SOCIAL PROJECTS AND SERVICES

Rafael del Pino Sports Centre at the National Hospital for Paraplegics, Toledo.

On 24 July 2008 the Rafael del Pino Foundation signed a collaboration agreement with the regional government of Castile-La Mancha and the Fundación del Hospital Nacional de Parapléjicos para la Investigación y la Integración [the Foundation of the National Paraplegics Hospital for Research and Integration] to build the Rafael del Pino Sports Centre on a site adjacent to the National Paraplegics Hospital at Toledo.

Under this agreement, the Foundation undertakes to build the Sports Centre on the site next to the hospital at a cost of €12 million and on completion to donate it to the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha for it to be managed by the Hospital’s Foundation through the regional health service (SESCAM). The Rafael del Pino Foundation will contribute €9.5 million to the project.

Through the SESCAM, the regional government of Castile-La Mancha is contributing €2.5 million to the funding of the building work - begun by Ferrovial in August 2008 and scheduled to last approximately 14 months -, which it has also undertaken to facilitate, in addition to taking responsibility for landscaping the site, providing the access roads to the sports centre and restoring the adjacent areas. The SESCAM will be responsible for providing the basic equipment necessary for the full operativity of the sports facilities.

Once the Rafael del Pino Foundation has made the donation of the Sports Centre, the regional Department of Economy and Finance will sign it over to the SESCAM and process the necessary operating permit.

According to the project designed by architect Salvador Pérez Arroyo, the new Rafael del Pino Sports Centre will have a total built surface of 12,417 square metres distributed over three floors and a basement. The new facilities will include an indoor swimming pool, a sports track, two doctors’ and one physiotherapist’s surgeries, a gymnasium and a rehabilitation area. In addition there will be general and service areas (changing rooms, toilets, storerooms) and offices for the Centre administrative staff.

By building and donating the Rafel del Pino Sports Centre, the Rafael del Pino Foundation wishes to contribute to the rehabilitation of people with spinal injuries, to facilitate access to sport as a therapeutic instrument and to promote the social integration of people with disabilities and spinal cord injuries. Once it is in operation, it will also be the first Special High Performance Sports Centre in the whole of Europe for use by both the disabled and the able-bodied.

On 12 December 2008, the National Federation of Associations for People with Spinal Cord Injury (ASPAYM) awarded the 2008 National ASPAYM ‘Hand of Solidarity’ Prize to the Rafael del Pino Foundation in recognition of the extraordinary work done by Rafael del Pino y Moreno.

Fernando Lamata Cotanda, Castile-La Mancha’s regional Minister for Health and Social Welfare presented the award to the trustees of the Rafael del Pino Foundation Ana María Calvo-Sotelo and Joaquín del Pino.

This award by the National Federation of Associations for People with Spinal Cord Injury is in recognition of the initiative and work that Rafael del Pino y Moreno began in 2007 to help people with spinal injuries through the Foundation that bears his name.