AFAT, the Association of Families and Friends of TEB, was set by some twenty families. Its purpose is to join forces to defend the interests of the people with intellectual disability who benefit from services or work within the TEB Cooperative Group.

It also sets out to be a way of fostering mutual aid between the families and collecting all the information and training possible to help ensure the welfare of people with intellectual disability.

WE foster active involvement both in the cooperatives of which we are members and in all the associations and movements related to disability. At a time of cuts and recession more than ever, families need to be united and to work together to mitigate the effects of austerity policies on our group. Josep Pons, president of AFAT.

One of the goals for this year is to find resources for people with disability in poverty, the numbers of whom have regrettably risen in the last year. To build a strong organisation able to stand up for the rights of people with intellectual disability, we need to join together, mobilise and take part actively. If we now have organisations able to generate employment and services this is because families have fought for over 40 years to create them and keep them going. Now it is time for us to make sure there is not a step backwards, for all of us to defend what has taken so much work to build up.