It´s September already and memories of summer are fast becoming a distant dream. However if you live in Mojacar or the surrounding areas, then I´m sure you remember hearing about the fires that raged through this part of Spain. 
 
For us here at UK Shopping in Spain, the memories of the fires in Mojacar are still very vivid…indeed some of us nearly lost our homes. Luckily we were spared any serious damage however we know that there are people who weren´t so fortunate that´s why we set up the ´Just €1 Appeal´ to raise money to help people who were affected by the fire…
 
The Appeal is over now and sadly things didn´t work out the way we intended; we didn´t raise much money and got called all the names under the suun for even trying to do someting positive…
 
I guess we should stick to what we´re good at, and that´s Shopping!

Well it´s been a while now since we launched our €1 Appeal and on the whole the response we´ve received has been very positive and donations are starting to trickle in. However, some of the comments we´ve had have not been so positive…in fact some of them have been downright nasty, suggesting we´re on a personal crusade to line our own pockets. So we´d like to put the record straight…

We came up with the idea for the Appeal as a way to help others NOT ourselves. And by ´others´ we mean people of all nationalities - Spanish, English, you name it – who were affected by the fire in Mojacar. When we got started we weren´t sure exactly how we could help, we just knew that we had to do something. But if we´re asking you to contribute to the Appeal it´s only fair that you´d be skeptical and want to know what the money is going to be used for.

So what will we do with the money that´s donated?

The truth is, we don´t how much money this Appeal will raise…it might be €50, €500, €5000  or more! At this point we just don´t know. What we DO know is that we want this money to go to those who need it most yet we´re not in a position to decide if one person is more deserving than another.

So we´ve decided to support the efforts being made by the Town Hall in Mojacar (Ayuntamiento de Mojacar). They´ve currently got a registration scheme in place for people affected by the fire and we´ve decided to donate the proceeds of the Appeal to support their work. In that way we can be sure that the money is going directly to supporting the very people this Appeal was set up to help.

Now, we know some of you may not think this is the right decision, however it´s the one we think is fairest and most transparent…but we´re open to suggestions so we´re giving you the opportunity to share your thoughts on how we should use the money we raise.

Simply use the comments box below to share your suggestions and we´ll review them. At the end of September, we´ll choose the 3 most popular suggestions and let you vote for the best one. Your vote will determine how we use the money raised from the Appeal.  All we ask is that you keep your comments constructive and civil

If you´ve got any questions about the Appeal, you can use the space below to ask OR you can give us a call…better still, if you´re in Mojacar, pop into our office and we´d be happy to answer your questions face to face.

Thanks for your support and interest in our appeal.

We´ll keep you updated as the Appeal fund grows, so be sure to pop back here to see how it´s going.