Almeida poses next to the figure designed by Elena Huelva, located on Velázquez with Jorge Juan, which is part of the Juegaterapia baby pelones exhibition
The streets of the Salamanca neighborhood are the setting for an exhibition of seven large-scale baby pelones that will be visible to passersby until April 20, thanks to the initiative of the Juegaterapia Foundation with the collaboration of the Madrid City Council. The purpose of this project, visited today by the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, is to raise awareness about childhood cancer, coinciding with the tenth anniversary of the launch of these iconic figures.
The mayor considers this initiative «extraordinarily necessary» to «help children and families cope better with this painful and tough ordeal, and to distract the children,» which is why «from the City Council, we wanted to promote the foundation and these baby pelones.»
The mayor visited the figure located at the corner of Velázquez with Jorge Juan, designed by Elena Huelva, a sarcoma of Ewing patient and ambassador of the project, who passed away in 2023 and who, in Almeida’s words, «inspired us with her fight, her smile, and her admirable fortitude.» Her baby pelon «reminds us of the importance of always being there for those who are going through the toughest times» and doing so from Madrid, «a solidarity city from which we want to stand with them.»
The pieces, located on streets like Velázquez, Serrano, Ortega y Gasset, or Goya, have a height of 1.6 meters and feature a description and a QR code to learn more about the route and to purchase the dolls. They are inspired by the 38 different models of Juegaterapia’s baby pelones, sponsored by celebrities like Alejandro Sanz, Shakira, or Paula Echevarría, and have become the best-selling charitable dolls in Spain, with their proceeds funding 50 projects in 23 hospitals.
The Juegaterapia Foundation was founded in Madrid in 2010 by Mónica Esteban to alleviate the hospital stay of children undergoing oncological treatments through play./
