ParaPraia starts 2020 season at Praia da Ondina

Ondina Beach once again welcomes volunteers, teachers and students from Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública protocols for ToBeach 2020. Activities that include assisted bathing in the sea, adapted sports and leisure are aimed at people with reduced mobility and will start on the next day January 4, from 8 am (Ondina – in front of the Baiano Rehabilitation Institute – IBR).

ParaPraia is a initiative which takes place in Salvador since 2014 and aims to enable people with reduced mobility the constitutional right and citizenship to come and go, including during leisure. The project is the result of a partnership between the Escola Bahiana de Medicina e Saúde Pública, the Municipal Secretariat for Sustainability, Innovation and Resilience – SECIS of Salvador and private institutions. last summer, the project received about 300 bathers and had the action of 40 volunteers per day.

Training
As happens every year, the volunteers who will act as monitors in the project were trained by teachers from the Physiotherapy course at Bahiana for performing the assisted bath.

The teacher and coordinator of the Physiotherapy course at Bahiana, Luciana Bilitário, reports that the first volunteers were professors and students of the Physiotherapy course and that, over time, more courses were included, such as Physical Education, Psychology, Nursing and Medicine. Today there are representatives from all courses at the Bahiana, in addition to students, professionals and professors from other institutions, thus having a mix of volunteers.

Luciana points out that, since the beginning of the project, the idea has been to promote assisted bathing in a responsible and safe manner: “Our role continues to be to guarantee technical safety for all people who will enter the sea”. According to the teacher, there is also a breaking of paradigms and barriers regarding accessibility. For students and former students of the Bahiana it is aggregating to participate in the practice of leisure, which differs from experiences in the classroom.

Infrastructure
In all editions of ParaPraia, the Municipal Secretariat for Sustainability, Innovation and Resilience – SECIS provides an accessible infrastructure on a city beach, through the provision of amphibious chairs (special chair with wheels, wide and large, that adhere to the sand of the city. beach and float in sea water), access lanes, sports equipment, support items, tents, recreation spaces and umbrellas, including chairs for companions.