Carlos, Cristina, Salvador, Rubén and 16 people with physical, intellectual and organic disabilities, arrived on Friday 16th February at the facilities of our entity to enjoy an unforgettable weekend full of learning, coexistence, smiles and sports days in Andévalo Aventura, located in Santa Bárbara de Casa, province of Huelva.
They all went on a trip that would give them more tools, more passion and more daring in the face of the obstacles that life imposes due to a disability. Three Federation vans took them on a journey of more than 2 hours to live with intensity a day that contained adrenaline, fun, training and inclusive leisure.
When they arrived at the house in Andévalo Aventura, each of the travellers went down with the support of their orthoprosthetic resources: wheelchairs, canes, walkers and at all times assisted, both by the group of volunteers and by the technical team of COCEMFE Sevilla that accompanied them, under the supervision of the person in charge of Inclusive Leisure of our entity, Mr. Emilio Tortosa.
That same Friday, the coordinators of the day held the first session of the discussion group on mentoring and volunteering of the European programme TEAM IV. The aim of this session was to extract information to continue with the research process already started and to promote different transversal values, among which the civic participation of people with disabilities through volunteering stands out.
Cristina Carmona Ramírez, one of our users with disabilities, showed from that first day of the trip, expectation for what would change the view of inclusion she had before the trip: ‘people with disabilities can work as a team in volunteering days and the possibility of helping others’.
At the end of that first day, Cristina, as well as all the other users and technicians of the Federation, shared recreational activities, led by Álvaro Walls, technician of the European Projects department of our entity.
‘When preparing the debate groups around the figure of the volunteer, as well as the concepts of volunteering and mentoring, with the aim of creating a good working environment and extracting what they thought these concepts meant. And the second, on Saturday, we did a group work in which we discussed what each thing was’.
On Saturday, the second day of the trip, the activities to be carried out during the coexistence were full of intense medium-impact sports activities in natural environments such as Tyrolean traverse, Archery and Paintball. The President of the Provincial Federation, Mr. Juan José Lara, was present and participated in each of the activities. At the end of the day, he expressed the importance of the personal and social transformation of inclusion and decision making in the lives of the participants in Andévalo, in search of quality of life.
‘From COCEMFE Seville, we are very committed to inclusive leisure, to generate activities where young people and people with disabilities can complement each other, be autonomous, somehow live together and be themselves. Moreover, it will benefit the family unit a lot, because this separation of its members with disabilities is very necessary to be more autonomous. The volunteers of our entity are fundamental and an essential support’.
That same Saturday night, there was healthy recreation where each of the users and volunteers brought out their best talent to sing and dance in the inclusive Karaoke.
Sunday, the last day of the day, was characterised by the Tyrolean traverse and Kayak activity, where they enthusiastically participated one by one in these activities, with teamwork, order and a lot of fraternal coexistence.
Encarnación Barrera Bizcocho, head of the European Projects department of the entity, said that in the experience of inclusive leisure and training within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme and the Team IV project, which financed this activity, ‘We have had the opportunity to spend a few days discussing mentoring and volunteering where these young people who have accompanied us during the weekend, have had some fantastic days of coexistence. These boys and girls are going to be future mentors for other young people with disabilities who empower themselves and participate in volunteering activities’.
Rubén Montoya Sánchez, a person with a disability, says that this experience in Andévalo has left him with a little piece of the human quality and life story of each of his fellow travellers. ‘What I take with me is the satisfaction of doing this type of adventure sports, with the learning that we can practice these activities breaking all kinds of barriers’.
Likewise, Carlos Manuel Reina Rosales, participant of the day and person with physical disability, said that ‘These days full of human value, have left me learning, exchange of realities, which is very important for a person with disability and above all to value this project that is to show the added value in the field of volunteering, breaking the cliché and prejudice that a person with disability can not be a volunteer’.
On the sunny afternoon of Sunday 18 February, everyone received their diplomas of participation, training and learning in what was Andévalo, 48 hours of an inclusive adventure.
