The Enriqueta Villavecchia Foundation, which has celebrated its 35th anniversary, has just obtained planning permission that will allow it to undertake the construction of the first children’s hospice in Spain, a center dedicated to children with incurable diseases, in the Victòria pavilion of the facility. modernist Sant Pau, in Barcelona.
One year after the presentation of the project, the entity has obtained private donations and the support of numerous companies that will provide a good part of the materials and services necessary for construction. On the other hand, the Health and Social Services departments have strengthened their commitment to assume its management and incorporate the pediatric palliative center into the public portfolio of health and social services. Barcelona City Council and Provincial Council and the La Caixa Foundation have also confirmed their participation in a project in which the Department of Culture, in charge of the restoration of the modernist façade of the building, collaborates.
Anna Varderi, manager of the Villavecchia Foundation, dedicated to offering the best quality of life to children and young people with serious illnesses and their families, hopes to start work between September and October of this year. In this way, the center, designed by architect Carme Pinós, could come into operation at the beginning of 2026. It is necessary, says Varderi, because the resources do not reach all the patients who need them. In Catalonia there are 1,500 children in need of pediatric palliative care and 150 in a situation of complex chronicity. “When we are faced with a child, from babies to young people, with a serious illness, we tend to see only the illness and assume and defend that that child has the right to the best possible health care. It is like that, but it is not only that: they also have to have fun, relate and learn like any child, and we also have to help the family in this entire process. We do not work with illness and death, we work with life and with children. Despite their situation, they are boys and girls and we have to take care of their lives in all phases.”
In this sense, the center is different from a pediatric palliative care unit and responds to a concept that is widespread in countries such as the United Kingdom, where there are 54 hospices. “Small centers to feel at home, close, deeply rooted in each community, that provide support to families,” describes Varderi. Vilavecchia hopes that this pioneering experience in Spain will spread.
