Flag Day with a difference

THERE were no collecting tins on Mojacar streets on October 21, the Red Cross’s traditional Flag Day.

Instead, volunteers throughout Almeria province began visiting schools and town halls on October 11, thanking them for collaborating and helping during the pandemic.

As a result of Almeria province’s solidarity and support, the Red Cross could attend to the needs of tens of thousands of vulnerable persons during the 17 months of the pandemic.

In return, the organisation decided to devote its Flag Day to saying Thank You although volunteers still gave out adhesive flags to all the members of public who approached them, said Concepcion Rivera, president of Mojacar’s Red Cross branch.

“This year was special,” she explained.

In 2020 alone, Mojacar Red Cross attended to 330 persons in extremely vulnerable situations and also helped more than 700 people who received basic aid for food, clothing, educational supplies and hygiene products.

Mojacar’s Red Cross branch can count on roughly 40 volunteers and technical personnel as well as more than 130 members of public and businesses who support their humanitarian work, Rivera explained.

“They all made it possible for the Red Cross to make a historic response to a kind of emergency that we had never experienced before,” she said.