Project - Fundació Fluidra

FLUIDRA "STARTING OUT" PROJECT WINNERS

The organizations have received €5,000 ($US5,800) to roll out socially responsible pool-related projects

BSwim, Ciriac, Just Against Children Drowning Foundation, Associaçäo de rehabilitaçäo da criaça deficiente Säo José do Rio Preto, Asociación Síndrome de Down Castellón, and Ikigaï éducation inclusive, the Fluidra Day 2021 winning organizations and institutions, have now received the €5,000 ($US5,800) donation they won last summer.

All up, Fundació Fluidra’s intervention in the selected organizations will help a total of 2,254 people, the organizations’ representatives say.

Fundació Fluidra caught up with the heads of three of the winning projects and the Fluidra employees who nominated them to discover first-hand who they are, what they do, and where their prize winnings will go.

Ignacio González from Fluidra Spain put us in contact with Ricardo Yébenes and Maria Folgado, founders of BSwim, a project that aims to develop an activity called “All Equal in the Water” where our help will benefit 14 children and teenagers with rare diseases by providing them an individualized weekly water activity. A specialized technical officer will help them develop their motor and coordination skills and enjoy a directed sporting activity in a safe and pleasant setting like a pool. The children’s families will be provided a common space to reach out to other families in a similar situation, where they can swap personal experiences and establish mutual support. In short, over 500 hours of specialized water activities that will directly and indirectly benefit the children and their families.

We also spoke to Viridiana Hernández from the Fluidra Mexico marketing department who introduced us toLucila Bravo and Luís González, founders of the CIRIAC Education and Rehabilitation Center for People with Cerebral Palsy. This was an intensive and emotional interview where we met some of the children affected by this disease, heard their stories and motivations, and accompanied them on a trip to the pool (which they call the “therapy tank”). CIRIAC currently looks after 90 children who engage in different therapies related to communication, language, physical, visual and respiratory areas, laying on a transport service and working on their schooling: reading, writing, math, geography, history, and art. The children use the “therapy tank” for water-based treatments that promote their physical development. The tank measures 7.90m x 7m (26 ft x 23 ft), is 140 cm (4.6 ft) deep, and the water is permanently heated to 32ºC (89.6ºF).

In Castellón we caught up with Pilar Saborit, a Togama employee, and some of the representatives of the Fundación Síndrome de Down Castellón, including its director, Eva Miravet.

The association’s prizewinning project is targeted at a group of 40 people over the age of 16 with an intellectual disability who, thanks to the contribution from Fundació Fluidra, will be given a weekly swim class. The water activity will provide users an improvement program for their physical condition and promote their independence.

The association sees swimming as an inclusive activity, with sessions held in an Olympic pool at times when it is being shared by the rest of the community. Visibility and normalization of the Down community is a further goal behind the action.

Proposals to award the organizations were submitted by employees from across Fluidra Group companies and the winners selected by the Fundació’s Board of Trustees. Meet-ups with the other organizations that received a €5,000 ($US5,800) prize are scheduled and we will fill you in on how they went in upcoming bulletins.

ODS

In their support for this projects, the Fundació Fluidra observes the following Sustainable Development Goals from the UN 2030 Agenda.