The British Ladies Association

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Welcome!

We are a charity organisation dedicated to raising money for local Madrid charities, if you want to make a difference and feel good about helping people, then this is the place to be.

Our members are English speaking people of various nationalities who meet once a month and whose main aim is to raise money for the charities we support. These are all Spanish charities based in Madrid and our fund raising efforts are focused on our renowned Christmas bazaar and the very successful charity shop.

The Origin of the BLA

In 1940 the ambassador’s wife of the day, Lady Maude Hoare, got together a group of British ladies to “knit comforts for the troops”. After the war, they turned their attention first to helping refugee children, and then, in 1950 when the first bazaar was held, the proceeds were given to Spanish charities and the British Benevolent Fund.  We adopted our present name in 1978, when we were officially registered as a Charitable and Cultural Association. Since then, we have gone from strength to strength, with the bazaar always at the forefront of our fund raising activities. Over recent years, we have donated over €60.000 a year to the Spanish charities that we support; this money comes from the money made at the bazaar and the BLA Charity Shop.

Fund Raising

Throughout the year we place emphasis on preparing for the Christmas Bazaar. There are a wide variety of stalls, all of which take months of careful preparation and which involve our members working together to ensure that we are able to raise sufficient funds to make generous donations to our charities who rely so much on our continuing support.

As stated above, an important source of income comes from the British Ladies’ Charity Shop, details of which can be found on the Charity Shop section of this website.

Social Activities

We hold meetings on the last Tuesday of each month from September to June in St. George’s Church Hall, Núñez de Balboa 43, at 10.30am.

Our monthly meetings provide a friendly atmosphere where members can have refreshments, chat to each other and listen to a talk given by invited speakers on a wide variety of interesting topics. Husbands, partners and friends are always welcome at both our monthly meetings and events.

We also organise visits and excursions to places of interest in and around Madrid as well as lunches and dinners for members and friends throughout the year.

Bulletin

All our members receive a newsletter, the Bulletin, which goes out once a month and has information on important cultural events in Madrid, a diary of our own events and information on other clubs, associations and churches.

How You Can Help

We always need more help and new ideas to ensure the continuance of our main objective of fund raising for our charities. It is a satisfying experience pulling together to achieve this. Our charities desperately need our support, as does the Charity Shop and the Bazaar. We appreciate help from those who can take an active part in the running of the Association, and members are always welcome to stand for election to the BLA Committee.