Ten years ago I looked at La Cuidad de Los Niños with a view to raising money for them, having been inspired to do so when I made a donation, through a 'Shared Holiday' company on the CDS. I was given to believe that the organization was an orphanage run by priests who begged for out of date food in Malaga to feed the children.
I was a little concerned that the receipt I received from the ‘Shared Holiday’ company, for my donation was just an un-numbered 'complimentary slip' which could not have been audited. I also found that the company had not made the necessary arrangements to claim back the IVA on donations made by their staff over the previous couple of years from their monthly salary, thus 'losing' that potential additional income for the charity.
Over the next couple of weeks, I made two visits La Cuidad de Los Niños, accompanied by an Accountant who had previously worked in UK investigating bankruptcies, and a former retired Spanish teacher and local authority funcionario. The visits were deliberately made without notice.
I was concerned to find that the ‘permanent children’ most of whom returned to their families each evening or at weekends, were mixed with delinquent children, including male prostitutes and drug addicts, picked up off the streets by the police to be assessed before they were moved to ‘more appropriate’ facilities. In order to make the necessary assessments, the establishment was required to pay a much larger teaching staff than would have otherwise been needed.
I was also ‘disappointed’ that the senior priest at the time of my visits, was taking an extended break at an expensive Health Spar near Granada, albeit we were told it was paid for by grateful parishioners, and only one of the other two priests working there, was in attendance on just one of the visits and that the establishment was almost deserted: Just a few children and a couple of staff.
I also found that the two mini-buses in the yard, painted to show they had been donated by a prominent chain of real estate offices on the coast, had in fact been part-exchanged and the chain had paid the relatively small difference. After I contacted the CEO of the chain, I understand the ‘misleading wording’ was removed from the buses.
Subsequently the two people, who had accompanied me on the visits, and I, decided the establishment was not what it appeared to be, and thus we could not lend our names to support an appeal for funds.
I do not know how, if at all, the establishment may have changed since we made our investigations.
This message was last edited by johnzx on 22/11/2013.