READER’S DIGEST
June• 2019 | 27volunteers, called Red Alert, have
collaborated since April 2015, assist-
ing thousands of migrants, many of
them refugees f leeing war in Syria
and Iraq. The Spanish refugee rescue
NGO Proactiva Open Arms says that,
along with Mohamed Hajira, Ange-
les has saved many lives on the boat
routes to Greece. But, from her sofa
in Spain, she has also fed refugees,
guided them to shelter, and paid for
their urgent medical care. “I love sol-
idarity,” she explains.
Angeles is not trained as an aid
worker and has never taken a plane
in her life – she barely even drives.
But she promises every refugee who
contacts her, “I don’t know how I will
help you, but I will.”
“THERE’S LIFE BEFOREand life
after,” A ngeles explains in her mod-
est first-f loor office in central Vigo.
She grew up here on Spain’s wind-
swept Atlantic coast and studied
management. She planned to work
for an embassy and travel the world,
but her fear of flying meant that she
went into business instead. In 1990,
aged 20, she launched an evening
school for gifted youngsters.
The thriving enterprise funded a
comfortable life. In 1998, she adver-
tised for a cleaner and met Gladys,
a Bolivian migrant. Angeles was
amazed to see that Gladys spent her
meagre income helping fellow mi-
grants from South America. Soon
Angeles joined in. Together they be-
gan reaching out to these migrants,
helping them find jobs and homes.
Angeles saw how making a small
sacrifice, like forgoing a haircut,
meant she could spend on others
instead. “It was addictive,” she says.
In March 2011, when the Syrian civil
war began, Angeles was gripped by
worry. “I was living a normal life in a
normal city. But I was thinking,how
can I help them?”
One night, as the news laid bare
the horror of the conf lict, Angeles
started scouring Facebook for people
who were affected. She found a young
Syrian refugee called Wael who told
her he’d fled to Turkey to escape join-
ing the Syrian army. They exchanged
messages. “I discovered the feeling
of a war through him. While he was
writing, he was crying, perhaps be-
cause his uncles were dying.”
Wael introduced her on social me-
dia to his Syrian and Turkish con-
tacts. Angeles realised she could
draw on their knowledge to com-
pile lists of doctors, aid workers andI DISCOVERED THE
FEELING OF WAR FROM
A YOUNG SYRIAN.
I K NEW THEN I WANTED
TO D O SOMETHING
TO HELP THE REFUGEES