A charity gala to equip Avan's child neurorehabilitation center

For the third consecutive year, Fundació Avan prepares to celebrate the Night of Hope. The entity's annual charity gala will focus this time on raising funds to supply its new neurological rehabilitation center for children and youth in Terrassa; the necessary devices and equipment for the care of children and young people affected by neurological diseases often have a high cost, and the entity works to equip its new Petit Avan with the best instruments.

With this objective, the entity is warming up for its III Night of Hope, which will be held this year at the Círculo Ecuestre on September 18 with a dinner-cocktail format that will include musical and dance performances, as well as a raffle of more than a hundred gifts offered by companies collaborating with the entity. "Behind the gala there is a wide network of people and companies that promote it and act as a loudspeaker," explains the foundation's general director, Anna Soler.

Since its first edition two years ago, the gala has grown both in collaborating companies and attendees: from 80 in the first edition, this year they already have more than 120 registrations, with the forecast of reaching around 150.

In addition to the donations made by attendees —a minimum of 160 euros to attend—, the entity will raise funds through participation in raffles, with gifts ranging from hotel nights to jewelry and perfumery items. For now, it has 120 gifts from 42 collaborating companies, which include companies such as Casa Batlló, the Palace Barcelona, and Hotel Miramar. "The sum of last year's amounts was more than 15,000 euros," highlights Soler.

With all this, the entity aims to expand the equipment of Petit Avan in Terrassa. The space aimed at the youngest is located within the new center that the foundation has opened in the city, with more than 1,600 square meters. After an investment of three million euros to rehabilitate the old textile factory where it is located, it has the capacity to serve 700 people a year in total, more than double what Avan had in its previous center in the city.

The center just opened its doors in September for adults with neurological diseases, and plans to open the unit for children and young people as it advances in its preparation and in the acquisition of more material. Mechanisms that allow children with speech difficulties to communicate, through pictograms, text, voice, and tactile and ocular systems; clinical instruments for speech therapy rehabilitation, and tools for evaluating and diagnosing autism spectrum disorder are some of the resources that the entity wants to have in the center. On average, each one is worth more than 5,000 euros; in total, all the equipment that the foundation considers necessary for Petit Avan exceeds 50,000.

The entity, which is financed with its own funds and subsidies, plans to open Petit Avan in the coming months. In parallel, it is working to continue expanding the material and services of the center for adults, an objective on which another charity dinner will focus on October 3.

"We need a lot of specialized material and physiotherapy equipment," including stretchers and devices costing 6,000 euros per unit, Soler emphasizes. As the maximum exponent of these devices, the entity proposes to have an exoskeleton, with a cost of more than 80,000 euros: "There are not enough dinners to raise it."

Without all this, the entity can continue to serve its users and their families, as it has done throughout its more than 30 years of history, "but the more specialized material we have, the better the service and therapies we can offer," Soler highlights. In fact, the brand new center in Terrassa is having a great reception, performing a minimum of five daily visits to new users, and is filling care groups even before they have started, with people who come to the center on their own initiative or referred by social or health services: "We are having a very good response, and that shows that it is a very necessary service."