By Trudy Bekker | Director
Mum, there is Ada at the door! I shouted to my mother, as I am always very happy to see her! My name is Luis and I am 14 years old and I live with my mother, three brothers and a sister. When I was 7 years old, I started to stumble and fall a lot. So much, I could no longer attend school and had to pass my time at home.
Around this time my mother met Idenia a supervisor from the Fundación Cuidado Infantil Dominicano (FCID) and decided to enroll me in the home visiting program. They got me a wheelchair and arranged for me to continue to go to school so I could keep learning and also go for medical consults. But after my family moved a year ago, my mum stopped sending me to school, so I am grateful that Ada comes around every week to help me learn things I did not understand much at school. like geometric figures, add, multiply, coloring within the lines and many other things. She has taught my mother the exercises that I need to do daily to keep my legs flexible. Some I can do by myself and for others I need some help!
Now Ada is talking to me going to see if they can get me to a group of young persons with a disability that meet two mornings in the week and are learning the same things I am struggling with. I am looking forward to that, because staying at home is rather boring, even when I do help my mum with some of the chores at home. We just need to sort out the transportation problem!
Twelve year old Lismary has been going for about 9 months now to the same group that Luis hopes to join soon. She lives in a place called Yaguita de Pastor and she also went to the public school in her neighborhood since she was little. But when she was 11 she had not learned much, because they had just moved her with the rest of the students to the next class without her understanding what was being taught!
Her mother also heard about our programs and decided to enroll Lismary in the adolescent group. This was great, because the group is small and she was the second girl in the group. Her mother and even the same coordinator-psychologist Dulce is now really amazed by the progress she has made in such a short period: Because she is now able to read, write simple sentences and does simple math, and many other simple skills like cutting corners with scissors, knowing the important dates the Dominican Republic celebrates in the year and many other things. None of this had she been able to learn at school! Another thing that happened is that her shyness has disappeared and she has become an happy and active participant in the group activities! Both her mother and Llismary are very happy with her progress!
We at FCID are very grateful for your support during the past year during which we were able to visit 97 children in their homes and work with 31 adolescents and young persons living with a disability in 4 groups! We were able to keep the programs going and took a step in faith increasing the staff salaries to a little more dignified level in 2019.
We look forward to your continuous support as we would like to enroll more children and adolescents in our programs, so they can become also less dependent on their families and will be able to live a full and worthy life!! THANK YOU!
By Trudy Bekker | Director
By Trudy Bekker | director
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