Yesterday, October 15, 2020, was a very special day for the Lukas Foundation. We were presented with the “Francisco Carreño Inclusive Environment 2020” Award from the Cátedra de Accesibilidad Universal y Entorno Inclusivo Francisco Carreño Castilla. Created in 2016 at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche after the agreement adopted by the Social Council and the signing of an agreement with the company ASISA-LAVINIA; and at the initiative of Dr. Antonio Server, aware that, with a simple adaptation project, any institution can turn its spaces into an inclusive environment for all people with disabilities. This chair aims to show the sensitivity on these aspects by both parties by creating, within the university environment, a benchmark in the improvement, study and dissemination of aspects related to the object of the chair.
“To us, this award is a recognition of our work in accessibility after adapting three parks to make them inclusive and accessible, editing the integration parks manual and striving for the inclusion of people with severe multiple disabilities in society by using our adapted bicycles. It also helps us to learn more about our projects, especially our assisted sheltered housing model, recognized by the Generalitat but for which we are still in need of all the necessary financial means, so that other institutions can replicate this much-needed model”.
An atypical award ceremony
Given the importance of this award, we would have liked to celebrate it with an event to invite all the people who are part of the Foundation. Nevertheless, given the current circumstances related to the pandemic, we had to celebrate it in a very small setting, with representation of our users and their families and with the presence of: Dr. Antonio Server Gómez, Director of the Chair and physician of the General University Hospital from Alicante; Raúl Reina, co-director and vice-rector of inclusion, sustainability and sports at the UMH; Juan Caturla Such, Professor of Intensive Medicine – Emergencies; and the Advisory Council of the Chair formed by: Fernando Borrás Rocher, Antonio Duréndez Gómez-Guillamón, Manuel Miguel Jordán Vidal, Mercedes Juste Ruiz, María Dolores Mora Antón, Joaquín Rueda Puente, María Mercedes Sánchez Castillo and Francisco Sirvent Belando.
We would like to dedicate this award especially to our young people and their families, to those who were present at the event and to everyone who could not be there, because it has been a very difficult year for everyone, even more so for parents who are in charge of a child with a severe multiple disability. Of course, we would not want to leave out of our celebration all those caregivers and the people who make our young people happy and look out for them. Soon enough, we will all be together again, laughing, biking and sharing special moments under the sun in the orchard.