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55 Saharawi children, between 9 and 13 years old, spend their summer with Murcia's host families, within the program 'Holidays in Peace 2019', which this year celebrates its 40th edition.

José Ballesta: "We want you to feel Murcia in your heart as your second home. Feel like adopted children of this city, because you are."

The mayor of Murcia, accompanied by the Councilor for the Elderly, Disability and Development Cooperation, Paqui Pérez, and the Councilor for Social and Family Rights, Pilar Alarcón, received a representation of half a hundred Saharawi children in the City Hall who are sharing the summer with Murcia families, within the program 'Holidays in Peace 2019', which promotes the association Smile Smile Saharaui Region of Murcia.

José Ballesta addressed the children to convey that “we welcome you with open arms and we want you to feel Murcia in your heart as your second home.

Feel like adopted children of this city, because you are, and always remember everything you are going to live these days and, above all, the love and affection of your second families, who will leave an indelible mark on you, just like you they".

The priority objective of this reception program is to reinforce the health status of these children who, in the Tindouf refugee camps, receive basic food, so that they can present nutritional deficits, as well as avoid hard summers to more than 50 degrees that are lived in the Sahara, without means and in the desert.

Thanks to the 'Holidays in Peace' initiative, children, between 9 and 13 years of age, have dental, eye and hearing exams and access to pediatricians of the Murcia Health Service.

At the same time, children acquire new knowledge and learn Spanish.

In addition, the program helps to raise awareness about the situation of the Saharawi people.

40 years of program and more than 2,500 children

Since it began to be held in 1979, more than 2,500 children have participated in 'Holidays in Peace', a program organized by the Sonrisa Saharaui Region of Murcia association.

Specifically, the children who are part of this 40 edition arrived in the Region on July 4 and will return to the Sahara on September 4.

Source: Ayuntamiento de Murcia