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10/06/2020 - Covid-19

The boys and girls of La Maquinista School help in the fight against COVID-19

These enterprising children have set up a company, despite the current situation, and decided to give the money from the sales to the IMIM to help with research into COVID-19.

On June 8, the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) received a very special donation from the P5 infants' class at La Maquinista School, to help in the fight against COVID-19.

For 9 years, the children of the La Maquinista School, from class P4 infants upwards, have dedicated the last term of the school year to setting up a company based on the Catalan cooperative model. It is the students themselves, in collaboration with the teaching team, who become partners in the cooperative, define the objectives of the company, set it up, design the products, manufacture them and sell them at a Solidarity Trade Fair organised by the school. This whole process is carried out in a democratic way and decisions are taken in assemblies.

This year, despite the situation we are experiencing, they have managed to develop their project in online sessions with the teachers, working from home. They set up a company dedicated to manufacturing toys and origami, called JOCLÀNDIA. As the current situation makes it impossible for the Trade Fair to take place, the boys and girls in this class decided to organise a campaign to collect money for research into a cure for COVID-19. They also decided to give away all the toys they made to the Children's Hospitals of Catalonia.

Some of the toys made by the company JOCLÀNDIA created by the students of La Maquinista School

According to Anna Garcia, a teacher at La Maquinista School, "The children understand that all this time they have been confined to their homes because of the COVID-19 pandemic and that the only way out of this situation is to accelerate the search for new knowledge."

They presented the money from the company to the IMIM through a video conference attended by the P5 children and teachers from La Maquinista School and by Dr. Giuliana Magri, a researcher from the IMIM's B-cell research group who recently obtained funding from the Department of Health for COVID-19 research.

"Everything that interconnects the different strata of our society, including education and health, is very enriching, which is why it is no coincidence that this is one of the objectives of the 2030 agenda", concludes Dr. María Grau, an IMIM researcher and promoter of this event together with the teaching team of La Maquinista School.

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