SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, July 5. (EUROPE PRESS) –
A total of 28 young people with functional diversity such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy or autism will participate in the ‘Mont Blanc 2022’ project, with which they intend to travel part of the path that surrounds the peak of this 4,807-meter mountain in 10 days until completing a route of 170 kilometers starting from the French town of Chamonix.
This initiative, promoted by the Activez Association with the collaboration of the Cabildo, has as its main objective to give visibility to this group and generate social awareness of its capabilities as well as promote healthy lifestyle habits and offer participants a successful experience that stimulates their self-esteem .
The island councilor for Sports, Concepción Rivero, presented this Tuesday the details of the expedition, which will take place from July 21 to 30, accompanied by the president of the Activoz association, Almudena Díaz Castro, and the island’s director of Sports, Ángel Pérez .
Rivero has highlighted that “it is a challenge that will make this group visible and vindicate their needs so that their reality is known from a positive perspective in order to offer appropriate inclusion strategies”.
The counselor has valued “the courage of all the participants who, together with their families, give us a formidable life lesson, overcoming this challenge is not an easy task, but it allows us to break down barriers, overcome fears and achieve goals that a priori seem unattainable”.
Almudena Díaz thanked the Cabildo for its collaboration, which “has given the children and has allowed them to develop their self-esteem and give families a break in caring for young people.”
The president of Activoz explained that “the young participants have been training for this challenge, working at heights that they have carried out in the Teide National Park”.
The island’s director of Sports, Ángel Peña, stressed that “the Cabildo works so that sport on the island is universal and that all groups can practice it without their abilities being an impediment.”
To this he added that “sport represents tolerance, respect, equity and overcoming, of course this project is a clear example of them”.
The Activoz association is made up of a group of professionals from different fields who work in favor of functional diversity.
It provides service to almost 200 users with the intention of improving the quality of life of this group and their families, who generally have few spaces where they can develop physically and socially in a relaxed and leisure environment, collects a note from the Cabildo.
It is not the first time that Activoz has faced a challenge of this magnitude, since already in the 2017-2018 academic year 15 young people with functional diversity reached the top of Mount Teide on foot with the initiative called ‘3,718 Challenges’.
A year later, the project led 42 participants to cover 113 kilometers of the Camino de Santiago, which culminated in the delivery of the Compostelana to all the boys as a reward for the work done.