Benefactor gives Almeria villa to charity

RETIRED ophthalmologist Maria Angeles Carretero has given her Almeria beach villa to charity.
Children from Aldeas Infantiles SOS have now been holidaying there since mid-July. As Dr Carretero told a Spanish interviewer, they are already filling it with the vitality it had when her four children and many grandchildren were little.
The 77-year-old Almeria-born doctor volunteered in Africa and Latin America for 25 years and returned earlier this year from the Sahara refugee camps. “But I’m getting tired now and the heat was too much for me,” confessed Carretero who this summer is looking after Jadijatu, a Saharawi child from the Tindouf camps.
Instead of selling the property and giving the proceeds to charity, she preferred to donate the house with its swimming pool and tennis court. It was designed with her children in mind and she wanted others to enjoy it, too, she said.
“It still tugs at me when I go past,” Carretero admitted. “My husband and I planned every detail and every corner as our family grew. But I was sure about what I was doing.”
Aldeas Infantiles SOS is a private, international non-profit making organisation that is interdenominational and independent of political orientation. It was founded in 1949 in Austria and is now present in 133 countries, with seven centres in Spain.
“Between us all we ensure that thousands of children have opportunities,” said Aldeas Infantiles SOS president Pedro Puig. The assistance they receive in Spain would not be possible without private donations or the 100 or more collaborating bodies, he added.