DESS® donates €10,000 to the Family Support Programme at Sant Joan de Déu Hospital

At DESS®, we believe that a commitment to health goes beyond the clinical setting. That is why we have made a €10,000 donation to the Family Support Programme at Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona Children’s Hospital, an initiative that provides direct assistance to families facing particularly challenging situations when a child becomes ill.

Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona is an internationally recognised, highly specialised reference hospital with more than 155 years of history, ranking as the third European centre by volume of paediatric activity and the leading one in Spain.

Its healthcare activity is vast: in 2024 alone, it recorded—among other indicators—24,584 hospitalisations, 327,283 outpatient visits, 130,396 emergency visits, 17,287 surgical procedures, and 3,559 births—figures that reinforce its role as a leading paediatric centre by volume of activity.

When a child becomes ill—especially in cases of severe or chronic disease—the emotional impact is immense, but so is the financial one. Often, one parent has to stop working in order to accompany the child during treatment. And if the family lives far from the hospital, additional costs arise for accommodation, meals and travel, as well as other illness-related expenses that are not always fully covered by the public healthcare system.

Through the hospital—and thanks to society’s support—the programme aims to respond to these needs and ease the burden so families can focus on what matters most: caring for their children.

The latest figures highlight the scale of this support. In 2024, 1,153 families received more than 25,200 forms of assistance, aimed at covering essential needs throughout the care process. The main areas of support include:

• Food: 18,306 forms of support for 342 families
• Accommodation: 4,167 overnight stays provided for 279 families
• Transport: 1,101 forms of support for 241 families
• Interpreters: 500 translation services for 178 families
• Non-aesthetic orthodontics: 1,074 forms of support for 154 families
• Dependency-related needs: 30 forms of support for 8 families
• One-off support (other): 93 forms of support for 34 families

Within the programme, there is one area especially connected to our sector: the hospital funds non-aesthetic orthodontic treatments for children without resources who require this care for functional reasons, for example, to be able to eat properly.

This approach reinforces the fact that, in many cases, oral health is not merely an aesthetic issue, but a clinical need that directly affects quality of life.

With this donation, DESS® joins a spirit of solidarity that Sant Joan de Déu Hospital considers historically essential and which helps fund programmes not covered by public healthcare agreements.

This action forms part of DESS®’s ESG approach, strengthening the Social (S) pillar through initiatives with real, traceable impact: supporting families, promoting equity in access to care, and contributing to a more humane healthcare experience.

Collaborations like this reflect our commitment to acting responsibly and supporting projects that generate value for the community, in line with widely recognised principles such as health and wellbeing and reducing inequalities.

We would like to thank Sant Joan de Déu Hospital and everyone who makes this programme possible for their daily work and for transforming solidarity into real support for those who need it most. At DESS®, we will continue to back initiatives that add value, provide support, and improve families’ lives during especially vulnerable times.

Would you like to learn about more initiatives like this? Follow us on our social media channels (Instagram, LinkedIn, Youtube, etc.) to stay up to date with all the ESG actions and projects we drive at DESS®, with the goal of creating a positive and sustainable impact in our community.