Professor Olga Lizasoáin, a specialist in hospital pedagogy at the University of Navarra, says that hospitalization of children seems to be reduced to the acute phase of treatment: "In 1980 the average hospital stay was 7.5 days, in 1990 it was 4, and the trend continues to fall. It is estimated that for every 3 days of hospitalization, a child spends 7 days of convalescence at home".

In view of these data, he points out that "one of the challenges of hospital pedagogy is to organize home school care for these convalescent students. The models of this care, traditionally developed by non-profit associations, are very variable and in each autonomous community different intervention guidelines are followed".

The expert from the University of Navarra has just returned to campus in Pamplona after two months of international travel. She has intervened as a guest speaker at the VI National conference on Hospital Pedagogy "The right to Education of hospitalized children and children in outpatient treatment", organized by the Carolina Labra Riquelme Foundation in Santiago de Chile. Previously, he attended the V general assembly of the European Organization of Hospital Pedagogues (HOPE), where he left, after 10 years, his position in the board directive of this association, of which he is a founding member. "It is a great satisfaction to see that your work of so many years has continuity because others take up the baton with renewed enthusiasm", says Olga Lizasoáin.

The sick child's right to Education

EducationAccording to the professor, the origin of HOPE was forged in 1988 in Ljubljana (Slovenia), on the occasion of the first European seminar on "the Education of the hospitalized child", sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). "There we presented the pedagogical experience that, promoted by José Luis González Simancas, had been carried out since 1979 in the Pediatrics ward of the University Clinic of Navarra". As a result of the enthusiasm of that meeting, hospital teachers and pedagogues from all over Europe began the first pedagogical exchanges and established professional ties until 1994, when HOPE was created. Among the objectives of this organization are promote the right of the sick child to receive Education in the hospital and at home, and to promote the professional training of hospital teachers by facilitating the communication of their interests and needs. The organization is currently made up of some twenty European countries and more than 400 members.