The Welfare projects of “La Caixa” and the Council of the Alhambra will improve the accessibility of people with disabilities to the monumental complex

• The agreement between both institutions is defined in the accomplishment of a viability study to improve the accesses to the complex of the Alhambra of Granada for people with reduced mobility.
• An architects office specialized in accessibility and removal of architectonic barriers will be in charge to propose the accessibility improvements. It is expected that this report will be finished in July this year.
• The Welfare projects "La Caixa" have, among other objectives, the improvement of the living conditions of people with special needs. In Granada, the organization supports this year 10 local projects that promote the autonomy and inclusion of people with disabilities, with an investment of 118,000 euros.

The Executive Director of “La Caixa” in Andalusia, Manuel Romera and the Director of the Council of the Alhambra and the Generalife, María del Mar Villafranca, have signed today an agreement of collaboration with the objective to improve the accessibility to this historical and monumental complex, especially for people with physical disabilities. The event has also been attended by Albert Lopez, director of the Area of Social Integration of the Welfare projects “La Caixa”.
The agreement signed today between Welfare projects “La Caixa” and the Council of the Alhambra and the Generalife is defined in the accomplishment of a feasibility study of the improvement of the accessibility to the Granada monumental complex for people with reduced mobility. This report will be carried out by the Studio of Rovira-Beleta Architecture, specialized in the accessibility and suppression of architectonic barriers, in the transport and communications.
Local architects will participate in the elaboration of the study and will provide specific solutions to improve the access to the complex, placed on top of a hill. It is expected that the report, with a budget of 89,000 euros, will be finished in July 2008.
UNESCO declared the Alhambra and the Generalife of Granada Cultural heritage of the Humanity on November 2, 1984. The Council of the Alhambra and the Generalife has as objective the dissemination of the historical and artistic heritage of this monumental complex located in Granada. 
The ultimate objective of this agreement is that everybody –children, the elderly and people with difficulties to walk, people who have to move with the aid of a wheelchair, people visually impaired, people with cognitive and coordination limitations – wishing to visit the Alhambra and walk around its patios, gardens and buildings can do it. The improvement of the accessibility will be carried out respecting the surroundings and trying that it is unnoticed to all the users.
The complex of the Alhambra has 21 hectares of surface that will be analyzed in the accessibility plan. It will study the accesses to the monument and its paths and will present proposals related to the accessibility of the sidewalks and the streets, the entrances and the pedestrian crossings, stairs, elevators, parkings, restrooms and urban elements and furniture, among other aspects.

The Welfare projects “La Caixa” have, among other objectives, the improvement of the living conditions of people with special needs. In fact, Welfare projects “La Caixa” have a long experience in the promotion of personal autonomy as well as the attention to the dependence and disability.
In Granada, the welfare projects “La Caixa” collaborate with different institutions aimed at the improvement of the quality of life and the social and labor integration of the people with physical, sensorial or mental disabilities. This years’ Call for Social and Labor Inclusion has allowed to fund 57 Andalusian projects with an investment of 709,000 euros, of which, 10 projects are for institutions in Granada and are set at 118,000 euros.
The attention to the people with disabilities is also carried out from other welfare projects programs “La Caixa”. The Dependence Prevention program is aimed at people who have initial dependence or who start to have difficulties to carry out a normal life. Among other initiatives, this program makes available to the beneficiaries an adapted transport service to allow their transportation to the elderly care center and, to be able to participate in the workshops of Dependence prevention.  This adapted service of transport consists of an initial fleet of 52 microbuses distributed in the different regions.
In the scope of labor integration, the welfare projects “La Caixa” have the program Incorpora of employment promotion, aimed at people at risk of social exclusion, among them the people with disabilities. Since the organization started the program in 2006 more than 8,400 people have been able to work in ordinary business, of which 17% are people with disabilities (physical, mental or sensorial).
Finally, the Reasonable Housing program, which plans the construction of 3,000 renting apartments for young people and for people older than 65 also reserves and builds part of them completely adapted to the needs of the people with reduced mobility.

Dep. de Comunicación Obra Social ”la Caixa”
Josué García – 93 404 61 51 / 638 14 63 30
jgarcial(at)fundaciolacaixa.es / www.lacaixa.es/obrasocial