Relations between human beings and the world surrounding them are certainly determined by the values they acquire throughout life.

Some values come from the cultural environment, while others are incorporated thanks to personal experiences, in harmony with the personality of the individual concerned, and others are the reflection of the education they have received, and the examples set by their nearest and dearest friends.

I have come to realise across the years that the way my parents behaved towards me and looked after their own parents, my sister, myself, and my friends, whether known or unknown to them, were in effect the practical implementation of the value of hospitality as a philosophy of life.

And their way of being and doing things became subconsciously inculcated in me, to make me the person that I am today, which gives me a feeling of immense gratitude towards them, for having bequeathed this priceless legacy to me, which I accept as a great responsibility to follow in their footsteps and to hand on this value to my children and my loved ones.

Hospitality is found in the small actions performed day by day, greeting people, a smile, a caress, or a show of empathy towards someone suffering. This is true in personal and especially professional terms, in the case of those of us who have the good fortune to help the needy and vulnerable. Hospitality humanises the human, and gives dignity to the person, as a source of “contagion” which enables us to exploit the best which life has to offer us.