Two years ago in December, we informed about the tragic death of Spanish ranger Juan Pedro de la Cruz Sagredo. Today we report on his two daughters, who were part of the premiere of a holiday visit for orphaned ranger children from Spain with UK ranger families, initiated by the Spanish ranger aid organisation AMINTA, supported by the UK ranger organisation Countryside Management Organisation (CMA) and implemented between rangers from both countries.
Devon County Council ranger Mark Baker and Raf Wane, ranger at Blackwater Valley near Hampshire, hosted Carmen and Rosario in their families one summer holiday week long. Ian Brooker, former ERF Vice President and Dartmoor ranger, enlisted the support of CMA and, together with ERF Training Officer and Spanish ranger Borja Díaz, took care of all organisational aspects. Here, the three of them report on how the test run went, while AMINTA President Antonio Gutiérrez Sánchez gives an insight into the reasons for the ranger orphans visiting rangers abroad programme.
‘I thought it would also be good for our children to meet someone from abroad’
When Mark Baker, who serves on the CMA Board, heard about the AMINTA programme for orphaned Ranger children from Ian Brooker, he thought it was a great thing for CMA to publicise it through the newsletter and Ranger magazine. While reading through the advert asking if anyone would be interested in taking in an orphaned girl from Spain for a holiday, ‘it occurred to me that this could be really fun and we could be the perfect people to do it’. Mark and his wife have two young daughters aged 12 and 13, one of whom is learning Spanish at school. ‘And we’ve travelled around Spain a lot in the past,’ he adds. ‘I thought it would also be good for our family and especially for our children to meet someone from another country.’ So he got in touch with Ian.
Raf, who met his wife Karen during a conservation volunteer assignment in the Spanish Extremaduras, read about the programme in the CMA magazine. ‘At first I thought it was a really good thing to do. Then I thought it might not be for us because our children are 24 and 26, a different age group.’ But as he lives near London, he offered to pick the girl up from the airport and drop her off with another family. ‘Then we were told that in this case it was a minor travelling – Rosario – and that she was being accompanied by her older sister Carmen, who is closer to my children’s age group.’ This is how Rosario joined Mark’s and her sister joined Raf’s family to experience life in an English family abroad.
How on earth do you get a minor over by plane?
At that time, Ian had been in contact with Borja for about a year, who asked him for his opinion on the idea of ‘getting orphaned children to come and immerse themselves for one or two weeks in the UK. So we started discussing it, working out a programme, what we need to do about the logistics and all these things’ says Ian. Once the CMA was involved, he took on the coordinating role in working out the logistics. ‘So we thought about how on earth we would get her across on the aeroplane without being accompanied as a minor. But we found out, that the airline allowed an unaccompanied minor to travel providing they are dropped off and picked up by a responsible adult. And luckily, when Raf expressed an interest, we were also able to offer her older sister Carmen to come on the same plane!’
Ian and his partner Claire decided to pick them up at London airport and then drop them off: Carmen with Raf in Reading and Rosario with Mark in Bovey Tracey. ‘I am incredibly grateful for Mark and Raf to come forward at such an early stage to say ‘Yes, we are interested’,’ Ian emphasises.
“There are families who don’t seem to be adequately protected in the event of tragedies like this. If you accept that they happen, it’s very nice to do something positive for these families.”
Ian Brooker, co-organiser of the Holiday Programme for Orphaned Ranger Children
The sad thing about it all, says Ian, is that there are families in Spain who don’t seem to be adequately protected in the event of tragedies like this – which is also one of the reasons why the ranger aid NGO AMINTA was founded. ‘There are therefore many other ranger families in Spain who will hopefully be encouraged by this first holiday programme. And if you accept that tragedies like this happen, it’s also very nice to do something positive for these families.’ This experiment to see how it will work seems to have worked really well. Now it’s all about publicising this to get other families in the UK to become host families for next summer.
Many fun experiences, tailored around the interests of the two ranger daughters
What should definitely motivate are the experiences and the photos that show the great fun Mark and Raf with their families had as well as the two Spanish guest daughters. As Raf reports: ‘Once we knew what she was interested in – nature, the outdoors – we drove to our favourite campsite. We chose interesting routes to get there like taking a ferry across a bay. She seemed to really enjoy camping, had put up her tent herself and helped us prepare the camping food. On the way back we drove to New Forest to see the wild ponies. My wife took her to the local shops to buy presents for her family in a typical small British market town, another evening we went to an English pub. So lots of little things that match her interests. I think it all worked out really well.’
He only has two tips for the future programme with new families: checking before departure whether the credit card works in the visited country, ‘but that was just a small thing that was easy to deal with’. And when dropping them off at the airport, to find out in advance how to accompany the children to the desk, especially if they are minors.
The atmosphere was great, and I really enjoyed being there. We took the dog for walks, and we also went berry picking and engaged in a berry picking contest!
Rosario, guest of Mark’s family and orphaned daughter of Juan Pedro de la Cruz Sagredo
Mark’s girls had been in contact with Rosario via WhatsApp for months before their visit to get to know each other a little. ‘So we were able to organise something based on her interests that our daughters would also enjoy,’ says Mark. ‘For example, we went bilberry picking in the nearby woodlands and cooked with them the next morning. This allowed Rosario to get to know the area and the girls to get to know each other better. Like her sister, she also likes horses. Where I work, there is a horse-drawn passenger boat on the canal. I arranged for her to meet this horse kind of behind the scenes and to groom it.
We climbed, went to the beach and shopped in the nearest town. And as she wanted to see a bit of the capital, we booked a hotel in London the day before her flight home to see some of the famous sights. For her part, Rosario taught us how to cook some Spanish dishes such as omelette or paella. In fact, my youngest daughter is cooking paella tonight with the ingredients she brought! We are all very happy that we took this opportunity and really grateful to Ian and Borja for all the organisation.’
“The day before flying back to Spain, we stayed at a hotel and visited London. I was really happy watching the iconic London Tower, etc. By that time, I was speaking a lot of English. It was great – we played a lot of games together and laughed a lot.”
Rosario, guest of Mark’s family and orphaned daughter of Juan Pedro de la Cruz Sagredo
Thoughts and photos of the deceased father travelled along
Many of the previous concerns that Ian and Borja had have been dispelled by the success: ‘It’s only 18 months since they lost their father in the tragedy. That’s one of the reasons why we reduced the visit to one week instead of two’, says Ian. In fact, the death of Rosario and Carmen’s father was more a casual topic, for example when Carmen saw a truck, to which she said her father liked this type of vehicle. ‘And I think it was good for her to see that what we do as Rangers is the equivalent of what her father did,’ says Raf. Rosario didn’t address the loss either. However, both families would have been open to the subject if the girls had brought it up.
“Dealing with loss will of course always be a theme in our programme.“
Ian Brooker, co-organiser of the Holiday Programme for Orphaned Ranger Children
Ian and Claire were pleased that Carmen showed them photos of their father when they accompanied her on the train. ‘Dealing with loss will of course always be a theme in our programme. To see how the girls dealt with it, there were also conversations between Borja and her mum,’ Ian explains. ‘This helped both sides to see that the girls are placed in stable families and they themselves are stable enough for this experience.’