Homeless people highlight the role of volunteers: "They are the only ones who give us love"

   MADRID, 27 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Homeless people have stated that they have felt "greater motivation and self-esteem" when volunteers visit them on their street routes, as is the case with the NGO Solidarios. "They are the only ones who give us affection," affirm the beneficiaries when asked about it.

"You have given us conversation, darling, you have motivated us and given us the strength to get ahead," says Luis, who has lived on the street for more than two years in Seville. This is one of the testimonies collected by the organization after a survey carried out in Madrid, Granada, Murcia and Seville among 92 homeless people (76 men and 16 women).

The results of this survey appear in the activity report of the people program carried out by the NGO, which includes other testimonies such as the fact that homeless people consider that these visits also make them "more willing to take care of themselves and feel better."

They have also used for this report the data from the monitoring system of the Solidarios homeless program and the annual volunteer survey has been taken as a source of information, in which 113 volunteers from the Solidarios homeless program have participated in all the territories.

The NGO specifies that, as a result of these conversations, some homeless people have taken steps to stay in a shelter or access training. For other beneficiaries, the change has consisted of being able to forge social ties through volunteering, break loneliness and, in turn, open up, talk to more people around them.

"I feel less alone, I feel that I am forming a great family", Nacho, from Madrid, has acknowledged in this regard. For her part, Clara, also in Madrid, has indicated that since she receives these visits she meets "with more people." "I go down here to the square to talk to people, before I had almost no friends and now I do," she explained.

Thus, the Solidarios survey specifies that 61% of the homeless people surveyed consider that receiving these visits from volunteers has

generated a change did something better while for 94% it generates satisfaction.

"I have changed so much thanks to you that today I am out of

of the street. Now I live in a shared apartment and this change is greatly

part thanks to you", thanked Manuel, from Seville.

In its report, Solidarios details that the street routes --close to 40 per week in Madrid, Seville, Granada and Murcia-- have reached 569 people who have been accompanied and provided the necessary tools to feel better and make decisions that They can help you change your situation.

In addition, in the last year, they have accompanied 877 homeless people and, in 2022, more than 150 people participated in cultural and leisure activities in Madrid and Seville, among other advances.