Children, volunteers and four-legged friends together in a project at the Milan Idroscalo

Fondazione Prossimo Mio has helped create a play and rehabilitation area with the Milan Fondazione De Marchi, to allow young patients of the paediatric clinic to enjoy the company of the friendly rescue dogs of the SICS (Scuola Italiana Cani di Salvataggio). When a sick child who is living in the constant fear of new tests, painful investigations and invasive treatment meets an extraordinary animal like a dog used not just to playing but also to overcome its fears, like that of water, then not only is a friendship born and suffering relieved but they learn to be brave together.
The dogs of the SICS have for some time been visiting the wards of the young patients of the De Marchi paediatric clinic and now thanks to this new initiative they can also be alongside the children in moments of relaxation and rehabilitation in the structure created at the Idroscalo, with the multiple purpose of reducing the pain of children with chronic diseases by playing with the animals, reducing the consequences of therapeutic treatment and improving quality of life of the patients and their families.