Creating a space for families to come together

“The handover is always an emotional time, but having one of the residents speak about what the project will mean to them, made it even more poignant”

In September we worked with almost 1,030 IE Business School students over 17 days benefiting three charitable organisations, and countless people.

For eight of those days we worked with a total of 400 MIM students as well as a further 86 MIF students on another day at Ilunion Sociosanitario, a residential and day centre for the elderly in Madrid.

The centre promotes an active lifestyle for the elderly through a variety of therapies, activities and programmes adapted to the needs of each person. The home has requested a selection of shaded seating areas, linked together via a decked walkway.

“The whole point of the design of the seating areas was to enable those residents who were wheelchair users to wheel right up to the tables so they could sit with their families outside,” explained Splash Projects Operations Director Phil Weeks, who was the Project Manager for the programme.

The students also created a series of outdoor games which the residents could play with their visiting grandchildren.

Phil added: “Normally a representative from the recipient organisation or charity thanks the students after the project at the handover ceremony, but after the MIF project build, one of the residents spoke to the group and told them how much it would mean to them and how much of a difference it would make to their lives.

“The handover is always an emotional time, but this made it even more poignant.”