On November 20, 2015, Dr. Liliana Mayo was the
guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the Center of Comprehensive Attention to Disability (CAID) that took place in Santiago
City, Dominican Republic. It is the second center out of five that will be
built by the Dominican government to give support to children with different
abilities in that country. The event counted on the presence of the Dominican Republic President´s
Danilo Medina ,
the First Lady Cándida Montilla de Medina, the President of Panama Juan Carlos
Varela and his wife Lorena Castillo de Varela.
At this important event, Dr. Mayo had the opportunity
to meet up with the First Ladies of Dominican Republic and Panama who showed their
admiration to her effort in support for inclusion of people with different
abilities that CASP has been making over the last 36 years in Peru and around
the world. Likewise, the First Lady Cándida Montilla de Medina stated that
Centro Ann Sullivan of Peru has been an “inspiration” to her. The First Lady of Panama, Lorena Castillo de Varela, remembered happy
moments she had experience during her visit to CASP in Lima and the positive
outcomes that the Centro Ann Sullivan Panamá (CASPAN), which follows the
Peruvian Model, has gotten in her country.
During her stay in Dominican
Republican, Dr. Mayo and the psychologist Shirley Marroquin gave theoretical
and practical training sessions to professionals and families of people with
different abilities of CAID (in Santiago) about the philosophy on which CASP
bases its education methods. The course/workshops were as follows: “Trátame
como a cualquier persona” (treat me like everybody else) and “El ABC de cómo
educar a mi hijo con habilidades diferentes” (The ABC of how to educate my
child with different abilities), and the conference titled ¨Introduction for
working with families¨. These events had a massive attendance and the
motivating stories from students and the
great job CASP has been doing inspired the Dominican families.
It is worth
mentioning that in 2014, the government of Dominican Republic awarded
Dr. Liliana Mayo with the
Heraldic Order of Christopher Columbus, Official Degree, for her recognized work through the Ann Sullivan Center in favor of
people with different abilities in Peru and around the world, as well as her
constant support offered to the Dominican Republic in the implementation of
methodologies to help in the development of the Center of Comprehensive Attention to
Disability (CAID).