Fundación Iberdrola is working with Upacesur, whose main offices are in Jerez de la Frontera, and Corazón y Vida (Heart and Life) whose programme, which involves children from all over Andalusia, focuses on the Virgen del Rocío Children’s Hospital in Seville.

 

This year, the project will benefit 89 children and young people between the ages of 6 and 16 who have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and attend Upacesur’s Medical and Functional Rehabilitation Centre in Jerez.

At a meeting this morning at Upacesur’s headquarters in Jerez, the director of Fundación Iberdrola España, Ramón Castresana, the honorary chairman of Upacesur, José Rodríguez de Medina Salido, and the director of Corazón y Vida, Eduardo Morales Castro, praised their work together over the last few years and listed the initiatives that the two organizations will implement in 2018.

The Upacesur project focuses on children and young people with cerebral palsy who need extra tutoring outside of school.

Although previously there had been ad-hoc actions, closer cooperation with Iberdrola started in 2013. This year, the project will benefit 89 children and young people between the ages of 6 and 16 who have been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and attend Upacesur’s Medical and Functional Rehabilitation Centre in Jerez. Some €40,000 will be earmarked for this new aid programme.

The aim is to develop the physical, perceptive, cognitive and communicative abilities affected by cerebral lesion to increase the individuals’ possibilities of functional autonomy so that they can successfully navigate the new situations that they must face as they develop as people. To do this, the organization works with the children on a number of areas: friends and family, physiotherapy, psychopedagogy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. They also receive specific treatment designed to combat the effects of cerebral lesions at the motor, psychological, communicative and social levels.

Since cooperation began, the total investment has been €160,000, making a direct impact on the assistance available to over 350 children and young people with cerebral palsy.

In 2018, Iberdrola will be cooperating for the first time with Corazón y Vida, with an investment of €40,000 that will directly, and positively, affect the implementation of the programme this year, which will involve 600 children in Andalusia affected by heart disease and their families.

Corazón y Vida focuses on giving support to children and teens affected by serious heart diseases that lead to complex situations involving long hospital stays, an altered family dynamic, a risk of neuro-developmental, cognitive and education-related disorders, and a harder time joining the job market.

The project plans to make staying in the Virgen del Rocío Children’s Hospital easier, both for the congenital heart disease patients and their families, by providing social and psychological resources that will help them cope with this new situation.

The aim is to foster the best intellectual and psycho-affective development possible for children and adolescents with congenital heart disease and to help them adapt to their family’s circumstances and environment by giving comprehensive assistance to all the members of the family.

This year, around 600 children and teenagers with congenital heart diseases who are admitted to the Virgen del Rocío Children’s Hospital will benefit from the programme. They mostly come from Seville, Cadiz and Huelva, with a smaller number from the rest of Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla. It is estimated that 350 families will be informed and advised, 200 families will be given psychological assistance and 50 families will be accommodated on the residential floor.