SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, 14 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Cabildo de Tenerife has committed to the Down Tenerife association to resume the construction project of a specialized center for people with Down syndrome that began to be built in the neighborhood of El Coromoto (La Laguna) in January 2019 and has been paralyzed for more than three years.
This has been confirmed to Europa Press by the director of the Down Tenerife association, Jennifer Jerez, who has held a meeting with representatives of the island corporation and has verified the “will” to resume the project of the first residence in the Canary Islands for people with syndrome Down.
He has pointed out that the process “is already underway” and there will be another meeting in about two weeks to outline the proposal that goes through a reformulation of the initial project once the land has passed into the hands of the Cabildo after a long process of transferring the land. , first to the City Council and then to the island corporation. “Everything has been very slow,” he added.
Jerez has commented that the initial project started with a format of subsidies from the public administrations but from the association they realized that it was not enough and it did not “give” them and that this project should be assumed directly by the institutions.
The delay in the processing of the project has been so high that the association even filed a complaint with the Diputación del Común last December, underlining its “frustration” at the lack of response from the administrations.
The project is valued at around 1.4 million euros, has a duration of 15 months and is part of the II Plan for Social and Health Infrastructures of the Canary Islands, but once the first stone was laid -in January 2019 in an act that included the president of the Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo and the president of the Cabildo de Tenerife, Carlos Alonso–, months later the works were paralyzed due to financial difficulties.
The goal of the center is to provide “comprehensive care” to its users –the association cares for some 60 people and there are more than 900 people with down syndrome on the island– from the time they are babies until the end of their lives, with early care services, speech therapy, physiotherapy and educational care, to modules aimed at the active aging of the person.
