Proyecto Hombre, from its inception, has viewed familiy as one of its basic "pillars" in terms of functioning, support and recuperation of the individual. They focus on a comprehensive treatment based on a model capable of diversifying its responses, while considering a great individualization in treatment through work plans that are more adapted to each person.

      Theoretical models and practical programmes based on genuine prevention are those that help the whole person to discover the sense of self-respect and respect for others, the sense of freedom and responsibility, the value of ethical life(truthfulness, honesty), communication and meeting with others, real pleasure and real suffering.

     "Practical problems are not solved when I know the solution but when I put it into practise, which usually is the hardest part..."

 José Antonio Marina.  

I GOT PUZZLED WHEN I KNEW THAT I HAD TO CATCH UP ON MY BLOG!!

            I've been so busy these days...but today I'll try to do all my pending matters.To start with, I have to give my personal point of view on my favourite chapters on the book Mandela's way.Let's begin now...

     Chapter number 1 has been one of my favourite ones, due to its logical. People confuse many times courage to absence of fear. I have always believed that the most important point to achieve goals is to devote yourself to look for them. It doesn't matter if you are afraid of facing difficult situations, essentially we are able to do many things. Fear paralyses us, particularly the fear to be wrong. There is a Spanish proverb that says that who doesn't go on board won't feel sick.Quotting Mandela "Pretend to be brave and you not only become brave, you are brave".

     Chapter 7 "See the Good in Others" is also very educationalist. Nobody isn't absolutely bad nor absolutely nice. It is your personal interest in approaching a human being that makes the difference. Bearing malice against somebody is a feeling that finally will turn against yourself. Easy, isn't it? The thing is that Mandela was in jail for 28 years and he confessed that he didn't feel resentement against anybody."Some call it a blind spot, others naïveté, but Mandela sees almost everyone as virtous until proven otherwise", says Richard Stengel.

     Finally, because I had to choose just three of the chapters, I would select chapter 15 " Find your Own Garden". It is so important to a person having a reason to get up every morning! Looking after plants and pets is an important motivation. We musn't forget that a prisoner has few things to do along his journey. I can try to put myself in an imprisoned person place and the image is this of somebody facing monotony for centuries. A scheduled rutine one day after another, one year after another...How dull!.Mandela was very fond of his garden. For him, keeping a garden not only quieted his mind but also was a place of renewal."The main thing is that each of us needs something away from the world that gives us pleasure and satisfaction, a place apart".  

THE AUTHOR WITH HIS SONS AND MANDELA. 

     My reading has not been easy, I don't refer to  words or to English, as in my opinion this is a very easy book to read. But, since the beginning I detected a sort of Stengel's veneration for Mandela. Anything amazing if we take into account the great personality and enriching experiences of Mandela.  As a human being he had many contradictions. Robben Island became the crucible which transformed Mandela. Through his natural intelligence, charm and dignified defiance, Mandela eventually bent even the most brutal prison officials to his will, assumed leadership over his jailed comrades and became the master of his own prison. He emerged from it the mature leader who would fight and win the great political battles that would created a new democratic South Africa.
     He was an extremely assertive person, having a presence which was immediately noticeable in any group he went amongst. With an aristrocatic background he had been grown up as a chief, and that was his demeanor.
      To sum up, I have learned for the book how important is the desire to better yourself. Unfortunately, life usually tries your patience. This is the lesson that I haven taken from the book, it doesn't matter how hard you have to struggle against difficulties, be honest.



                                                               C H A R I T Y

     I can't of course forget the hard and sad situation of many people who are living in poverty. However, if I admire Proyecto Hombre is because this association is the answer to another hard reality: the one of people suffering from dependences. This is the answer to a real fact: we can all be wrong during our life but we have the right to be forgiven. They are common people who, in a precise time of their lives, chose a wrong way. Their families find themselves unable to overcome the situation. Proyecto Hombre helps addicted and their families with the support of a multidisciplinary team. There are also many voluntaries who help them to incorporate to "normal" life.They just want them to get over their dependence.

   What are the most frequent addictions treated in Proyecto Hombre?

     Althoug there are users suffering from addiction to gambling, most of them suffer from the use of substances: alcohol, heroine, cocaine, psychoactive substances (speedball, scrambled, cannabis) amphetamines and benzodiazepines.

                      SHADOWLANDS

     A wonderful love story ruined by illness. Magnificent sceneries, a wonderfully written set and two extraordinary actors. The film swings from love affair to a melodrama, although it also has got some very appealing reflections on life to be considered. It is based on the true story of C.S. Lewis, the Irish novelist, poet, academic both at Oxford and Cambridge, medievalist, literary critic, essayist and  lay Christian apologist. He is best known for his fictional work, especially The Chronicles of Narnia. 

     In the 1950's, Jack Lewis is a brilliant professor in Oxford University, as well as a highly regarded writer. Conservative and practising Episcopalian, he leads the quiet life of an old shy boy. He lives with his brother Warnie, being both confirmed bachelors. One day Joy, a young Jewish American woman, breaks into the mysoginist Oxford Campus. She has got a young son and they are both fervent admirers of Professor Lewis. He is sourrounded in Oxford by a palette of snobbish, pedantic, single professors who gaze at life on top of their pulpits. Apparently, everything separates the old puritan man from this modern, atheist woman. Nonetheless, a devouring and forbidden passion is going to bring them together.

     Unexpectedly, this lively and impulsive woman is diagnosed with cancer and falls ill. Jack then understands the extent of his love for her. He is an authority on giving lectures about the angst of destiny and God's motivations. However, when he has to live the unbearable sorrow that he knows how to explain, but hasn't wanted to live by himself, he meets himself again and tries to manage to bear it as an ordinary person.  

     They really share a great tenderness. Surprisingly, among such a big tragedy, they are going to find the way of living the short time they still have to the full.

     Although the end is very sad, the film is a hymn to life and love.