- Endesa is the first company that opted to sponsor a clown.
- This year, Endesa's "Sponsor a hospital clown" programme has allowed the longest standing nurse of Sonrisa Médica to do 63 performances in 2021 to make hospitalised children smile.
Back in 2012, Endesa became the first company that opted to sponsor a clown at Sonrisa Médica. Specifically, the smile expert Nurse Aspirin, a character played by actor Camil Casanovas, who has accompanied Sonrisa Médica since the beginning of the association in 1994.
The "Sponsor a hospital clown" collaboration agreement was renewed by
Martí Ribas, general director of Endesa in the Balearic Islands, and Marta Barrio, manager of Sonrisa Médica. Through the "Sponsor a hospital clown" programme, Endesa and Sonrisa Médica have enabled the longest standing nurse of Sonrisa Médica and in Spain to do 63 performances with 6,531 beneficiaries – 2,828 children and 3,703 relatives – at the Son Espases Hospital.
Clowns work in the paediatric hospitalisation services of oncopaediatrics, with the intensive care unit of chronic patients, in the paediatric intensive care unit, in paediatric hospitalisation of infectious pathologies and in the surgery and traumatology department, paediatric emergencies and major outpatient surgery, as well as in the area of paediatric outpatient consultations, outpatient hospital and paediatric extractions and emergencies, among others, and are currently working on a new programme to visit the psychiatry and mental health area in Can Misses. They also engage in on-demand collaborations, when required by healthcare workers, to reduce the stress that some invasive procedures place on children.
In addition to his work with patients as a hospital clown, Aspirino has actively participated in the workshops on emotions that Sonrisa Médica teaches in primary and ESO schools in Mallorca through the "Live the culture" programme to help children identify and experience different emotions, as well as in several awareness days to publicise the work carried out by Sonrisa Médica and the importance of the emotional state of children to promote their recovery and their attitude towards their disease.
Sonrisa Médica is a non-profit association and a pioneer in Spain, declared of Public Utility by the Ministry of the Interior in 2004, and which has been bringing humour and joy to the public hospitals of Mallorca since 1994. In 2018 it expanded its services to the reference hospitals of Ibiza and Menorca, and has a team of 19 very experienced professional clowns who work through music, magic and laughter, releasing tensions and emotions of patients and families, to make humour part of the therapeutic process.
With this collaboration, Endesa reinforces its commitment to projects of great social impact and environmental preservation, together with other entities committed to the Balearic Islands.
About Endesa
Endesa is the largest electricity company in Spain and the second largest in Portugal. The company is also the second largest gas operator in the Spanish market. Endesa operates an end-to-end business from generation to marketing and through Endesa X also offers value-added services aimed at the decarbonisation of energy uses in homes, companies, industries and public administrations. Endesa is firmly committed to the United Nations SDGs and therefore strongly supports the development of renewable energies through Enel Green Power España, the electrification of the economy and Corporate Social Responsibility. The Endesa Foundation is also active in CSR. We have a workforce of 9,600 employees. Endesa is a division of Enel, the largest electricity group in Europe.