Progress for 100 Dominican kids with special needs

I am Jose Aaron and I am 24 years old this year and I live with my mother in the United States.

I was born with West Syndrome in Santiago in the Dominican Republic. This affected my motor and language skills very much. When I was almost 6 years old my mother enrolled us in the home visiting program of the Fundación Cuidado Infantil Dominicano.

The first auntie that visited us was Idenia. During the first year she taught my mother how to teach me to drink holding a cup in one hand, how to swallow my food, brush my teeth myself, put on and take off my clothes, start handling my toys correctly, use simple signs to communicate, as I never learned how to speak well, neither how to walk. She taught my mother to do all the exercises that would keep my body supple for bathing and putting on my clothes.

The following years I had different aunties and my learning started to go a lot slower, but over the years I learned how to use my hands a lot better like turning pages in a book, taking screw tops off, draw, eat by myself, know the main colors, and a lot more.

My mother was so grateful that she herself started to work as an auntie, helping other mothers help their children progress as good as possible. Sadly I never was able to go to school, but I am still learning new things, like starting to understand English a bit now I live in the USA.

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Our Foundation continues to work with children like Jose Aaron and their families to help them to reach their potential, even if it only means a better quality of life.

Today is Giving Tuesday.

The platform has more than a million dollars available to divide between all the projects.  The more we will receive in donations from our donors, the more we will receive in matching grants.

Your donation, however small, will help us to get a bigger part of this enormous fund, last year we got almost a 30% match.

Thank you for considering making a donation today.