LET US HELP SPAIN
The Hispanic community is in crisis. More than 25% of the working part of the population is unemployed. When it comes to youth under 27 years the figure is 52%. More and more Scandinavians are moving to sunny Spain because house prices now are so low. In addition, both those who have lived in the country for a period, and the newcomers are seeing more beggars in the streets and experiencing them looking for food around the supermarket bins. However, reading about families with children who are thrown out of their homes, they cannot pay rent or installments are more terrible than anything else.
I find it hard to understand that we Scandinavians, and other nationalities, can sit quietly looking at all the need. Is there nothing we can do to ease the pain, to show people in need that we care? What about creating a help fund where every Scandinavian family who lives on the Costa del Sol contributes €20 a month? It is a sum we could live with. If 60,000 Scandinavian / Nordic families along the coast did so, it would amount to € 1.2 million a month, or € 14.4 million a year.
The fund could be managed by a board consisting of representatives from the Nordic churches and controlled, without charge, by a Nordic law firm. The Fund may only help families who are in danger of been put on the street. The Fund could assume responsibility for the payment of rent / installment from the threatened families for a specified period of time.
I know that Norwegian individuals, living in Norway, have already helped several families with rent money. It has received considerable attention in the Spanish media.
A joint Nordic action to help a friendly people in need would probably strengthen our already good reputation in the country.
Helge Stangeland
Journalist