Antonio de la Cruz, president of the Orobal Associationfounded in 1990 by parents from the South with children with disabilities, could not hide their excitement yesterday at the official opening ceremony of the new center in The Christiansin Arona.
He remembered those distant years in which there was no other choice but to travel with his children from the South to the capital to receive therapy. Now, luckily, the reality is different.
The new day care facilities represent a leap in quality in care for people with intellectual disabilities in the region. They have 87 places: 37 attended by 15 professionals, with the mission of promoting the comprehensive development of users and facilitating the improvement of their quality of life and that of their families, and another 50 aimed at promoting personal autonomy, with nine workers.
The Ana de la Cruz center, as it is called, includes physiotherapy, cognitive stimulation and emotional support services, and offers a sports area, an occupational therapy area and a computer area.
“We had been waiting for this day for a long time and the boys and girls are delighted; before the opening they kept asking when the new center would be,” Antonio de la Cruz told this newspaper yesterday, indicating that the new facilities, larger than the municipal facilities of El Mojón, “and also more comfortable and with a lot of light”, will increase the number of users. To see “a dream” fulfilled, in the words of the president of the Orobal Parents Association, the Institute of Social and Socio-Sanitary Care (IASS) has invested a total of 744,640 euros.
The president of the Cabildo, Pedro Martín, underlined “the importance of the new infrastructure to improve social integration, autonomy and the training of people with intellectual disabilities, so that they can feel like first-class citizens” and underlined the need to decentralize these types of resources.
For his part, the mayor of Arona, José Julián Mena, remarked that the municipality “has made accessibility a strategic element that has been recognized internationally” and recalled the “intimate ties” of the Orobal Association with Arona.
the beginnings
The Orobal Association celebrates 32 years of activity since it was founded by a group of parents with children with disabilities to promote nearby resources in the south of the island of Tenerife. The group began with the Early Care service, which at that time was the main need due to the young age of their children. As they grew and new families joined the project, the needs changed and new services were generated.
The association of Parents Orobal is part of the Network Look at me to listen to me, a pioneering initiative in Spain with which the Cabildo aims to facilitate the communication of people with disabilities, with special needs for educational support and the elderly through augmentative and alternative communication systems. communication.
