Andreina Feo’s crusade to guarantee friendly spaces for people with autism spectrum disorders began when her daughter Gabriela was diagnosed with severe autism. “In the beginning, when you start down this road, you have many concerns, many concerns because you really don’t know where you are going,” says Feo, 55.
When her daughter came of age, there was no place for her in the special education institute where she was cared for, which increased Feo’s uncertainty. “When she was little, I didn’t think about what today turns around in my head every day of my life and that is what will happen when we are no longer here?”
It was from these questions that, together with two other mothers, she created the “Autism Leave a Footprint” Foundation, where today, at 28 years old, her daughter Gabriela and fifty other young people and adults with similar conditions share classrooms and recreation sites.
“Within autism there are 3 levels. Our population is the most compromised, so for them there was no alternative. We come to be the only alternative they have. We have a case here of a boy who is 50 years old and you can imagine his age from their parents,” he says.
35 doctors, psychologists and educational psychologists work in its facilities; that provide the tools so that these “boys” – as they like to call them – can fully develop.
“Not only am I offering an alternative to my daughter, but to many who are in the same condition as her. It fills me to come every day and see the happiness of each one of them. Each one, within their world, it expresses some feeling that you say: this effort is worth it. Far from feeling sad or frustrated, I feel totally blessed,” she says.
One in 160 children in the world has an autism spectrum disorder, according to the World Health Organization. Some are unable to speak, but communicate in their own way; therefore, the concern about what will happen when they grow up and their parents are not alive continues.
“The macro project is to be able to specify a residence where they, when we are no longer here, can live and have a dignified life, full of affection as if they were at home.”
The “Autismo Dejando Huella” Foundation has awarded scholarships to 28 of the 52 young people and adults who are educated in its spaces, but they continue to seek alliances and donations to be able to finance the largest possible number of patients, so that parents with few economic resources have a place where your children are in good hands.
Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channel Youtube and turn on notifications, or follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
