About Us

“DAR Social Club and Community Centre” is an extension of, and a long-planned development of the charity initiative, “DAR KIDS”, which in turn is a child-centred project of the Spanish charitable non-governmental association, “DAR”.

The idea for the “DAR KIDS” charity – named after Darius Smolokowski, an autistic boy – came to life in 2017, when its founder – Lola Smolokowski – had the realization that expatriate children with special needs are underserved in the Marina Alta area, and in Spain in general.

While Spain has a strong record in supporting Special Needs Education, these supports are only available in public schools and in government-funded programs and services, in which the main languages of education are Spanish and/or Valenciano. The educational opportunities for children with learning challenges in English, French, German, Russian or other languages are virtually non-existent in most regions of Spain.

For five years, the “DAR KIDS” project has used its charitable outreach programs and approaches to bring leading foreign experts to Spain, thus facilitating the inclusion of non-Spanish kids into local schools, positively impacting the region from Valencia and Alicante.

Through years of volunteering in the field of Special Needs Education, it became clear to the founders of the association as well as to expatriate parents and families, that an institution which integrates an excellent education for neurotypical children along with their neurodiverse peers – is the utmost necessity and will greatly enrich the international community in our region.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, our focus is helping refugee families, especially those with children with developmental disabilities.