More than 52,000 Spanish protection visas granted to Ukrainian refugees, 1,000 already in Canary Islands

Several private individuals and families have opened their homes to those fleeing the war, those with spare rooms or apartments, often without any formal guidance or assistance whatsoever.

The Food Project, Arguineguín

We have been speaking to one such couple in the Sonnenland area, near Maspalomas, who agreed to take ten people, but have found themselves filling the house with at least 5 families, mostly women and children, who have found support among the local community with The Food Project in Arguineguín (Mogán), and Karuna in Maspalomas (San Bartolomé de Tirajana), helping to supply much needed food and fresh produce, as well as beds and other items of furniture.

The community association and grass roots activists, We Are Warriors Shop,  who collect donations in Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria, and help large numbers of individuals across the south, also opened their doors on Friday to allow these families to pick up some much needed clothing, and even donated hair cuts and food with the help of their collaborators, including Delilahs in the Puerto Rico Shopping Centre, and their Bulgarian hair stylist who offers solidarity cuts in support of the Warriors association.

Organisations like Angry Birds Activity Park have welcomed our new guests and offered support for some of the most vulnerable now arriving to our island.

It is an utterly astounding effort that is being undertaken, by a precious few, in support of people arriving with very little, with no friends or family networks, to a country whose language they don’t speak, and a system they do not yet understand.

It’s hard to imagine how this must feel, but in the end, the fact is, most refugees, or migrants, who find themselves in such terrible circumstances, every mother, every child, every brother, sister, father, and grandmother, essentially suffer in just the same ways, no matter where the war from which they flee, no matter their point of origin, ethnicity or the colour of their skin.  For most of us this situation is utterly unimaginable in our own lives, and until just two months ago, these people would have felt exactly the same.

They are families trying to survive, and for whom the future is utterly uncertain, having been ripped unceremoniously from normal lives, very much comparable with our own, having watched all they know and love suddenly destroyed or irrevocably altered.

The most heartbreaking parts of their story are, with luck, now behind them.  Some will stay only as long as they need to, others have no idea what they might return to, and some will choose to start their lives afresh here.  All of them consumed with concern for their friends and families, still living under the destructive shadow of Putin’s war.

Timon .:.

<< Amendments have been made to this article in order to clarify that no distinctions, in our opinion, should ever be made between refugees or migrants based simply on their point of origin, the original wording was more ambiguous and possibly open to  misinterpretation.

The Canary News supports no such distinctions along racial, religious or ethnic lines, in the firm belief that all migrants, and all refugees, are deserving of the very same humanitarian care, and basic respect, as promoted by our values as a society, supporting every person’s fundamental rights to live in peace, without fear or threat of violence, and to be able to seek opportunities to freely pursue happiness, education and the right to fair employment, to raise their families and live out their lives in contribution to  society as a whole, no matter from where they come, or how they might get here. >> 13/04/2022

Our gratitude for consultation and additional texts in collaboration with Mister Paul Barton, Mogán