Eva Ruiz I Sevilla, (EFE).- Flamenco dresses with ruffles, earrings, necklaces, shawls, flowers and combs in exchange for “fairly affordable” amounts of money that will go entirely to programs to help pregnant women and mothers and their babies under 3 years of age.
This is what the RedMadre Sevilla solidarity market offers from this Thursday until next Sunday, whose president, Teresa Galán, explained to Efe the details of the event, which serves to “give a new opportunity to that suit that many times it is in the attic and no one puts it on ”.
Throughout the year they receive garments that, once they arrive at their headquarters, are prepared and modified if necessary in a workshop where “all kinds of recycling are made: those suits that cannot be put on sale at the Better take advantage of the embroidered strips or ruffles and do other small projects, with the mothers and with volunteers”, Galán details.
In this edition they have about 800 costumes, for which the president of RedMadre Sevilla confesses her emotion at the “generosity” she observes and that is maintained fourteen years after launching the initiative.
“Sometimes it is true that it is difficult to part with a flamenco dress because for us it has a lot of value and each one of them has an added story. In many cases they tell you and I’m moved, each suit that arrives has enormous value”, he relates, before adding that “it’s incredible to see the game that comes out of it when another girl puts it on and it looks spectacular on her, although The first ones were made to measure”.
flyers for mothers and babies
Galán is also grateful for the collaboration of fashion firms that have donated their creations, including this year Pablo Lanzarote, Aires de Feria, Doña Macu, Maricruz Montecarlo, Mape, Sonibel and Alejandro Santizo. “Designers have had a very difficult time, but generosity prevails,” he says.
RedMadre Sevilla supports women when they are pregnant and until the babies are about 3 years old, with “personalized and comprehensive” care and a program adapted “to the needs that they express and in which they are accompanied at all times.”
They also do so through socio-educational workshops, focused both on care during pregnancy and the beginnings of parenting, and ranging from caring for the back or pelvic floor to yoga classes focused on women “in which relaxation works a lot.”
The average age of the women served by the association is around 29 years. “When you have a baby that means taking care of many things. If you also have economic difficulties, or you’re alone, your partner has abandoned you or you don’t have a job… it becomes quite complicated”, Galán details.
It indicates that they are women who are in a situation of “vulnerability” but that the help they need is not always material.
Any help except money
“Sometimes they need psychological care or a support group where they can share their experience,” she says, adding: “We just accompany them.”
She gives the example of the workshop “Among Us”, in which a psychologist “provides them with a space to express their needs, because each one has different ones, and to tell what worries them and what they need”.
Unless it is a “very special” case, such as helping them with a specific payment for something, they are not helped with money but with equipment, such as baby carriages, cribs or hygiene material such as diapers, gel or shampoo.
There is also a lot of demand for clothes, both for pregnancy and for children, which also “are usually very expensive,” says Galán, so they also collect donations that “are given a second chance, are prepared and given to the moms in the program so they can choose it for free.”
“In the end, the fundamental thing is to take care of them, that they feel accompanied,” concludes the president of RedSevilla, who encourages them to go to the market, installed on this occasion at the association’s headquarters in the Sevillian polygon of San Pablo. EFE
