- Francisco Martín has visited the Red Cross facilities in El Plantío where he has held a working meeting with the president and vice-president of the Red Cross in the Community of Madrid, Pilar Roy; its regional secretary, Gabriel Sánchez, and Nieves Morales, regional coordinator of the Red Cross.
- The government delegate has been able to see the relief and social intervention vehicles and their Vocational Training Centre.
- This entity of the third sector is responsible for managing the delivery of the wallet cards in 2024, by delegation of the General Administration of the State.
The government delegate in the Community of Madrid, Francisco Martín, visited today the headquarters of the Red Cross of El Plantío, where he highlighted the work carried out by the entity from different fields of action and where he has been able to see the different vehicles and devices that the Red Cross has.
Visit to Red Cross facilities
During his visit to the facilities, the government delegate held a working meeting with several Red Cross officials, headed by its president and vice-president of the entity in the Community of Madrid, Pilar Roy; its regional secretary, Gabriel Sánchez, and Nieves Morales, regional coordinator of the Red Cross.
During the tour, Francisco Martín was able to get to know the relief vehicles (mobile ICU, mobile operations center, inclemency, avitulture, psychosocial and cargo containers) and social inclusion vehicles (social response vehicle and Red Cross Plus vehicle) that are available.
Afterwards, he visited the facilities and classrooms of the Red Cross Vocational Training Centre in Madrid, which offers training in the areas of emergency, health and social integration.
Wallet Cards
The government delegate has acknowledged the work of the Red Cross in managing the new Wallet Cards of the Ministry of Social Rights.
The Ministry of Social Rights launched in January 2024 a “wallet card” program aimed at buying food for vulnerable families.
Although the responsibility of identifying and referring families and monitoring the Program remains exclusively with the Autonomous Communities (CCAA), the General Administration of the State assumed the responsibility of implementing the system through the Red Cross, since this entity has a system already in place that allows to operate this system in time and guarantee capillary action throughout the State.
The amount they receive on their cards depends on the number of members in the family unit and depending on these conditions:
- Two members of the family unit (an adult person and a minor person): 130 euros per month.
- Three members of the family unit: 160 euros per month.
- Four members of the family unit: 190 euros per month.
- Five or more members of the family unit: 220 euros per month.
It is estimated that this program will benefit almost 70,000 families with dependent children and in situations of extreme vulnerability in our country. In this way, Spain will expand its contribution to the fight against child poverty, one of the priority objectives that the European Commission marked in the granting of this aid.
The Red Cross has awarded seven supermarkets the cash card system set up by the General Administration of the State, while the CCAA is in charge of deploying this system in their territories.
More advantages
The change of model to the wallet cards offers several advantages. The first and most tangible is that purse cards allow access to a greater variety of products, including fresh or other products, such as feminine hygiene products, something that is not possible with the bags they deliver in the Food Banks.
It is also significant that the economic amount that will be received through the wallet cards is much higher than the cost of food that a person receives per month in a Food Bank.
Likewise, the purse cards come to fulfill a social function that is to avoid the stigmatization of those people who are forced to request food and, in many cases, to be part of the so-called “hunger queues”.
Investment
The Community of Madrid is the fourth autonomous community that will receive more funds behind Andalusia, Valencia and Catalonia. In total, the Red Cross is expected to receive funds in the amount of 13,271,561.84 euros for card reloading in 2024