I think this year was the best we live since I began as volunteer. The team we were last year growed progressively with a very interesting group of new volunteers. In February we split the team in two so we went to work two days in a week. The parties were more fun with the new ideas that veterans and newbies contributed. And all along the course we made more trips than ever. All this work was evident in the academic results and behaviour of the children. And as I desired, in the end of the course, we weren’t volunteers that help children in risk of exclusion to progress.In fact, we were a family.

But every wonderful things in the life are not eternal and, if it’s time to enjoy the sucess, it’s time for me to be a bit sad too. Some volunteers finished their university studies, and it’s probably they won’t continue because it. Even my personal boundings can force me to leave the group. So in the next months we’ll be working in the necessary transition. Laura ‘Laby’ Pérez will be the new coordinator of the group. She is fun and sweet with the children, she has two years of experience in the project, and she has energy like a RedBull cans truck

Now I’ll pray for the spirit of these two years go on…

• I’m a member of GPUL, so I’m a free software activist -> I collaborated with ESF-Galicia (Engineers Without Borders) in their migration to free software and open standards.

• I’m a social volunteer of OCV in Portiño->OCV funds some cooperation projects of ESF in Honduras.

• GPUL promotes free software -> GPUL has a project of a computer classroom in Portiño

• Lucía, is another volunteer of OCV in  Portiño-> She got a scholarship to travel and work in a cooperation project of ESF in Honduras.

• I’m a worker of CartoLab-> CartoLab, ESF and OCV signed an agreement to develop a custom gvSIG to ESF projects in Honduras->I’ll a developer in that project-> Lucía will process the data she’ll take with the free software tool in which I work.

So, I everyday dive in a dense mesh of same names and organizations…

Father Gabriel Vázquez Seijas was our spiritual director. He was is the spiritual director of a several generations of Catholic social activists. He had left his confortable life to become a priest when he got aware the material and spiritual poverty of Canido neighborhood in the city of Ferrol. He studied with the Society in Comillas University, and it was a very important detail because he was not only a social worker, he was an intelectual warrior too.

Besides of his important action in Ferrol, where he had important confrontation with the authorities defending workers and and handing out dangerous books in the street, he had a mission in the HOAC (Catholic Action Labour Brotherhood) in the years of dictatorship in Spain and he met there with Guillermo Rovirosa.

I  met Gabriel in Cáritas the year I finished my pre-university studies thanks to Quico. I had the target in work in cooperation when I had finished my degree, but he showed me I (we, everybody) can do an important work around. So now I’m a social volunteer.

Ten years ago my friends and me became spiritual orphans. We and another lot of people, that were helped in any moment of our lives by Gabriel, cryed his death. Now we have his life as testimony. Ten years after, I pray for being a worthy disciple someday.

“Attention to the poor must be considered only if you react to him as anyone”

–Father Gabriel Vázquez Seijas

The traditional Solidarity Party in the final November to get funds to projects with children of the OCV was a total success again. Adolfo, the veteran co-ordinator of the Bañobre project, is the main responsible of this success.

In December we took part with the people of the Portiño in a protest against racism against our loved town. The motto was “Portiño: 47 años de convivencia de payos y gitanos” (Portiño: 47 years of white and gipsy people living together).

And near to Christmas we celebrate a party with the children. Everybody, children, parents and volunteers got a fun time

Now we’ll try to finish these months with one activity outside the town…

I really love this game

But luckily this year we gathered a great group again. Almudena returned from Barcelona and new youngs volunteers came into the group too. So we could work harder and we did more parties and extra activities carrying the children to meet the world outside Portiño

Almudena, Laura, Inés, Lucía, Ariana and Ismael, thanks to you for this maravellous year

I would like to believe we do the 1/1000 part of the work he do.

In memorian, Father Villa,1929-2008

These first two sessions have been a bit madness. The new people must adapt to the project. The children are very cheerful with the new people, so they are more mischievous than the usual . We have logistics problems: most of volunteers must take a bus to the other side of the city, then we must walk around 1.5 Km without sidewalks nor shelter under the rain. It is not important. We will be a great group with great new ideas to work, that’s the important thing actually

And it was a chance to try to get new volunteers to work in the Cooperation and Volunteering Office in the University. So we insert an speech about it. Miriam Barreiro, who works in the Office and is volunteer in a hospital too, explained them our structure and projects. By my side I talked about the social liability of the Civil Engineering, and how important is to know and work in the ‘human scale’ besides lines and numbers.

I hope this information campaign all around the University had the effect of stop dropping the number of volunteers. I want to believe the new generations are less selfish as they seem.