Red Cross Launches First Ever Spain Crisis Fund to Feed Vulnerable
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The Spanish Red Cross has made a public appeal for donations as it struggles to cope with the country’s growing pool of vulnerable people.
The first campaign of its kind, the Red Cross in Spain is raising funds to help people in the country worst affected by the economic crisis.
Related News: Spain’s “Indignants” Move beyond Protests to Providing Food Aid for Needy
The Spanish Red Cross has made a public appeal for donations as it struggles to cope with the country’s growing pool of vulnerable people.
The first campaign of its kind, the Red Cross in Spain is raising funds to help people in the country worst affected by the economic crisis.
Related News: Spain’s “Indignants” Move beyond Protests to Providing Food Aid for Needy
While the organisation already helps around some two million people in the country, mostly immigrants, it is hoping to raise an additional 30 million euros ($38.5 million) in donations to provide shelter, food or medical assistance to help 300,000 of the most vulnerable people.
The campaign, Now More than Ever, was launched yesterday and the agency has set up various collection points in cities across Spain, with thousands of volunteers pacing the streets seeking contributions.
Red Cross spokesman Jose Javier Sanchez Espionasa told the AFP that the crisis is “affecting more sectors of society than before” and “even the middle class who have lost one or two jobs in their household is finding themselves in need of our help.”
He also said:
[quote] 25 percent of children are living under the poverty level and old people now have their children and their grandchildren depending on their pensions. [/quote]
Spain is in its second recession in three years, and has near 25 percent unemployment – the highest in the European Union, while 51.5 percent of young people are out of work.
Since coming into power in December, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has introduced a series of austerity measures – claiming each round to be the last – including tax hikes, wage freezes and job cuts, as well as labour and financial sector reforms aimed at reducing the level of public debt.
On Monday, the IMF forecast that Spain would miss its deficit targets in 2012 and 2013 due to a much bigger economic contraction than forecast by the Spanish government – a foreboding indication that more austerity could soon come the way of ordinary Spaniards.
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View the Red Cross Appeal here:
