More than 50 rural municipalities in five European countries have participated in the Rural Independent Life programme, co-funded by Erasmus of the European Union, which aims to train social professionals who care for people with disabilities, promoting their social inclusion and autonomy in rural areas.
In this sense, 70 professionals from different European rural localities have been trained in personal assistance and independent living; and 25 people with disabilities have been accompanied by the programme on an individual basis to develop their lives independently. Thus, during the programme, a tele-training course, a guide for professionals and an application for mobile phones have been developed.
Of the total number of municipalities, 15 are in the province of Seville and have less than five thousand inhabitants; specifically, Alanís, Alcolea del Río, Almadén de la Plata, Cazalla de la Sierra, El Castillo de las Guardas, El Madroño, El Pedroso, El Real de la Jara, El Ronquillo, Guadalcanal, La Puebla de Los Infantes, Las Navas de la Concepción, Peñaflor, San Nicolás del Puerto and Villanueva del Río y Minas. All of them have a population of 2,130 people with disabilities, of which 928 are severely affected.
In this sense, the president of the Federation, Juan José Lara, pointed out that ‘the project has been working for more than two years at an international level to detect each of the problems faced by people with disabilities, who need a lot of support and who without personal assistance will have a hard time, because our environment is not adapted even for citizens’. He also emphasised that this group, who live far from public services, in towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants, have needs just like the rest of the population and that ‘the Public Administration has the obligation to try to provide them with the equal opportunities that all human beings need’.
For her part, the mayoress of El Ronquillo, Ana Cristina Arévalo, highlighted the problem of accessibility in these towns, which is ‘very difficult to carry out, but everything within our reach we try to solve’.
The Deputy for Social Cohesion and Equality, Mª Encarnación Fuentes, indicated that ‘the Provincial Council has set up very important projects, being aware of the autonomy of the local councils and community social services, such as the Más Sevilla Plan and Sevilla 107’, highlighting that part of the resources made available to the local councils are destined to eliminating barriers and accessibility plans.
Other institutional representatives also took part, such as the director of the Seville Assessment and Guidance Centre (CVO), M Paz Caballero; the president of the Spanish Confederation of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities (COCEMFE), Anxo Queiruga; and the managing director of the Coordinating Federation of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities of Bizkaia (FEKOOR), Javier Gil.
The results were announced this Friday during the conference for the independent living of people with disabilities in rural areas, organised by the Provincial Federation of Associations of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities of Seville (COCEMFE Seville), in collaboration with the City Council of El Ronquillo, and held in the plenary hall of the latter.
The event was attended by almost fifty people, including seven mayors from the aforementioned localities and other authorities and technical staff from the participating town councils. In addition to representatives of the MACROSAD Residence for People with Disabilities in Almadén de la Plata and the Wings of Inclusion Association in Peñaflor.
The conference, which has counted with Sign Language interpretation and has been broadcast by streaming, has addressed issues such as the importance of creating alliances and networks for social inclusion, as well as individual plans for independent living of people with disabilities in rural areas.
The Rural In Life project was developed by partners Istanbul Gelisim University (Turkey), OZARA Doo (Slovenia), Fundazione Istituto dei Sordi di Torino (Italy), EQUIP (Denmark), FAMMA Madrid, FEKOOR de País Vaso and COCEMFE Sevilla (Spain
You can see all the photos of the event at this link
Streaming part 1
Streaming part 2
Contact:
M Rocío Arcas Serrano
Head of Communication Department COCEMFE Seville
C/ Aviación 31. Edificio Vilaser Santa Justa. 1ª planta. Módulo 25
Tfno: 954 93 27 93 / 681 217 543
www.cocemfesevilla.es
