Coro Amunarriz is a social worker at the Social Services Center in Bidebieta and has created a project to help residents of the same neighborhood where she works in the city of San Sebastian.
-Could you tell me what this project is about and what do you want to achieve?
The project is called Auzokide Vecindad solidaria de Bidebieta, which is a working-class neighborhood in San Sebastian, Guipuzcoa . It arose from a pilot project that began in January of this year (in 12 Bidebieta towers) to promote neighborhood collaboration.
It is about preventing and reducing social isolation through collaboration between punctual, mutual neighborhood people, to be able to be reciprocal and non-profit. It is open to all kinds of people, it is non-denominational, apolitical and it does not matter the age or the country the participant comes from. In fact, there are people of different nationalities, from Eastern Europe to Africa.
-How did the idea of creating this network come about?
More than a network, I call it a neighborhood group. This arose out of a concern and feeling that the neighborhood, with 18-story tall towers by 4 houses, has a lot of potential to help in the sense that many people can be isolated or alone and their isolation can generate synergy or energy and mutual support. Ultimately, it arose from the desire to improve the community.
-What kind of people are in the group?
There are people who live in Bidebieta or who are linked to the neighborhood either by work or by having relatives there. Even so, there are only two people who do not live there.
The group could be separated into two: on the one hand, there is an active group, in which are 8 people who go to the meetings, give their opinion on the project, and make decisions. They are the ones with the most commitment.
On the other hand, there is the other group, a kind of "backroom" in which there are 14 people who respond to the decisions made by the previous group, and sometimes they do us favors such as translating messages into Basque but they do not go to meetings, they communicate by WhatsApp.
Neighborhood collaboration is through the gifts and abilities of each one
-Could you tell me step by step how you got here?
We started by mailing and putting up posters around the neighborhood. Then in January, we had two informational meetings, so residents started coming and they liked the idea so I offered to start on February 1st. In the meetings, we decided on the logo, motto, and activities that we could do so that people would know us. In another meeting, we decided to expand the network to the 18 towers in the neighborhood and not only to the 12 that were initially intended.
As of March 14, which was when covid started getting important, they took us more into account when asking for help and we became known in the neighborhood. We were put on the list of neighborhood help networks in the Guztion Artean neighborhood support network
Before all that, El Diario Vasco wrote an article about us that also helped us gain fame, although other media also interviewed us during our confinement.
-What requirements must be met so that your project is following the sustainable development objectives? What connection do you have with it?
It is not that it meets the requirements for it, but rather that it fits the objective because, like this one, the project speaks of creating sustainable communities in the sense that the value of solidarity and collaboration is a sustainable value, a human value that lasts in time.
On the other hand, it encourages citizen participation in decision-making, one of the goals of the objective. Recently the city council has invited us to talk about the project to make ourselves known and be at the neighborhood participation tables, where decisions are also made.
Another goal is that it promotes inclusion because, as I have explained before, it is open to everyone.
It also reduces the impact of disasters that can affect people with greater vulnerability (such as lonely people, people with some type of dysfunction, minors, adolescents, ...) because if any problem occurs (from not being able to put a light bulb to the flooding of their house) we can see how they are and help them.
-What have you achieved with this project? What have you contributed to the community?
We are being better known and in my opinion, we are providing sensitivity and the feeling of resuming the idea of the neighborhood. Until a few years ago it was an area heavily punished by drugs, and today it maintains that reputation even though the neighborhood has changed.
For example, they are going to close the only bank branch in Bidebieta and the next closest one is far away, so thanks to a neighbor's notice, we have organized a signature collection on Change.org and paper. More than a thousand have already been collected in 20 days via paper and another 140 via Change thanks to them.
-Finally, would you like to say something to our readers about how to support your project?
This is a project that aims to expand the idea of helping communities, so it would be good to make ourselves known on social networks (we are on Facebook), support the cause, and share information about us.
Maite Errondosoro is one of the neighbors that has lived in the Bidebieta neighborhood for the longest time, so she has seen it change over time and knows its history and its people very well. She is one of the main collaborators of the Auzokide project and one of those who have spread it the most.
-How was the neighbourhood and the relationship between the people living there before Auzokide?
The neighborhood used to be called Guardaplata and it was on the outskirts of San Sebastian, there were very few houses and everything else was the countryside.
Before, the neighbors were very close, we all knew each other and we had neighborhood parties, but then the houses became blocks that were forcibly expropriated from us. Even so, in the end, we got a flat in the same place and with almost the same people because, even though, as there was much more space, people began to come from other neighborhoods like Herrera, those were neighborhoods that were close by, so we were still known to each other.
They also started putting up shops and pubs, but the neighborhood started with drug and theft problems, so they closed the shops.
Before there was more life. Now it is nothing more than a bedroom community.
-What has auzokide brought to you and the community?
For me, the creation of Auzokide has made me meet people from the neighborhood who share my concerns. Although we have not started to do anything serious yet, the network seems important to me because of the needs that older people may have since in general we are the majority here.
Even so, its arrival has not changed our lives much. We have already posted the ads, so the other neighbors know that we exist, but still, they do not collaborate, there is no answer. Only the pandemic has raised interest in us, but usually there is not. It is a bad moment for us because before we were closer and now we do not know each other, we are too independent.
On the other hand, I think that more attention should be paid to young people, for example putting a youth association in the neighborhood and hopefully more young people would join in helping Auzokide.
Photo given by the interviewee
In case you want to help Auzokide, here is their contact:
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