A better life for children with disabilities

Cali is the third largest city in Colombia, and suffers from widespread unemployment and extreme levels of poverty. The great majority of the city's disabled population resides in the city's sprawling slum areas, with very limited infrastructure and minimal access to state services. Children living with a disability are some of the most vulnerable people in Colombia, facing poverty, exclusion and abuse from their community and family, and little or no access to medical attention. Their future looks bleak from an early age.

COTA partner Carvajal is one of Colombia's most experienced NGOs, and has developed a pioneering community programme in Cali which is breaking down some of the barriers preventing children with disabilities from participating in the community. Carvajal works to get children into school - and later employment - and to change attitudes towards people with a disability.

With support from COTA in 2003, Carvajal set up the El Vallado Centre in Aguablanca, one of the city's most deprived districts. It aims to:

1. Build the capacity of local school teachers to meet the needs of children with disabilities, so that more children are admitted and retained at school. Teachers learn new methods to support their work, including learning Braille and sign language, and Montessori methods.
2. Provide disabled children and young people with educational support and free access to educational resources. Each month, around 750 consultations are delivered, focusing on building literacy, learning Braille and sign language.
3. Integrate disabled children and young people into the community and challenge negative stereotypes of disability.
4. Give one-to-one support to disabled children and their families, and run group activities and workshops to help the children to develop and the families to manage their child's disability. 

"When he was younger, we didn't enrol Hector in school because we thought he was crazy, also he couldn't speak and signalled all the time. But the teacher at the El Vallado Centre explained that he had a mild form of mental disability, and that he could in fact learn many things. Now, as well as attending school, Hector goes to the Centre, where he learns sign language so that he can communicate with us. Hector has also learned to use a computer, he sits down, turns it on, knows how to play games, and has even taught his brothers! I feel very happy that my little boy has learned so many things, thanks to going to school and to the El Vallado Centre" .