Since September of 2018, I have had the honor of writing this monthly article to share the critical work being done by Educarte, the Mexican non-profit I started in 2015. My local team has always been the heart and soul of this organization, and my role has been to guide and support their efforts and serve as the ‘voice’ of Educarte. While I am remaining as President and Founder, I am very excited to have Carolina Pacheco Maldonado, Educarte’s Executive Director, taking over as the ‘Voice’ of the organization.

Carolina was born and raised in Puerto Peñasco and spent her early career working in administration in Real Estate and Law. Carolina began volunteering with Educarte in our first year and was instrumental in getting the program up and running. In 2016 Carolina was hired as the non-profit’s first administrator and in 2018 she was promoted to Executive Director of the organization. Her intelligence, integrity and passion for supporting underserved populations in this community has made her great fit for this role and I could not be more confident in her ability to lead this organization. As the organization’s hands-on leader, I am very excited that Carolina will now be the person sharing the amazing work that Educarte is doing to support children and young adults with disabilities in the community.

Since this will be my final article, I wanted to take the opportunity to provide a timeline and history of Educarte.

Educarte’s Mission: To provide young people with disabilities in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico with the professional resources and support they need to reach their potential and participate fully in life—regardless of their family’s ability to pay

Leadership: Educarte was established in 2015 by Arnott and Kathleen Duncan who are U.S. citizens and Mexico Permanent residents. All programs are operated by a local team employed by Educarte and led by Educarte’s Executive Director, Carolina Pacheco.

History:

2016 – 2022: In August of 2016 Educarte began providing young people in Puerto Peñasco with a path out of poverty through education. During the 2016/2017 school year Educarte provided 72 young people with the comprehensive resources and support they needed to attend school and thrive inside and outside the classroom. By 2022 Educarte had grown to provide more than 950 students annually with a variety of essential support including tuition assistance, academic support, transportation, meals, psychological support and more.

As the organization grew, Educarte received increasing requests for support from parents of children with disabilities. Many of these families were having to travel 7-8 hours by bus to the children’s hospital in Hermosillo, Mexico for their children to receive therapies and other critically needed support services. In response to this urgent need, in January of 2021 Educarte opened the first ever multidisciplinary therapy clinic in Rocky Point. The clinic provides disabled children with critically needed occupational, physical and speech therapy services.

In 2022, Educarte began a partnership with Arizona State University’s (ASU) College of Health Solutions which enabled the clinic to grow and thrive. ASU professors and other professionals connected to the University have consistently provided therapists at Educarte’s clinic with consistent training and professional development opportunities.

2023: By the end of 2022 Educarte was serving more children with disabilities than ever and it was clear to Kathleen and her local team that these were the most vulnerable and underserved young people in the community. In January of 2023 it was decided that the focus of the Educarte program moving forward would be on providing professional resources and support for young people with disabilities.

2024: Unfortunately, public schools in Puerto Peñasco are unable to serve most disabled students. Tragically, this has meant that very few disabled children in this community have the chance to go to school. Determined to provide more of these young people with critical educational opportunities that can help them reach their potential and participate fully in life, in January of 2024 the Educarte team formed a new partnership with the U.S. non-profit organization ‘Victory Foundation’. This Arizona based non-profit is committed to helping provide access to quality educational opportunities for disabled children in underserved areas of the world. Thanks to our partnership, in August of 2024 the Educarte team opened Escuela de Victoria, the first-ever private special education school in Puerto Peñasco. The school is now in its second year and providing life changing educational opportunities to a growing number of disabled young people in Rocky Point.

It has been a priviledge to write this article for the past seven years and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to share the amazing work Educarte is  doing in the community. I look forward to you having the opportuhity to hear from Carolina moving forward and am sure I will occasionally pop in with a guest column.

Saludos, Tia Katy

The doors of Escuela de Victoria opened on August 28, 2024

Carolina Pacheco Maldonado, the new ‘Voice’ of Educarte