During the six years after I started my Mexican non-profit, Educarte, I had the privilege of getting to know a growing number of parents of children with special needs in the community, I was both devastated and inspired by their stories. I was devastated to learn that this community lacked the professional resources and support their children needed to be able to reach their potential and participate fully in life. I was inspired by the depth of the love these parents had for their children and by their strong desire to access the resources their kids needed to reach their potential and participate fully in life. Although Educarte had grown to supporting hundreds of local students, because public schools in Mexico are not required to serve children with special needs, there was very little we could do to support these kids.

By 2021 we decided to at least try to begin providing support for young people with disabilities.  And in January of 2022 my local team opened the first ever multi-disciplinary therapy clinic serving children with disabilities in Rocky Point. Thanks to generous support from many of you and a wonderful partnership with ASU, the new clinic was soon growing and thriving. Then, in January of 2023 our partnership with our former U.S. non-profit partner ended leaving my local team and I responsible for raising all funds required to operate our programs. Unfortunately, this left us having to choose between continuing with our program serving kids with disabilities and our program serving students able to attend local public schools. Although it was a very difficult decision, it had become clear to my local team and I that young people with disabilities are the most vulnerable and underserved in this community and that these are the kids who need us most.

We began by focusing on strengthening our therapy clinic. We invested in ongoing training and professional development for our team of therapists, and it was wonderful to watch so many kids have access to the professional support they needed to begin to reach their potential. However, we soon realized that therapy alone was not enough for most of the kids we were serving. So, we began exploring the possibility of opening a private special education school to give these kids access to the educational opportunities they need and deserve. What we learned during that exploration phase was, not only would we need the funding to develop and operate a special education school, but our local team would also need extensive, ongoing training and professional support from outside the community. We had no idea how we would find the funding or technical support this project would require but were determined to try.

Fortunately, last January the founder of Victory School in Arizona found us! Nick Schuerman and his team operate five successful private special education schools in Arizona. Nick had recently started ‘Escuela de Victoria’, a U.S. non-profit organization with a mission of supporting organizations around the world where children with disabilities lack access to quality special education services. We were beyond thrilled and very grateful that Nick chose Educarte as his non-profit’s first international partner. Thanks to a tremendous commitment from Nick and his team and our amazing dedicated local team, just seven months after our first meeting we were able to open ‘Escuela de Victoria’, the first ever private special education school in Puerto Peñasco.

This year ‘Escuela de Victoria’ consists of three classrooms serving a total of 36 students with special needs. However, our hope is to expand to be able to serve many more very special young people. I really have no words to describe how wonderful and emotional it has been seeing our first students having the chance to go to school and participate fully in life. These past six months since we opened the school have been life changing for them and their families. Sadly, however, at this point Escuela de Victoria is only able to serve a small fraction of the young people with disabilities in the community who currently have no access to education.  So, my hope is to be able to raise funding over the next six months to be able to expand our current program to serve many more very special young people. I hope you enjoy these Valentine’s Day photos of a few of the very fortunate students attending Escuela de Victoria.

You can make tax-deductible gift to help us provide a better future for more young people with disabilities in this community at www.AmigosEducarte.org.

Muchas Gracias and Happy Valentine’s Day!