The life of Paloma Pastor, a mother and biologist, changed radically in 2011 when an accident left her eight-year-old son Mahesh with severe brain damage. Paloma left her job and began an activist struggle after discovering that the public health system did not cover rehabilitation for children between the ages of 6 and 16. She started a petition on the Change.org platform , requesting health coverage for children with acquired brain damage, which reached more than 242 thousand signatures and has created her own Foundation, “Sin daño” , with the aim of promoting research and treatment of acquired brain damage (ABD). She never imagined that this struggle would one day become her own and that she would give voice to the group of women caring for people with disabilities on the mural #NosotrasJuntas located at Gran Vía, 35, in Madrid.
«As a citizen, I was completely unaware of my ability to change kuwait phone number data things. You have to fight, but it is worth it because it is possible.»
Your struggle began when you discovered that the public health system did not cover rehabilitation for children between 6 and 16 years old. Who did you turn to first?
The first thing I did was to go to my brother, who is a lawyer, and I decided to file a complaint with the Madrid Health Service. I could not understand why children were marginalised in neurorehabilitation due to age. On the other hand, I have another sister who works at the Ombudsman's Office and I asked her if we could file a complaint, but when there is a legal process underway they cannot interfere, but they can write to the General Council of the Judiciary to speed up the process, and that is what was done. At the same time, I was a signatory of the Change.org platform and I was encouraged to make my own petition. The Change.org team thought that it was a petition with social and global interest for the entire community and supported me to make it as widely available as possible and thus have more signatories.
As a citizen, I was completely unaware of the power I had to change things. You have to fight, but it is worth it because it is possible. There are tools at our disposal, we just have to know how to use them and, instead of protesting, act.