The door is locked tight. Inside, intense activity flows, dinner must be prepared for more than 40 people. Five minutes of waiting and the door opens. Petite, nervous and friendly. That's Sister Ana, the nun in charge of managing the "Calor y Café" center. After a welcoming smile, she kindly invites us to come inside.
The dim light invades the hall, the windows remain closed until the tenants arrive every afternoon. Approaching this building has become a daily act for many people and even a ritual. At eight o'clock the doors open, little by little they begin to arrive in search of a hot meal and a little human warmth. Although anarchy does not reign in this house, since there is an order to receive dinner. "As they come, they sign up on a list that we have and, in this way, we give them the food in order of arrival", explains Sister Ana.
The nun is in charge of preparing, daily, dinner for all those people who need to go to the "Calor y Café" center. Despite managing it alone, Sister Ana receives the help of volunteers who come once or twice a week to collaborate. The maxim of this place is that no one's life is tried to be changed, "we are simply here".
The rooms of this house have seen many people pass through them. "People of all kinds come, from drug addicts, homeless people, elderly people who have a very low pension to individuals who, due to circumstances of life, are going through a bad time."
Currently, more than 40 people are attending the center, although they have come to welcome up to 60 each afternoon. Sister Ana explains that in the summer season there are always fewer, since the good weather makes them fend for themselves.
Something more than food...
The "Calor y Café" center not only provides dinner to all the people who need it, but also has other services that make their daily lives easier, such as providing them with clothes, washing the ones they already have, exchanging syringes or making it possible for them to be attended by a doctor. "In this dining room we have a medical consultation for harm and risk reduction, where two nurses and two doctors come voluntarily", says Sister Ana.
Although many of them not only come for these facilities, but also spend, every afternoon, some time in company. "We are like a small family for some, it is a place where they feel welcomed, if they are sick they know that they will be helped, that a doctor will attend them or that they will be facilitated to attend a consultation."
The human warmth that is breathed in the center flows in both directions, since Sister Ana affirms that she feels an enormous satisfaction of being able to help people who need it. "Sometimes I receive much more than I give", says the nun, who also affirms that the work of the volunteers is exceptional because "within our materialistic and empty world, there are still people who have a concern for the other, who do not live with their backs to the problems we have in this society". Even so, Sister Ana explains that every time a person interested in being a volunteer comes, she reminds them not to try to change the lives of those who come to the center, "since our presence does not have to demand or impose, although we can, in some way, challenge them so that they can discover that there may be something different, that life can be another way. That is what we try, now, to change life not because it is not easy. If we do not change ours, we cannot change theirs."
Eleven years of history
The "Calor y Café" center has become a place of reference for all those people who need to go to it. The nun who manages the house says that the mail between them works very well, "since if someone new comes to the island, they immediately find out that there is a place where they can have dinner."
The place has been open for eleven years. Before, the only place where they could go to receive some hot food was the Cáritas dining room. Although there they asked for some requirements, such as being in detoxification treatment to receive dinner. "I, at that time, collaborated with this NGO and from my community we saw that we could give a response to those needs and here we are", says Sister Ana. Apparently, during those years, people who did not receive treatment could not access official centers or aid from institutions either.
Some of the people who still come to the center were the first to take advantage of this disinterested help. "There are people who have been coming since we opened, they are the founders", comments Sister Ana in a funny way.
Despite its journey on the island, the "Calor y Café" center has been about to close, since the old building they used was rented and the owner decided not to renew the lease contract. "Now we occupy a place that belongs to the Cabildo and we share it with the Association of Alzheimer's patients."
Life changes
The maxim of the center is not to try to change the lifestyle of the people who come to it, but to help them in everything they need. Although sometimes these changes occur. Thus, Sister Ana says that people who have passed through the center for a season, then have rebuilt their lives. "I like to meet people who have passed through here and know that they are well, that they have experienced a change and even have family and children." For the sister, these cases produce an immense personal satisfaction, "sometimes it is what really gives meaning to the work we do because otherwise it would be very poor."
Sister Ana also comments that although, in most cases these changes do not occur, she does not find it difficult or ungrateful to be with them, "I feel good because I do what I have to do."
Even so, it must be remembered that the people who come to the "Calor y Café" center are people with a problem, which in most cases is drug addiction. Despite living, daily, with this group, the sister who is in charge of managing the center, comments that there are no extreme situations or altercations because one of the requirements to be able to enter is to have minimum standards of education and respect. "It is a totally normal environment and, well, sometimes there may be a problem but it does not go further, a small discussion. I think they are quite respectful because when someone comes in bad conditions they are told that they cannot enter."
Like every afternoon, food, affection and love will be distributed, with all generosity, in the "Calor y Café" center thanks to the work of its manager, Sister Ana, and the solidarity of the volunteers who come to collaborate in this praiseworthy work.
Sharing facilities...
The "Calor y Café" Center is located in an old building in the Charco de San Ginés. This house belongs to a private person, although the Island Council has leased it for years. The First Institution has given these facilities to two social programs, the dining room managed by the nun and the Association of Alzheimer's Patients. "In the morning, from Monday to Friday, we carry out a series of therapy workshops for Alzheimer's patients and in the afternoon it is open for the Calor y Café Center", comments to this media, Manuel Ruíz, president of this Association.
From 9 to 1 in the morning, almost ten Alzheimer's patients, accompanied by two or three relatives, go to the house of El Charco to participate in a novel therapy program. At the end of the activities, monitors and patients pick up the place because, in the next hours, it will be used by Sister Ana to prepare the dinner that she will offer to all the needy who come to the dining room.
Every day these two organizations share space, but not at the same time, so they hardly have contact. Ruíz assures that this coexistence has lasted four years and "despite the fact that Sister Ana deals with controversial people, we have not had any problems."