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Rayo Vallecano step in to re-house 85-year-old

Thursday, November 27 2014 by SNTV
  • Intro:

    La Liga club Rayo Vallecano step in to re-house 85-year-old local woman evicted from her suburbian Madrid home.

    Script:

    Five days after 85-year-old Spanish woman Carmen Martinez was evicted from the apartment she owned and had lived in for decades, the retired house cleaner thanked a local football team for offering to pay her rent for life, an incredible gesture from Rayo Vallecano

    Martinez said she was overwhelmed at how photographs of her being evicted had generated international support.

    Martinez lost her fight to keep her apartment when police pushed past protesters to evict her and changed the locks on her home in Madrid's working class neighborhood of Vallecas.

    Her son had used it as collateral for a 40,000 euro loan which he couldn't pay after losing his job as an estate agent.


    Martinez explained her story, she said:

    SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Carmen Martinez, Evicted woman

    "We are good people, we are workers, you spend your whole life working, and then when you can finally settle down, they come and kick you out, you have to leave everything behind. They can live very well whilst we die. Is that a lie or not? They have a car out front to pick them up while we are kicked out. It is wrong. "

    However after hearing the story Rayo Vallecano, which plays just four kilometres away from her former home, stepped in, offering to find her an apartment and pay the rent until she dies.

    They said:

    SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Paco Jemez, coach, Rayo Vallecano football team

    "We are going to help this woman. Not just me but the coaching staff, the players, the club. As far as possible, we are going to give her a hand to find a place where she can live in dignity and not feel abandoned, in the sense that she has a home."


    The club has a news conference planned for Thursday, where it is expected they will announce more precise details of their plans for Martinez's future.

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