- The project, located in Otavalo, was born 13 years ago with the impulse of SEPLA-Ayuda and the support of Envera.
- The school serves more than 90 children with disabilities.
- The mayor of Otavalo has received the Spanish delegation.
Madrid | April 18, 2023
A group of seven Envera professionals, together with volunteers from the SEPLA-Ayuda Foundation and the NGO Guaguacuna, have traveled to Ecuador to collaborate in the training of teachers at the 'La Joya' School in Otavalo and in the intervention and assessment of its more than 90 children with disabilities.
This cooperation project, promoted by SEPLA - Ayuda and with the collaboration of Iberia and the technical support of Envera, began in 2010 to start up a school that provides support to children and young people with various disabilities and their families. This is how 'La Joya' was born, with the participation of professionals from Envera's Early Attention and Neurodevelopment Center for Children and Young People, who trained the school's teachers and accompanied them for a year in the implementation of this children's center.
Today, thirteen years later, the collaboration between all these entities is still "more alive than ever", as Envera assures after returning from the third trip that the NGO, SEPLA-Ayuda and Iberia have made to give continuity to the project.
Over the course of a week, Envera professionals have participated in the IV International Training Conference on Attention to Diversity, inaugurated by the representative of the Ministry of Education of Ecuador. As Cristina Sánchez, coordinator of Envera's Early Intervention Service and of this last expedition to Ecuador, explains, during the conference "we have talked about warning signs, communication stimulation, language assessment and intervention, cognitive processes and ADHD, among other topics that are fundamental for the development of children, and above all we have sought to address the main doubts that the attendants transferred to us so that they would be really useful talks".
The Envera team, composed of neuropsychologists, speech therapists and physiotherapists, also conducted several workshops in the classroom with the aim of "training teaching professionals in intervention with children with developmental difficulties and providing them with tools that they can use in the most effective way".
Among the topics that have been addressed during these sessions are physiotherapeutic positioning, communication and language stimulation, behavior management in the classroom and the muscle-physiological foundations of feeding.
However, the most exciting moments were experienced during the direct interventions of Envera professionals with the children and teachers of La Joya. Great progress has been made, such as the first time that Said, with a severe disability, has managed to stand upright with the use of a standing frame, which improves his autonomy and well-being and allows him to see reality from a new perspective.
Mar Salas, pediatric physiotherapist, emphasizes that "the teamwork with the professionals at La Joya School has been very enriching for everyone. In addition to this week's work, we have left them videos and easy-to-obtain materials that they can use for therapies".
For her part, Judith Pérez, a neuropsychologist and one of the people from Envera who has collaborated in the project since its inception, explains that "this year we have noticed that there is already a base, a lot of desire to continue doing very well and we realize that our work is really useful".
Another of the most significant moments of the trip was the reception by the Mayor of Otavalo, Mario Conejo, to the Spanish delegation to thank them for their work and support. In addition, the visit of SEPLA - Ayuda, Iberia and Envera has caused a great expectation in the community of Otavalo, which has been very enthusiastic with the reception of the group, and which has been echoed by the local media.
However, as Salas acknowledges, "this project has been a gift for Envera's professionals, a precious opportunity to be able to collaborate in another country".
With this action, and thanks to the collaboration with Iberia and SEPLA-Ayuda, Envera reaffirms its commitment to the most vulnerable people and contributes to eleven Sustainable Development Goals set by the UN in the 2030 Agenda.
