Wad Ras Charity Group: semblance on the centenary of the creation of «La Prote»

Abstract

2014 was the first centenary of the commencement of Wad Ras Charity Group [Grup Benèfic Wad Ras], an institution which, officially inaugurated much later, on 28 December 1915, was for many years the benchmark of the social and educational action of the Barcelona Childhood Protection Board [Junta de Protecció a la Infància], created in 1908 (which as of the 30s was renamed the Child Protection Board [Junta de Protecció de Menors]). The first use the centre had was as a Hotel for Immigrants in 1914, when it had not yet been fully built, taking in fugitives and people returning from the World War i and from the Mexican revolution. Yet this lasted a very short time and it quickly became a shelter for boys and girls, above all «urchins», who began to go there in 1914 and 1915. This function, with changes in the name of the centre that we explain, continued to be the main one until its closure in 1971. Important public figures such as Lluís Maria Folch i Torres, Frederic Godàs, and Josep Joan Piquer i Jover, among others, performed their functions there. Known in the Poblenou neighbourhood of Barcelona as «La Prote», we would like to make the most of the milestone of its centenary to review and recall some elements of the long institutional trajectory of this centre. And to offer some elements that will help place this experience in the history of Social Education in our country.

Key words: childhood, protection, Childhood Protection Board, history of social education, Wad Ras Charity Group.