POLAND

SPINA Foundation was established with the commitment to care for children with spina bifida, who have a great opportunity to integrate fully into society. Their start in life is more difficult than their healthy peers. Their healthy functioning requires cooperation of specialists from various fields and the great commitment of parents, who are forced to coordinate these initiatives. In many cases, these efforts are crowned with brilliant results. In others, the results are disproportionate to the work involved. Our primary goal is to help children with spina bifida and their families in everyday life.

In the SPINA Workshop, we have run urotherapeutical, orthopedic, neurologopedic and psychological workshops.

We engage disabled children, adults, and their families through:  

– sports – we have organized summer and winter camps during which participants can try: sailing, riding hanbikes, playing sitting volleyball, playing wheelchair fencing, and many others. We have also organized mountain trips called Spingóry;

– art and social activities – we have organized dance, dog therapy, and pottery classes. We have also organized a carnival ball; 

– education – each year we organize medical conferences and workshops with specialists, families of disabled children, and adults with spina bifida;

– crisis intervention – we run SOS for Spina Bifida Programme that supports parents who have just got diagnosis about their unborn child, or whose child with spina bifida was already born.

The aim of the Programme is to build a support network. The core of this network is a group of volunteers – adults or parents of a child with spina bifida.