Argentina and Francisco

Nyla Eliza was born on May 10, 1990 and she inspired her parents, Francisco Sojuel and Maria Argentina Figueroa, to start Asociación ADISA (in English it stands for Association of Parents and Friends of People with Disabilities Santiago Atitlán).

"Our daughter was born with hydrocephaly. She underwent several operations and as a result contracted meningitis, which left huge side effects and multiple disabilities. Obviously it changed our lives drastically," Francisco confides.

"I used to be a textile artisan, and my dad was one of the first to work the foot loom in our village. My wife Argentina was a teacher. Our new situation made us think that perhaps we were not alone, that maybe there were other parents in the region with children who had a disability and that maybe we could join forces and support each other. We took to the task of finding out and in June 10, 1997, we held our first little meeting where we shared our experiences as parents, and understand others living in the same situation as parents of children with special needs.

"In 1998 we formed ADISA and we began working with the children on the weekends. We did all the legal work to obtain placements for Special Education, we contacted neurologists and physiotherapists, and we began to get offers from people wishing to volunteer and our children began in mainstream schools.

"However, on the first of July of that same year, our beloved Nyla Eliza passed away. That same day, in the afternoon, we received a phone call telling us our project for anti-convulsion medication had been approved.

"The other parents began wondering if we would still be interested in continuing with the project. They thought we might not want to because of the pain and sorrow we felt, so we reassured them we were more motivated than ever, how could we not? Continuing the project gives meaning to our lives, including our daughter's life. It's amazing how a situation such as this one can have such an effect on your life and give it some kind of meaning.

"By the end of 2000, we achieved another goal – my wife's placement as a Special Needs Teacher through our village's Board of Education. This brought us such happiness! Dreams were becoming a reality and, together with Spain's Médicos del Mundo (Doctors of the World) we can count on an teacher's assistant, educational material, and build a physiotherapy and rehabilitation room for those who may need it. The beauty of this is that it all kept coming together as the needs arose.

"The recycled crafts project came as an answer to the question, 'What will the children do when they're too old to go to school?' We began testing the youngsters' abilities and we started recycling glass. They could collect it and then sell it, which resulted in a good economic incentive for the young men and their families. Then we decided to recycle newspaper because there's always a lot of it and at a very low cost, which meant selling prices can also be low.