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BT project helps sick children
Children at a Spanish hospital are having technology lessons to take their minds off their operations - with a little help from BT.
BT Spain corporate social responsibility lead Marta Lamas explained: "The Niño Jesús hospital in Madrid has begun a new programme in which volunteers from the BT Spain Foundation become 'technological consultants' for in-patients within the paediatric ward.
"The scheme is based around supporting hospitalised children in learning to use new technologies for fun, within an educational and recreational framework suitable for their age.
"The programme requires a very special type of volunteer - employees of BT Spain visit the bedsides of many patients in this children's hospital to carry out bespoke technological consultancy in line with the interests, personality and needs of each patient."
The BT Spain Foundation is working with the Foundation Antena 3, linked to Spanish television company Antena 3, on the scheme.
It is currently being piloted with youngsters who are over the age of six, with an average hospital stay of 10 days. If successful, it could be rolled-out to other hospital patients.
The use of Office tools, photo editing, online dictionaries and translators, magazine design, interactive online games - as well as navigating the web to learn about different countries and cultures - are among topics BT volunteers are helping with.
"The volunteers are also making use of a series of educational resources -magazines, games, DVDs, software - developed by BT in the UK as part of the learning and skills programme," said Marta.
"These resources help to entertain the children as well as educate them in communication and computing skills - and the use of English.
"This project aims to improve the leisure offering of the hospital, and thus provide a distraction for patients of all ages with very different situations, capabilities, skills and interests," she added.
BT volunteer Erik Raebild worked with a 13-year-old girl just one day after her operation. "I thought we’d spend a good part of the time surfing the internet and posting on Tuenti - the Spanish version of Facebook," said Erik.
"But, to my surprise, the girl asked me to go into detail about using Word for her school work. The two hours planned flew by and I think that I helped the girl spend this time thinking about something other than her operation."
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