Ainhoa Puebla is a worker at the Envera Special Employment Center and a volunteer against COVID-19 at the Guadalix de la Sierra Town Hall.
He also volunteers with the Red Cross in the children's oncology service at La Paz and at the Real Madrid Foundation.
Madrid | April 28, 2020
Ainhoa Puebla, 38 years old, employee in the laundry of the Envera Special Employment Center in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid), is devoted these days to attend, as a volunteer of the Guadalix de la Sierra City Council, to families and elderly or sick people who cannot or must break their confinement to go shopping: she does it for them. Every day, since the state of alarm began in Spain for COVID-19, Ainhoa puts herself at the service of those who most need support and goes on errands for them so that they can have everything they need.
Ainhoa explains how she volunteers: "The City Council calls me, they tell me what I have to pick up at the supermarket and I take it to the different houses. It is usually the shopping for about five families. It is a joy to be able to give them this attention and they are very grateful. For me it is great to lend a hand and for them it is very important not to leave home. The other day," she explains, "a very old lady told me from the door that her husband's heart was very bad, that they had put three stents in and that he was a wreck. I was so upset that I told her that if she would give me permission, and so that she wouldn't carry the six liters of water she had asked for, I would take it to the entrance, because you know we can't go in, just leave it at the door. The poor woman told me to come in, that it was just a matter of time... Anyway, you find cases that are very embarrassing".
Volunteering has always been part of Ainhoa's life. For more than three years she has been in a group of between six and seven volunteers at the Pediatric Oncology Service of the Hospital Universitario La Paz to "play with the children in the hospital, entertain them for a while, in a common room or in their rooms, and so that the parents could also have a moment of respite to have a coffee or go for a walk. The first day I went, my mother said to me: "Do you know where you are going? How could I not be happy to encourage those parents and children who are eager to see someone different, someone who will entertain them? But I also had some very sad moments. The biggest sadness was the day when I was the only one in the whole group and I stayed in the room with a two and a half year old girl while the mother, who was exhausted, went out for a moment. Then the girl started having tachycardia, there was no way she could get out of it and she died. And that's the great sorrow I take with me: the sorrow of when you can't do anything else.
Ainhoa's altruistic spirit does not stop there. She also offers her time as a volunteer for the Real Madrid Foundation to assist disabled spectators who come to the Santiago Bernabéu to enjoy soccer. An activity that, for now, is not possible to carry out as she herself tells in an interview for the program Together we are stronger on Radio Terrícola (minute 42:30).
Ainhoa Puebla, volunteer, worker and athlete of the Ícaro Envera Club, with which she has written some of the most brilliant pages of inclusive sports, is an example of overcoming and solidarity. As her mother proudly tells her: Ainhoa, you are worth a lot.
