Karina Grunwald

Karina Grunwald is 53, with two children aged 25 and 13. She suffers from Multiple Sclerosis since 1997 and dreams of undergoing some type of treatment that will help her regain some of her lost functions. She is in love with life and tries to enjoy every day as if it was the last

When I was invited to participate in the project of mapping crosswalks for Providencia without physically visiting the commune, I imagined it would be something very complicated. How would I do it with a hand that does not work well? Would I be able to meet the demands of a "job", despite my illness and the symptoms it entails? I didn't know what it was all about, but I signed up for both workshops given by Zoom because of my social conscience to try to help my disabled "colleagues", because to achieve this, I am capable of anything, even though the project seemed very abstract, but appealing.

After the meetings made by Zoom with people from several countries such as: United States, Brazil, Ecuador and, of course, Chile (with the option to listen to them in each of the corresponding languages) I liked it even more and the idea of the mapping began to take shape.

At first, I asked Kristine France, the Chile representative of Smart City for All, a lot of questions, as I constantly had doubts about how to map, but slowly I started to understand how it was done and I started to love this idea of walking around without literally doing it.

After more than 60 hours of contribution, I affirm that I not only like what I am doing, but I have been able to "cyber-walk" around the commune and remember places that I have not walked for many years due to my disability, filling me with memories, colors, smells and the tranquility of old times.

I do not go out much, not even before the pandemic, but it is very satisfying to feel useful to society and I hope that my grain of sand will be used by those who wander around these parts with the certainty of walking, using a wheelchair or cane, etc., walking with a firm "step".