During this month, associations, organizations and families have promoted inclusion with initiatives that seek to break down barriers and raise awareness of the reality of these people.
April has been the month of awareness about limb difference. During these days dozens of activities and initiatives have flooded the streets and social networks with the aim of showing that the reality of people with different limbs is as natural as any other. Most of them have been promoted by organizations such as AFANIP (Asociación de Familias de Niños con Prótesis), AEDE (Asociación Española de Diferencia de Extremidades) or ANDADE (Asociación Nacional de Amputados de España).
At AFANIP, they focus on promoting greater awareness and awareness of differences, universal access and true inclusion. Charo Trejo and Sandra Miso, mothers and part of the AFANIP team, explain that "children with different limbs and their families encounter many types of barriers: functional, administrative, social and other barriers". For this reason, the work carried out by these types of organizations plays a fundamental role in the day-to-day life of these families.
Throughout the year, and this month with more emphasis, these entities advocate for an education in values, which promotes inclusion from all possible areas. Through initiatives in social networks such as #MangasDisparejas, they seek to naturalize the image of people with different limbs. As Charo and Sandra point out, normalizing is not the same as naturalizing: "normality corresponds to a majority, but not being part of that majority does not have to imply exclusion. No one should have to be included in a world that also belongs to them".
On April 12, Different Limbs Day, the Spanish organization that designs customized 3D hand and arm prostheses, Ayúdame3Djoined AFANIP in a unique day. For an afternoon, boys and girls of this association became real superheroes with unique prostheses to play with, shooting discs and arrows. In this way, both organizations wanted to raise their voices to demand equality and dignified prostheses, because "prostheses are an essential and essential tool for children with different limbs," says Sandra.
At Ayúdame3D they use 3D printing and social technology to create unique and innovative solutions such as prostheses for riding a bike, going to the gym or swimming. In the last decades this technology has been developing exponentially giving rise to previously unimaginable solutions. However, the approach and the use we make of this technology is important. As Guillermo Gauna-Vivas, 3D printing expert and CEO of Ayúdame3D, points out, "exponential innovation and the uncertainty that accompanies it must always be applied under empathy, innovating to help, designing to solve problems and solving them in a democratized and accessible way for everyone. There can be no social innovation if only a few can afford it".
These are just some of the many initiatives and projects that have been carried out throughout this month. Although it is essential that these do not remain in one day or one month, but continue to be present and visible throughout the year. Inclusion is key to making the world a better place, and only with commitment and embracing diversity can barriers be broken, thus achieving a more accessible and egalitarian planet.