GRATIS / FREE - fuerteventura magazine hoy
GRATIS / FREE - fuerteventura magazine hoy
GRATIS / FREE - fuerteventura magazine hoy
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FUERTEVENTURA MAGAZINE <strong>hoy</strong><br />
QUIÉN ES QUIÉN EN LA ISLA / WHO’S WHO IN THE ISLAND? / WER IST WER AUF DER INSEL?<br />
Victor Alonso – Cabildo’s Social Matters’ Councillor<br />
“We have reached our goal: to maintain the level<br />
of social services and attention to citizens”<br />
FMHOY - Fuerteventura<br />
After three years experience in this Council, which<br />
he tends to call “the people’s Council”, we have come<br />
once again to chat with Víctor Alonso, so that he could<br />
tell us about his duties during this venture.<br />
Changes have been positive, he seems younger and<br />
full of vitality, unlike what tends to happen as years go<br />
by for all of us and especially for politicians, who have<br />
to cope with more work related stress than others.<br />
Tell us about your experiences over the past few<br />
years.<br />
They are very varied because this position is very<br />
controversial, and does not always suit everyone, but I<br />
believe that we have reached our goals over this term:<br />
to maintain the level of social services by improving<br />
their infrastructures and attention to citizens.<br />
We know that new services’ centres have been<br />
inaugurated. Can you tell us more about those?<br />
As for infrastructures, we managed to put in place<br />
last year the Occupational Centre of the Southern<br />
Area in Gran Tarajal, for people with light mental<br />
disabilities where activities and workshops are organised<br />
to make their integration in social and working<br />
life easier. Regarding numbers, when the term<br />
started, everyday ten of those people (young people<br />
and adults) used to have to go from Morro Jable at 6<br />
in the morning in order to get to Puerto del Rosario.<br />
We are also currently completing a new centre in<br />
Gran Tarajal that will welcome students from the local<br />
that was given by Tuineje’s Ayuntamiento which is<br />
being refurbished. We hope that it will be completed<br />
in November or December... And the Psycho-social<br />
Rehabilitation Centre of Puerto del Rosario, in the area<br />
of Rosa Vila, has just started operating. As the Centre<br />
North mancomunidad was closed, the Cabildo and<br />
Canarian Government have taken those rehabilitation<br />
centres under their wing. The centre’s staff consists<br />
of teachers, a social worker and a psychiatrist. We are<br />
also aiming at taking care of Gran Tarajal’s centre once<br />
it will be completed if the centre-south mancomunidad<br />
agrees, as this should depend from the Cabildo.<br />
Another very important project is the Centro Insular<br />
de Atención a la Discapacidad (disability attention centre)<br />
of Puerto del Rosario where we are carrying out the<br />
first phase of investment that represents 1.200.000 €.<br />
This project houses the new Occupational Centre and<br />
the new island’s Residence for deeply mentally disabled<br />
people and a communal area that their families will be<br />
able to use. This area will contain a swimming pool that<br />
will also be available to families and associations.<br />
How about the elderly people?<br />
We have also carried out refurbishments and repairs<br />
in the Elders’ Residence of Casillas del Ángel<br />
representing an investment of over 1.500.000 €. It<br />
was a spectacular change. On the other hand, the<br />
Island’s Water Board carried out major work to create<br />
a direct and easy entrance to the premises through<br />
a roundabout and also for ambulances to get easy<br />
access without having to come in through the village.<br />
How did budget cut backs affect your Council?<br />
Regarding attention to persons, the Cabildo increased<br />
the budget by 1,65%. We are one of the<br />
Councils that has not suffered from any cut backs,<br />
but we have to take care of many services. There was<br />
a major investment for drug-addictions although the<br />
Canarian Government had to reduce the amount of<br />
help they use to grant us. The Cabildo has carried<br />
on maintaining services and we have increased the<br />
number of staff in the south of the island and added<br />
a psychologist to care for people concerned and their<br />
families. We need a lab-technician for methadone<br />
treatments in the southern area but the budget does<br />
not allow us to cover this position.<br />
Another priority is the Island’s Social Services’<br />
Centre that currently attends around 12.000 people.<br />
We have concentrated our efforts on this department<br />
by making adjustments and we have moved part of<br />
the staff of this module to the Popular University and<br />
another part of the Council will be located next to the<br />
Auditorium where the drug-addiction services and the<br />
sexual information service will be situated. Although we<br />
wish to create a space for this centre, the project will<br />
9<br />
have to wait for financial resources to increase which<br />
will allow us to increase and improve our service of<br />
attention to citizens which is our most important task.<br />
What projects are being carried out for people<br />
with physical disabilities?<br />
This year we are going to sign an agreement with<br />
the Frater association, in order to care for all the<br />
accessibility deficiencies of the island.<br />
Frater is going to check out each municipality in<br />
order to point out all the problems that a person with<br />
disabilities could encounter from taking a taxi to getting<br />
access to any public place. Furthermore, this initiative<br />
will help ayuntamientos to be aware of the norms on<br />
adequate accesses before giving out building licences.<br />
Any other interesting news?<br />
Yes, until recently residents of the island had to go to<br />
the Cabildo in order to get an assessment of their level<br />
of disability and the final decision used to take a year<br />
before being given out. We have come to an agreement<br />
with the Canarian Government in order to speed up this<br />
process and we have now dedicated a psychologist and<br />
a social worker for this task at the Cabildo. The administration<br />
is taken care of by the Canarian Government.<br />
Therefore the process will be almost immediate and<br />
the final decisions will be handed out directly by the Office<br />
of Attention to Citizens. We have also managed to get<br />
the evaluation commissions to meet in Fuerteventura.<br />
What are you most proud of?<br />
I think this Council has achieved projects for each<br />
collectivity which was one of my main goals when I first<br />
started. This year we have managed to sign agreements<br />
with over twenty eight associations and N.G.O., we<br />
have maintained the amount of subventions, help and<br />
assessments for associations such as Corazón y Vida,<br />
Asociación Fuerteventura contra el Cáncer, Frater, Asomasamen,<br />
Familia con trastornos de déficit de atención,<br />
Victimas de Violencia de Genero, Hijas de la Caridad de<br />
Corralejo, we have carried on providing tele-assistance<br />
with the Red Cross and this year we also want to help<br />
with Caritas, Adisfama, Adisfuer, etc. We also keep on<br />
supporting as much as possible the Ayuntamientos<br />
thanks to the Social Well-being agreements.<br />
We have achieved over 125% of the electoral plan<br />
of the Government’s pact that was presented at the<br />
beginning and which no one was aware of in 2007,<br />
and we have given answers to all the associations<br />
within our budget possibilities.<br />
I am also very proud of the Gold Medal that the Red<br />
Cross awarded us in recognition of the social work carried<br />
out by Fuerteventura’s Cabildo over the past year.