The deputy delegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas, today celebrated World Down Syndrome Day with a visit to the Kiosco Down Experience, which manages the association Down Coruña, in which she was accompanied by the vice-president, Enrique Pena, and the executive director of this association, Manuel Rego. He stressed the importance of raising awareness and sensitizing society about the rights of people with this syndrome and other types of intellectual disability in order to achieve their full inclusion, both in the social environment and in the workplace.
“People with disabilities deserve to live in a conscious and sensitized society, free of stigma. Therefore, from the Government we are not going to stop until we achieve this society for all, with equality, inclusion and respect above all,” said Rivas.
The subdelegate highlighted the progress made by the Government of Pedro Sánchez in terms of rights for people with disabilities, such as the reform of the General Electoral Regime Law (Loreg) in December 2018, so that all citizens with disabilities, without exclusions, can exercise their right to vote, or the recent replacement of the term ‘diminished’ in article 49 of the Constitution with that of ‘person with disabilities’. In addition to these legal awards, there is the Act on the Promotion of Personal Autonomy and Care for Persons in Situations of Dependency (Dependency Act). With all of them, the Government shows its firm commitment to improving the quality of life of people in situations of dependency.
In this regard, the subdelegate recalled that since 2020, the Government transferred, through the General State Budgets and the Recovery Plan, a total of 780 million euros to the Xunta de Galicia to cover the needs of people in this situation and their families. He also drew attention to the fact that, while the government doubled its contributions between 2020 and 2023 (from 94.8 million to 209.5 million), Xunta reduced its contributions.
Regarding the additional funds of the Recovery Plan (174.6 million euros), María Rivas explained that they allow, among other issues, the technological transformation of the social services provided and eliminate architectural barriers to improve accessibility. They do so through the ‘Plan of support and long-term care’, the ‘Plan of modernization of social services’ and the ‘Plan Spain Accessible Country’, respectively.
The subdelegate reported that in Galicia there are almost 74,000 people in a situation of recognized dependency in any of the three degrees of protection, the minimum level, the agreed and the additional, as stated in the Dependency Law. “Each and every one of these people needs a government like this, to support them and to provide them with useful tools that contribute to the improvement of their lives and that of their families.”
Down Experience
“World Down Syndrome Day is an opportunity to remember the progress we have made, but also to remember that there is a long way to go and initiatives such as Down Coruña go in the same line in which this government is working,” said Rivas, who took the opportunity to congratulate the association for its Down Experience project, “which aims to demonstrate that people with Down syndrome and other types of intellectual disability are able to undertake and work.”
The first program developed within the framework of this initiative is the kiosk of Down Experience, in the Plaza de Ourense of A Coruña, a bar-restaurant where people with and without disabilities work “which is an unbeatable example of how to achieve the full inclusion of the collective in the social and labor spheres,” concluded the subdelegate.