Using horses to help children with autism from rural schools is the work being carried out by the San Fernando Equine Therapy Foundation, an entity that a few weeks ago was awarded the Fund for Strengthening Public Interest Organizations (FFOIP) from the Seremi Government.
The initiative presented to the department is related to the creation of a greenhouse for hydroponic alfalfa cultivation to support the “Horses that Heal” project, which seeks to help people with disabilities and social vulnerability from the municipalities of Rengo, Malloa and San Fernando through hippotherapy workshops.
The head of the Foundation, Miriam Poblete, said that “here we provide hippotherapy to children with disabilities from rural schools such as the Cartagena de Rengo school with a kinesiologist who designs the therapy and a physical education teacher who acts as a horse puller.”
“We applied for the FFOIP and were awarded the hydroponic alfalfa greenhouse project, so we thank the Seremi of Government for this support to continue with our central initiative, which is to support children,” he added.
For his part, the regional government minister, Carlos Carrasco, said that this “hippotherapy project is a tremendous incentive to help children with autism spectrum disorders through this foundation with the work of kinesiologists and professionals with horses, in a calm environment that is undoubtedly conducive to these children progressing in their integration, development and health.”
Damaris González, mother of a 5-year-old autistic child, said that “after being with the horse, my son calms down and he likes it a lot, he enjoys it and during the week that we don’t come, he asks me and is always waiting for when we are going to resume the activity. I have been told that the changes are long-term, but I have also noticed that my son is calmer after this hippotherapy activity, so I totally recommend this exercise to parents who are thinking about bringing their children here.”
Sixty children between the ages of 8 and 16 benefit from the hippotherapy workshops, and their families are facing financial difficulties. The selection criteria, according to the Equine Therapy Foundation, are based on interviews and diagnoses with the family or mother of the users.
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