July was the busiest month of 2023, so far, for us, with call volumes higher than last year. As always, a huge thank you to all our Listeners, who are based far and wide throughout Spain, they continue to work extremely hard to ensure that this invaluable service endures. Our charity shop in the Punta Marina Mall in Punta Prima continues to do a massive trade, our dedicated shop volunteers continue to provide their time to allow the organisation to function and have been working hard throughout the month despite the very hot conditions, thank you for everything you do.
In July we were the lucky recipients of a donation of €500 from LGBTQ Costa Calida-Blanca, the donation was from their 2023 Pride events. Pictured below is Kerry from the LGBTQ Costa Calida-Blanca organisation receiving a certificate of thanks from Les Holloway, VP of Samaritans in Spain.
July saw several of our listeners undertake a Mental Health First Aid course; this was partly funded by the donation in June by Making a Difference. This course is designed to expand upon the Samaritans Listening training and delve deeper into the use of empathy and associated communications to those that we provide a service to. The course was a huge success, all the listeners who took part worked hard but the result was worth it. It is hoped to run it again to enable more listeners to complete it. Thank you to Paul Cooper for facilitating it for us.
We remain on the lookout for the following positions, we are very keen to fill these positions with some urgency. If you believe that you have the skills, desire, and time to help us then please contact our Listener Delivery Trustee, Joanna, at listenerdelivery.spainsams@gmail.com
Duty Manager (x2). This is an admin role and involves being Duty Manager for 2 or 3 days per week from 10am – 10pm. The Duty Manger will, in the main, be responsible for managing the days listening shifts and listeners. It is a remote working role and requires no undertaking of listening duties or any listening experience.
In general, if you think that you would like to join us as a volunteer as either a Listener, a shop volunteer or as a Trustee then please do not hesitate to contact our Secretary on secretary.spainsams@gmail.com for further information or check out our website www.samaritansinspain.com/ – we are constantly recruiting.
If you think talking to somebody would help you, or if you know someone who needs to talk, Samaritans in Spain lines are open from 10am – 10pm every day of the year and our fully trained listeners are available if you need to talk. Remember we are here for you and together we are stronger, the number to call is FREEPHONE 900 525 100.
Are you able to help Samaritans in Spain to help others?
If you would like to hold an event for us, then please do not hesitate to contact our President on president.spainsams@gmail.com.
If you would like to donate to us, you can do so on PayPal – our PayPal account is paypal@samaritansinspain.com.
If you are a business owner and you feel that you would be able to sponsor us in any way, then please contact our Treasurer on treasurer.spainsams@gmail.com.
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