Vacaciones en Paz (Vacations in Peace) is an annual holiday programme which began in 1988 and is organised by the Union of Sahrawi Youth (UJSARIO) and some 300 associations throughout Spain collectively referred to as “Friends of the Sahrawi People” ( Amigos del Pueblo Saharaui). The annual programme allows between 7,000 and 10,000 Sahrawi children between the ages of eight and twelve 1 to be hosted by Spanish families in their homes for a two-month period during the summer. Some families volunteer to take in two children at a time, either a pair of siblings or two children of the same gender. Many children return year after year to the same household, particularly when the experience has been mutually positive.
FIGURE 3: Spanish Host Family at the Airport, Madrid
During the Summer of 2005, some 8,600 Sahrawi youth took part in the Vacaciones en Paz programme. 2 424 children were taken in by families in the Autonomous Region of Madrid where the current study was based. Over 100,000 children have participated in the programme since its inception. Children are selected to participate on several bases, including school performance, medical needs, and the loss of a parent in battle. During their stay, the children receive medical examinations and treatment, as well as gifts of clothes, toys, and money which they take back with them to the camps. This may also be the first opportunity Sahrawi children have to encounter people of different nationalities, including Moroccans.
FIGURE 4: Distribution of Sahrawi Children in Spanish Households, Vacaciones en Paz 2005
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The relationships established during the programme often endure beyond the summer months, as strong proto-familial relationships form between the children and their Spanish host families, and return trips reinforce such cross-border bonds. Many kinds of families offer themselves as hosts – our research sample included: 1) young married couples without children; 2) young married couples with young children; 3) married couples with adolescent children living at home; 4) grandparents whose adult children and grandchildren live outside the home; 5) a pair of (female) cousins; and, 6) single and divorced women. Grandparents were also a steady presence in many of the households.
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