The Social Welfare Area of the City Council of La Laguna, the Los Majuelos Folkloric Group and several social and volunteer entities of the municipality have come together to teach traditional Canarian music to people with disabilities in La Laguna. This training program of singing and dancing adapted to different disabilities, lasting five months and five weekly workshops in different parts of the municipality, will lead to the first Inclusive Folklore Festival of La Laguna, in which work is already being done together with the Department Festival for its inclusion in the program of activities of the Fiestas del Cristo.
The Councilor for Social Welfare, Rubens Ascanio, yesterday visited the dance workshop for people with intellectual disabilities at the Acamán Special Education College, one of the venues for this initiative, together with the Cruz Blanca Day Center, the Center for Entities of Volunteering (CEVA) Municipal Anchieta and El Tranvía Multifunctional Center
Ascanio was accompanied on the visit by the technical director of the lagoon center, Maite Labarga, and the secretary of the Los Majuelos Folkloric Group, Antonio Francisco Cabrera Arvelo, a cultural association of the municipality that has been the promoter of this initiative and that “proposed us to convert the folklore in a new element of municipal inclusion”, recalled the councilor, who thanked the “involvement and commitment of the participating entities in a project that wants to go further to consolidate an inclusive folklore group in the municipality that can participate in the festivals that They are celebrated throughout the state, but also, that people with disabilities join the groups that already exist or form their own.
In this sense, the secretary of the Los Majuelos Group explained that the association works so that “this training is the first step in a long-term initiative and to create an inclusive folklore school, because we are all Canarians, with or without disabilities, and we have right to participate in our folklore. We have always opted for teaching in a didactic way and we were missing this step, which is being very exciting because we see the enthusiasm with which they come to classes and how important it is for them and them to see that they are meeting different goals and challenges”.
The technical director of the Hermanas Hospitalarias Acamán lagoon center added that “we observe direct benefits for the development of people with disabilities, such as motivation, coordination, attention, concentration or rhythm”, a project that is in line with the philosophy of the center of promote projects aimed at “people with different abilities being able to share leisure, music, work, life”.
“Music and dance are, without a doubt, elements with an important influence on psychosocial development and we believe that it is important to bet on the integration of people with disabilities through our folklore, an element that is part of our identity and our popular celebrations. On the one hand, to generate new leisure and meeting spaces, recognition and empowerment for people with disabilities and their families, but also, so that they can apply what they have learned and enjoy equal opportunities in the multitude of cultural events and popular festivals that we attend. to welcome in La Laguna during these months”, Rubens Ascanio valued.
This first inclusive folklore training program is made up of four dance groups, two specifically for people with intellectual disabilities, one for deaf people (which includes sensitive backpacks) and a fourth for people with various disabilities, as well as a singing group. mixed. Collaborating in the Hermanas Hospitalarias Acamán initiative, the Down Tenerife Association, the Cruz Blanca Foundation, Funcasor, Fasican and the Ámate Breast Cancer Association.
