It’s up to us – by columnist Nicole King

SO much has gone on this past week and so much more yet to come. Yesterday Inserta Andalucia signed the contract for the apartment in San Pedro de Alcántara taken on by this NGO so that the Marbella community can help set up a support system for 18- year-olds being evicted from ‘the system’ and left to their own devices.  Next Monday the first three will move in.

Together with our United Nationalities of Marbella team, the commitment has been made to not only make the children feel safe and welcome here but also to help them integrate, find their sense of purpose and make this their home.

This is exactly what we need to do for our local teens too. They grow up in a tourist town with very little commitment from the businesses at large to ensuring that these children who can be well educated here also have opportunities for their future here.

This is not the case as it stands.

Kara Jaye Caradas has been embracing this attitude for over a decade and was the first to step up and offer a contract as an apprentice chef to one of these homeless teens. Other local businesses have now come forward with the same intention.

With the exception of the children going on to university who won’t be able to work, the evicted teens will be able to support themselves once they get jobs; hopefully in time to move on independently and leave the space to welcome the next children becoming homeless.

If you’d like to help house and feed these kids and would like to donate, below are the details for this specific incentive:

Inserta Andalucia: ES14 2100 2553 8502 1010 7571 – REF: United Nationalities & Fairies of Marbella.

This is the time for us to watch each other’s backs and do more than we perhaps might have prior to lockdown to maintain not just our own quality of life, but that of those around us also. None of us will have much fun if there is despair and degradation all around us.

Many people are finding themselves out of a job and being evicted from their rental homes, regardless of the measures imposed by the government to avoid this. However as many are subject to lack of or abusive contracts, they are completely helpless.

These are strange times indeed and can only be embraced as an opportunity to adapt to the changing requirements of the market and embrace our community and show each other what we’re really made of.

It’s up to us.