Fundación Escuela de Solidaridad

The aim of FES is to host and intervene with people with no roots, social disadvantages, miss-handled or socially excluded. In our association we receive mothers with children in emergency situations, young immigrants, people with disabilities without family, teenagers in risk situations or other people needing a home. Our aim is to create homes with family feeling, life in solidarity and education in values, searching training and the needed support for social integration.
Our regular activities involve administrative work, children daycare, art craft, school support, general maintenance, EVS related activities, house keeping and language classes, seminars for the practice and dissemination of cultural activities, among many others.
FES was founded 24 years ago and works since then for the mentioned aims, moving, four years ago to Sierra Elvira, where we found the ideal premises for its activities. Also belonging to FES, there are 6 other houses outside the foundation limits. One in Alozaina (Malaga) where occupational workshops are carried out, another one in Saleres (Granada), one in Fuente Vaqueros (Granada), where a huge vegetable garden and housing are being constructed, and then three more in Sierra Elvira (One of them is to become Cultural Activities Center).
The working team is formed by 6 permanent staff members. Volunteers collaborate with us with different degrees of participation. We also collaborate with other organisations and participate in activities in town and in Granada. In FES we have social educators who work with people with less opportunities. A psychologist volunteer offers her support. We have previous experience, as we have hosted volunteers with special needs. The result was very satisfactory, as they adapted perfectly to the people and the project. The project takes place in Sierra Elvira, a small town 10 kms from Granada, at the South of Spain, 10 kms from Sierra Nevada and 60 kms. from the coast. FES has a community of 8 paired houses in a 5000 m2 plot, where there is also a warehouse for workshops, a swimming-pool, a small farm, an office, material stores, classrooms, a conference room, a yurta, an african house, etc. Besides this, there are other five houses belonging to the FES. Four of them in Granada and one in Malaga.
This community hosts the beneficiaries of the project, that is, any person socially excluded and/or needing a home. There they live in a familiar environment, where they are educated in solidarity and trained to overwhelm their problems and manage their social integration. We work with them to regularise their situation, co-existence, education in values, training, restoring work in the community, etc.
Currently, the main beneficiaries are mothers with children, immigrant youth and mental disabled people. They come from low social and economic environments, with difficult life conditions.
Volunteers carry out their work in Sierra Elvira and will live in the community, in rooms ensuring them their own space, commodity and private life. Our idea is to have several European volunteers at the same time who may relate with each other and with other volunteers in Granada. Basic rules: volunteers shall adapt to the established times for work and meals (all together in the dining-room, being this an important meeting and living place). Out of working hours, volunteers may go out of the community when they want, telling the mentor about it. Visits are also allowed, but the mentor shall know about them before they come. Working period: 5 days/week; 2 free days/week. Working time: mornings and afternoons; free time: after lunch and before and after dinner. All rules are based on responsibility, solidarity and common welfare.
The proximity and communications with Granada (bus every half-hour, 20 minute ride) will allow them to enjoy the city. They may also go to the other houses of FES accompanied by the mentor. FES offers volunteers the chance of living a solidarity experience and enriching their learning and acquisition of skills for their personal, educational and professional development. This takes place in an excellent environment to know the Spanish culture, the city of Granada. They will receive language training and have a mentor supporting them professionally and personally who will enable them their integration and their social life. All activities in FES will be supervised and supported by a person responsible.
In FES we carry out several programmes in which volunteers may collaborate: "Mejor con mama" (Better with Mum), for mothers and children in situation of vulnerability. The activities in which volunteers may participate are conditioning of the community houses (painting, cleaning and furniture restoration); initial report and itinerary of families, with the educators; training in health education and care of children, preparation of workshops or activities with the educator (weekly), in FES, with the educators of the social and educational activities (open air, workshops, visits, etc.) and integration in activities in the town punctually. 
"Mejor formado" (Better trained), has the aim of providing the residents with skills. Volunteers may participate in the following activities: help young immigrants with their adaptation, sharing with them their daily life experience, search of courses and training, visit organisations with the educator and per Internet, help with the normalisation of the situation of the residents, accompanying them and helping them with their formalities with the responsible person, education in values, talks, activities and/or workshops about basic rules for co-existence (consume, care of premises, organisation in community,...), weekly, together with the educators.
"Mejor ocupado" (Better occupied), aiming the integration in the working market through occupational workshops carried out in the home of Alozaina, where volunteers may collaborate with workshops related with their skills and concerns, being this something optional, punctual and done accompanied by their mentor. Alozaina (Malaga) is near the Sierra of Ronda, 170 kms. away from Sierra Elvira. The transport will be done in cars of FES, accompanied by the mentor. The visits will be punctual and will last a couple of days, the most, staying to sleep in the house of FES, if needed. The assistance to this house to give workshops is something voluntary and will be done if volunteers ask to do so, and being something punctual, once a month, the most.
"Mejor al aire libre" (Better outside), promotes education and development through environmental activities. Volunteers may prepare and participate in environmental education activities, trekking, water sports, etc. carried out on weekends every fortnight. They may help the educator planning and organising, managing, visiting,... or may participate directly with the activities with the rest of the residents and volunteers.
Apart from these programmes, daily, there are activities from the global project of FES and daily life in a family, in which volunteers may carry out their skills, such as: -vegetable garden, where food for self-consume is obtained. Volunteers may collaborate with its maintenance (preparation of earth, sowing, watering and harvest) or in more technical matters, if they know about them (watering systems, grafting,...), always under the supervision of the person responsible for the vegetable garden; school support to children, helping them with their homework some afternoon/week; -Carrying out of activities with educational aims, in any field, with the help of the educators; -Management and maintenance of the small farm with the person in charge of it; -Carrying out workshops dealing with their fields of interest/ knowledge,... Another tasks is to visit or receive other European volunteers to show them FES.