“Support such as that provided by SIGAUS is so necessary that, without it, our projects simply couldn’t be carried out”, explains Francisco Molina, President of the APADIS Foundation, an organisation working with people with disabilities and one of the entities with which they have renewed the collaboration agreement this year. “Thanks to alliances with companies like SIGAUS and their involvement and empathy, we have the drive and strength to continue believing in our slogan: “Capable of anything”, and to continue working to improve the quality of life of people with intellectual disabilities and their families”, adds Molina.

In addition to APADIS, SIGAUS is contributing its support for another year, to the ‘Porque Viven’ and Dravet Syndrome Foundations—support that dates back to 2018. They have all experienced difficult times throughout 2020 and the first months of 2021. As a result, the involvement of organisations that believe in the projects they carry out and support them “makes all the difference between being or not being able to continue working for the continuous improvement of the quality of life of the people we provide services to, as well as their families,” adds José Ángel Aibar, President of the Dravet Syndrome Foundation, who highlights the commitment and generosity of SIGAUS, despite the economic crisis resulting from the pandemic.

In this sense, SIGAUS believes it is essential to continue providing its support to the organisations that currently work with these groups. The work they carry out cannot come to a standstill during this crisis, in which they have encountered additional barriers and difficulties to access other aid, in addition to the risk of exclusion and inequality of opportunities that they habitually face in their day-to-day lives.

In the case of ‘Porque Viven’, the support of SIGAUS will go towards the creation of the first comprehensive paediatric palliative care centre in Spain, the most ambitious project of this organisation to date. It will be located in Madrid and will provide Day Centre care services, respite rooms and areas for caregivers and families of children from all over Spain, physiotherapy and treatment rooms, and a training centre for paediatric palliative care specialists, among other specialities. “It will be a sustainable and technologically—advanced building, with remote medical systems to be able to treat children and families in their homes, becoming a centre of reference, replicable anywhere in Spain”, explains the Foundation’s President, José Carlos López Seisdedos.

For the Dravet Syndrome Foundation, the collaboration of SIGAUS is essential to maintain and improve services for people with this ailment and their families, in addition to supporting its respite programmes for caregivers, psychosocial care for siblings of people with the syndrome, and programmes relating to studies and research into this rare disease that manifests itself in children at a very young age and is characterised by: prolonged seizures, behavioural and autism spectrum disorders, and a delay in the development of language and motor skills, among other symptoms.

“Hopefully, this collaboration with SIGAUS and its commitment for the support and visibility of social organisations, like ours, will lead by example and more companies and entities will believe in a job well done, as well as believe in the need to join forces to fight against the inequalities and barriers that these groups are having to face daily”, concludes the President of APADIS.