I.E.S Juan Antonio Fernandez Perez entrance hall
Logo competition
Students voted and chose Portuguese logo as winner:
Poverty in Melilla: panel discussion with Fernando Moreno and Enrique Roldán
Red Cross / Cruz Roja
- Immigration and refugees - Help people in the immigration centre (people who fled their countries for reasons such as war or political problems) - they provide acces to psychological, social and translation services. Many are LGTB and prosecuted in their countries, others have fled for religious persecution reasons and gender violence.
- Children ages 1-3 - Help for people who can’t afford daycare. Women who suffer from domestic violence. They have a shelter that can house 16 women and their children. Help rebuild their self esteem so that they may become independent.
- People with addictions - help with rehabilitation such as access to methodone, cannabis and cocaine for drug addicts. They also help with alcohol addiction and gambling addiction.
- Homeless - provide with coats and blankets.
- People in food poverty - 150 tonnes of food given out in last distribution round (to 30,000 people in Melilla - total population of Melilla is 80,000?)
- Elderly - loneliness projects such as the red button alarm, workshops and entertainment
- Emergency cases - ambulances at cultural or sport activities, emergency operations such as 3 plane crashes and flooding and immigrants trying to enter melilla illegally and hurt themselves in the fences
There are two groups in the Red Cross - workers and volunteers; both of which need training.
Director of Social Services Melilla
Public services in the city are divided into different public entities. Basic social services are taken care of by the Town Hall and the government takes care of those services that deal with financial matters. This is a special characteristic of Melilla because of its location. Social services help with range of basic services from feeding people to support services at home. It was established in 1995. In February 1998 they started to hit the SDGs - for poverty they modified their rules and regulations. They needed to encourage people on Melilla go get out of poverty. Poverty was like a vicious cycle and they decided to break the cycle and build a self sustaining programme with those in need but there was a problem. There was a crisis in 2007 as the population increased from 68000 to 80000 people. Those returning to Melilla had severe financial problems. First of all those returning were given food, then other kinds of help for the families but the main way is direct help to the families. They also have help for disabled people and people on low incomes. In order to get people to lift themselves out of the property cycle they started providing workshops and courses. Workshops for adults and children have to comply with extra educational activities thus breaking the cycle from adults to children. This is because evidence shows that the lower the academic achievement, the higher the probability of poverty in later life. In order to qualify for support you have had to be registers on the census of Melilla/documented and a legal resident of Spain or at least European. They also analyse the financial status for the last 6 months as situations can change. You must comply with certain requirements in order to get the help e.g. sending you children to school. You can choose between financial help or other supporting services.
352 million euro given away to social programmes to try to alleviate poverty in Melilla as poverty is increasing as population also increases. Melilla is below average on poverty compared to other areas of Spain. 13% of the money is to eradicate poverty through the programmes above.
Cáritas
Catholic organisation that works to alleviate poverty. There’s an international branch and a Spanish branch. They have two ways of helping - social action and church action. The ultimate goal is brotherhood - the community coming together / the fraternity. Celebrating 50 years of help in Melilla. Three main components:
- Churches
- Members and donors
- Volunteers
- Solidarity is the main goal - they try to get to the root of the problem - what are the causes of poverty? Cáritas welcomes everyone. Encourage people in need to work on their self esteem so that they can help themselves.
- They collaborate with other organisations such as the Red Cross and social services to help people and they report cases such as gender violence when necessary.
- Person centred approach is always taken.
- 8.5 million people in poverty in Spain. Many are in social conflict or unemployed, homeless or illiterate.
- Poverty leads to inequality and exclusion. Societal problem that needs to be addressed. Need to protect, promote and participate.
Tuesday 12th
Official welcome by Minister for Melilla
Spanish Students Presentation
- SDGs Paired presentations (Spanish hosts and their partners) about the 17 SDGs.
- Students had t-shirts representing the goals - great idea!
Melilla: A City of Contrasts (Spanish students presentation)
- Old town represents the colourful history of Melilla
- Modernist architecture
- Urban inter culture - 4 communities (Christian, Muslim, Hebrew & Hindi)
- Its people
Visit to the Old Town (Tourism student will be our guides)
E-Twinning workshop (by Pascale Payet-Jungand)
- Project activities need to be visible to NA - eTwinning to be used for this purpose following NA feedback. All agreed to contribute.
Melilla: the meeting place of four religions. Route of the temples.
Reception at the City Hall
- http://copemelilla.com/actualidad/alumnos-de-finlandia-francia-portugal-espana-y-gales-visitan-melilla-dentro-de-un-proyecto-erasmus-de-desarrollo-sostenible/67065
- https://www.melillamedia.es/2019/11/13/jovenes-estudiantes-de-cinco-paises-europeos-visitan-melilla-como-parte-del-proyecto-erasmus-k229/amp/?__twitter_impression=true
- https://elfarodemelilla.es/ciudad-recibe-participantes-proyecto-erasmus-k229-salon-dorado/
Compost workshop
Dinner at school. Meeting students’ families. Some Spanish dancing.
Thursday 14th
Sea species in danger of extinction by Ms M Carmen Pitarch and M Isabel Port Authority Melilla
- Port authority of Melilla is committed to the protection of the environment.
- The limpet is an endangered species and Melilla has the second highest population in Spain - greatest density along the port breakwater.
- The port breakwater is eroding - it has gone from 6 concrete blocks deep to 2 deep.
- They want to expand the port which would see infrastructure extended beyond the breakwater. Amended design would protect the limpet but would cost 40€million more (1000€ per limpet)
- Project plan is to harvest limpets from Melilla and replant across the Mediterranean. 3D pronged blocks will be used to replicate the rock that the limpets cling to. These blocks will be mobile and can be relocated elsewhere to restock populations.
- Bus tour of the Port to see the limpets and hawk, owl and kestrel used to keep seagulls away.
Hiking up the path ‘Rio Nano’ & tree planting in Rostrogordo Pines Wood (directed by gardening teachers and students) - cancelled due to high winds but bus tour up to view the border fence.
Partners & Spanish students’ presentations: city, educational system, ways to contribute to the attainment of the sustainable development goals
Lots of similar themes in each school such as Eco Schools and UNESCO programmes, reducing litter/cleanups, gardening projects, reducing energy use through low energy days and renewable energy sources, climate action protests and raising awareness of issues at school.
Friday 15th
Project meeting
Lecture by the coordinator of ‘Gloria Fuertes Farm School’ about how they are working to clean up the beaches (marine waste)
https://youtu.be/iQQIYKEY9Bw
- Marine waste is affecting so many animals
- By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish!
- How is all this plastic ending up in places without human habitation?
- Animals get trapped in it and eat it because they think it’s fish (plastic bags = ghosts of the ocean)
- By 2020 plastic bags will be banned (in Spain)
- Spain receives too many tourists during the summer season which adds even more waste to the coastline
- In Melilla the beaches have issues with local people leaving rubbish but also the rubbish washes on the ocean currents from other areas
- A ship from China filled with rubber ducks lost its load and 8 months later ducks all over the world
- Ocean currents have created islands of plastic waste e.g. Pacific Ocean has 1.8 billion tonnes of waste - covering an area almost 3x the size of France!
- Ghost fishing - abandoned fishing nets still catching fish
- Marine waste decomposition takes a VERY long time e.g. drinks can takes over 200years to disappoints. Plastic 150 years. Cigarette buts 1-5 years.
- Micro plastics a big problem. In Spain there are beaches where there are more cigarette buts than plastic! Looking to make smoke free areas of the beach. 1 cigarette but polities 10 litres of seawater!
- Bioaccumulation of these plastics in the food chain is a major issue. At the end of the food chain it is ‘us’ (humans).
- Muscles example - they filter water so the micro plastic gets into their gut and then humans directly consume the micro plastic. We need to do something about it! We have a responsibility to all species.
- Orange coral of the Mediterranean is endemic to the coast of Melilla and is an endangered species. They are studying it because it is a filter species like the muscle and they want to see if it also takes in the micro plastics like the muscle.
- Proposal from the Spanish Environment Ministry is that some schools are given a set area of the coastline and classify the waste pollution and weigh it and repeat this every few months so that they begin collating data that can be used to inform planning and management
Farewell lunch
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