal growth workshops, held at the two centres.
The artistic creation workshops cover areas as varied as painting, printmaking, music, poetry, dance, photography and clothes and jewellery making. The training modules include literacy, computing, cookery and gardening classes, the latter held in a small organic vegetable patch.
Art therapy, psychology and personal wellbeing workshops, as well as outings (to the cinema, museums and other excursions), parties and concerts help the men and women at the Pau Shelter and St. Louise de Marillac Community Project centre to experience a more tranquil and satisfying life.
The ALMAYUDA FOUNDATION is committed to forging bonds between art and solidarity and is especially proud of the involvement of José Ramón Bas, a visual artist whom it sponsored, in the photography workshops. For two and a half hours every day over the course of a week, he advised people interested in photography, went with them on their outings and provided them with guidance regarding their landscape photographs, street scenes, self-portraits, etc. At the end of the workshop, the photographs were displayed at the St. Louise de Marillac Community Project centre.
The invaluable presence of this renowned Spanish photographer gave the men at the St. Louise de Marillac centre the rare opportunity to encounter a true artist and gave their own work a special shine that has been an indisputable factor in their recovery of their self-esteem.
Photos DR
Useful link : http://hijascaridad.org