Pet therapy, Colombo (Frida’s Friends Onlus): “Project created to help people with disabilities”

“Frida’s Friends Onlus was born in March 2012 from my idea, from my passion, from an intuition. I grew up always having pets at home and I have always observed the happiness and joy that these sentient beings can give to people. I thought that they could also help people with disabilities and I therefore found out what it was pet therapy. When I learned that it is a scientifically recognized therapyI founded Frida’s Friends Onlus and today we have thirteen years of projects behind us”. They are the words of Mario Colombo, president of Frida’s Friends Onluspresenting the project, which saw the Royal Canin Foundation cooperate with Frida’s Friends Onlus, thanks to which over a thousand pediatric patients were able to benefit from pet therapy in the company of cats. “The response from the health facilities was very good after meeting us. In fact, the biggest obstacle is to make yourself known. Everything depends, especially in hospitals, on the health director – explains Colombo – So, if the health director is pet friendly, you are able to propose yourself, present the project and make people understand the value of the therapies you can bring, otherwise it is a closed door that does not opens. Once they get to know us, however, our projects are shown to work and are therefore nurtured and structured. An example above all, we have been present at the Fatebenefratelli hospital since 2015, while at the Niguarda hospital since 2019”. “Being a non-profit organization, our potential is based on the resources we find and is therefore linked to the partners and sponsors who help us and sponsor projects, allowing us to develop more and more – continues the founder of Frida’s Friends Onlus – Our mission is to develop at a national level, creating a network of professionals, because animal-assisted interventions can only be carried out by certified professionals, which can lead to our projects being replicated in the main Italian structures”. “We hope that the path undertaken with these important sponsors can be expanded. I have received requests from hospitals in Rome, Naples and Palermo, because being one of the few who has always believed in communication, going on television with a solidarity commercial, having done many articles in newspapers, after 13 years I am quite well known, but they are needed funds: the more funds we have, the more projects we can carry out,” he concludes.