Queen Letizia presided over the ceremony for the Queen Letizia Awards, created by the Royal Patronage for Disabilities. Her Majesty is Honorary President of the Patronage’s Council.
The Spanish queen arrived in Mérida, a small town about 350kms south-east of Madrid, on the morning of Wednesday, 4th May, accompanied by the Minister of Social Rights and 2030 Agenda, Ione Belarra.
She was greeted by local authorities, as well as officials from various entities that work with people with disabilities, before sitting down for a meeting to present the results of the Patronage’s 2021 work and its plans for 2022.
After the meeting, the Queen was given a tour of a photographic exhibition about the daily lives of women and girls with disabilities around the world.
It was then time for the award ceremony, which saw her hand out prizes in seven different categories, with a total of 6 winners and 3 special mentions.
The winners were the CERMI Women Foundation (Defense of the Rights of People with Disabilities), the Sanitas Foundation’s Inclusive Games (Inclusive Sports), the “Valorarte” project of the Laborvalía Association (Inclusive Culture), the Dactyls project of the ONCE Foundation for Attention to People with Deafblindness (Accessible Technologies), the PiTADHgoras Project (Research) and Mérida Inclusiva (Accessibility and Universal City Design).
There were no winners for the “Job Inclusivity for People with Disabilities” category as “candidatures didn’t reach the quality and engagement expected in the notification”, the Royal Court explained.
The special mentions went to Óscar Moral (Defense of the Rights of People with Disabilities), the “If Talía were blind” project of the National Organisation of Spanish Blinds (Inclusive Culture), and Inmaculada Vivas Tesón (Accessibility and Universal City Design).
The latter was the protagonist of a lighthearted moment, as it became clear to everyone when she went to pick up her prize that she had inadvertently worn the same dress as Queen Letizia.
The style is currently sold out everywhere, but was on sale of 49€ from Mango, the famous Spanish fashion brand, which made it the ideal selection for a queen who is very careful with her budget and wears a lot of Spanish brands.
Queen Letizia didn’t seem upset about her dress twin, and instead shared a laugh with her when the coincidence became clear.
The prize consists of a diploma and a statue, the latter designed by an artist with disabilities. The awards ceremony ended with an Extremaduran flamenco performance by Tomás Lara, who also has disabilities.
The Queen Letizia Awards for the Royal Patronage on Disabilities aims to promote and rewards people and entities whose work creates programmes and promotes knowledge about disabilities and universal accessibility of various essential goods and services. The 2021 edition was particularly focussed on the issues of women and girls with disabilities.
