The volunteers were able to get closer, thanks to this activity, to the reality of people with disabilities at the Manantial Foundation. Through sports and fellowship, they learned to remove barriers, break stereotypes and improve themselves in a fun environment full of humour.

Both volunteers and users participated equally in the different tests, forming groups and facing them with the support of their colleagues. There was time for everything: improvement, laughter, cooperation and a bit of clumsiness and vertigo... A perfect way to discover that there are far fewer differences than we thought.

Javier Moreno, an employee from the Atresmedia Publicidad department, commented that “the activity became a metaphor for the overcoming that these people must face and which, in one way or another, we must all face. But, the best part was dedicating a few hours of our time to this type of activity, trying to make life more bearable for these people with mental health problems that can affect anyone and to be able to transmit these values to our children”.

For Maria José Garcia Lerdo de Tejada, Senior Management employee, the experience has given her “an entire lesson in how tenacity and desire, despite the limitations with which we each live, lead you to heights you never thought you would reach”.

For José Manuel Rubio, a colleague from the NOC, the experience was about “a day of integration regardless of the health problems that each one could carry in their backpack. And I am not referring only to the boys and girls who came with the foundation, but to all of us hanging (from a rope) who were there. There was no talk at all about diseases, pathologies, or anything related to mental health, and there was a lot of climbing, difficulties, and tricks to overcome the different proposals that the teachers were making to us throughout the day.

Miguel Díaz Carballeira, director of the Fundación Manantial Volunteer Service, stated that “for people who have Mental Health problems, participating in a leisure day different from the one they normally do not have access to is a significant event in their lives. If this activity is also classified as a «risk sport», as is the case of climbing a wall, it becomes a real challenge. The support of Atresmedia Volunteers on this day, their closeness, and their horizontal relationship in which we are all apprentices in the face of this challenge, allowed us to empathize with each other, reaching the goal together, learning to climb and getting to know each other a little more”.