Seeing the energy and desire with which Rosa Molina shows the second floor of the Cáritas homeless shelter in Toledo, few people would say that she is a woman of almost eighty who has nothing left. Well, in reality he still has his family, the help of Cáritas Diocesana and his joy and desire to live. Rosa is kind and caring, she is considered a responsible person. She has nothing but words of thanks for those who take care of her. She gets excited when she remembers her native Caracas and if she asks for anything, it’s for the administrative procedures to be accelerated so that Edudardo, the son who lives with her at the Refuge, can work. They have already called him, but he needs papers, he explains.

Through tears, Rosa explains that it was the political situation in her country that caused her four children to lose their jobs. But the worst was the lack of food and medicine. Two of them came to Spain in search of other frontiers. Eduardo brought her to Toledo. He is a bus and trailer driver and knows he would have found a better job in Canada, for example, but he opted for Spain because of the language.

And in Spain they also ask for drivers, in fact there are companies that have been interested in hiring them. But the legal proceedings take too long for the family. Thanks to Cáritas, Eduardo obtained a first interview, “where they were very kind and very affectionate”. But the second, to obtain the NIE, will only be on December 12, 2023. Then, he will have to wait another six months to be able to work, as his brother Daniel and his nephew Samuel are waiting for.

Until then, for lack of income, Rosa and Eduardo have been at the Caritas Refuge in Casco since July 17. “Let’s hope that these issues can be put forward, so that we immigrants can work, pay our rent and live as we should!”, She wishes. Although in Cáritas “we are very well received, they offer us the three meals, a smile and the steps to register or for health; even education to prepare us. So, he comments, “it’s wonderful, it’s a godsend to be here. You have your roof, everything is comfortable, they always give us good advice, they always help us, we have our food and they cover everything for us, even our toothbrushes”.

The life of Rosa, at 79, is therefore very similar to that of anyone else in a rental house. The men are above and below and, on the middle floor, the women are separated. They each have their own bedroom and share bathrooms and a kitchen. They clean their apartment, it’s Rosa’s turn on Thursdays, and they do the laundry. The rest they thank Begoña, who treats them very well.

When it’s not Thursday and she has to do the housework, Rosa gets up, eats breakfast and starts reading or taking a walk with her son, in the sun, which is good for the bones. These days of good temperature, he admits, “are wonderful”. Meanwhile, the younger ones, like Eduardo, take part in classes and even have a psychologist at their disposal. They and they eat separately. “Every day, it’s like that, we go out, we read, we study, we go to the library… we have the activities we are looking for and the support of Caritas, it’s great”, he concludes. .

Men. But at Refuge Cáritas, the majority are men. Like Valentin, the name that one of them chose for his next baptism, at 63 years old. He is Romanian, a ship’s captain, and says he has studied and known many religions during his life but “none convinced me, only the Catholic religion, because Caritas embraces the whole world, alongside children, women and senior citizens”.

Valentin, after separating from his wife, from Toledo, found himself at the Refuge eight months ago “after a somewhat long and sad story, because I am alone in the world, with God”. There “you feel like in a second home, you have a second family, at the hostel I can say that you eat better than at home, thanks to people like Virginia, Diego, Luciana and Cruz, who make good food.”

Valentín now has two objectives: to reach the minimum subsistence income “to be able to manage and make a living”; and he wants to do it with his new name, Valentin, finally baptized.

His partner, Joaquín Escolar, lived in Novés with his mother, until she died in August. Taking care of her prevented him from finding a job and without his pension, Joaquín was left with nothing. It was the doctors of Toledo and Torrijos who took him to the Refuge. He is also waiting for the minimum vital income, requested from there, “to solve my life and get out of here”. He has always worked in gardening and babysitting, these are his two other options, if he finds work. “I am looking for a solution to this situation and until then, I am very grateful to the people of Caritas, who are helping me, supporting me and encouraging me.”