Bank of the Nation receives award for contributing to the education of people with different abilities

The Ann Sullivan Center of Peru (CASP) awarded a recognition to the Agency of the Bank of the Nation, located in the Pueblo Libre district, for contributing to the civic education of our students. As a result the students of CASP received training on the adequate use of automatic registers and clerk operations, the same training done on October 29, November 5 and November 19 of this year.

Our students learned how to form lines at the banking agency and wait their turn. They also learned how to withdraw cash from the automatic teller machine and how to make deposits at the window. Liliana Mayo, Director of CASP, awarded the special distinction to officers of the bank, represented by Pueblo Libre Agency Administrator Lida Campañay, in recognition of their contribution to the education and social development of our students.  The recognition was given during the 2016 graduation ceremony of the School of Families in the CASP auditorium.

Students of the Ann Sullivan Center attend the USIL

Students of the Ann Sullivan Center (CASP) will be able to enter the labor market thanks to the Employment Network program administered by the Cisco business and the San Ignacio de Loyola University (USIL).

As a result of this, thirteen students from CASP took classes over a period of three months (twelve Sundays) covering computer and systems management as part of the pilot project that Cisco and USIL also launched, in favor of women of scarce resources.

By forming part of the first Employment Network, which is an initiative led by the Computer Engineering and Systems Program of USIL, our students are being trained in the field of Information and Communications Technologies in order to be included in the labor market, which contributes to the improvement of their quality of life and the narrowing of the digital gap.

“The Employment Network program constitutes a digital connection between people with different abilities and employing businesses, educational institutions, government entities and Cisco Networking Academy. By being registered in our network, they could be interviewed and considered for work opportunities,” said Ana María Ramírez, director of the Computer Engineering and Systems Program at USIL.

Founder and Executive Director of CASP, Liliana Mayo, PhD., said, “This new alliance had a new initiative: that of including people with different abilities for the first time. The students in information technology are also helping the students from CASP, which prepares them for future employment in information technology, which is one of the main objectives.”

Luis Alonso Rodríguez, a student of the program, also highlighted the importance of his participation in the project: “Here I can learn technology, the web and the internet.”

The CASP students assigned to participate in USIL’s and Cisco’s project are between the ages of 15 and 45 and come from the School Inclusion and Regular Classrooms programs. Their diagnoses are autism, mild retardation, Down syndrome and cognitive deficit.

It is worth noting that in Peru two out of every three people when different abilities lack some degree of education or only received an elementary education in many cases. Only one out of every ten has reached higher education. And only two out of every ten find employment.

For 36 years, Dr. Judith M. LeBlanc has been dedicated to support and help create the vision of CASP

Dr. Mayo, after reading all she could on behavior analysis and facing a growing school and the necessity to improve, felt compelled to look overseas for guidance from the professionals whose books she had read. Her goal: to convince someone who had expertise in the field to come to Peru, understand their objectives, and advise them about how to proceed. Her search lead her to the University of Kansas’ (KU) Dr. Judith M. LeBlanc.

Dr. LeBlanc agreed to travel to Peru. She was impressed by what she saw during her first visit in 1981 and saw an opportunity to test her beliefs about how people learn. So began a long, productive partnership between Dr. Mayo and Dr. LeBlanc and between KU and CASP. Dr. LeBlanc would return to Peru for the next 35 years and help CASP develop a unique curriculum focused on functional and natural skills designed to prepare students for inclusion into life. With the mantra of “independent, productive, and happy", she has influenced the staff CASP to focus on students’ and their parents abilities rather than disabilities.

“One of the things we saw in Judy was the humbleness to teach us; she respected our culture,” Dr. Mayo says. From the beginning, Dr. LeBlanc encouraged the CASP team to think critically, to treat students as they would want to be treated, and to have a long-term vision. The relationship between CASP and Dr. LeBlanc has made CASP what it is today and is a true testament to the power of collaboration and the beauty that emerges when you give of yourself to others.

Mother to Mother 2016

For the second consecutive year, with an important and generous donation of 41 round-trip airline tickets from "Peruvian, the Airline of Peru", the Ann Sullivan Center of Peru (CASP), completed another successful " Mother-to-Mother " training experience. Ten teams, each consisting of 2 specialists from CASP, a mother (one dad too!) and their child with different abilities, traveled to 10 cities across Peru to conduct free workshops for parents of children with different abilities living in the cities and surrounding areas. The results exceeded expectations with 1,135 parents and caregivers attending.

The Mother to Mother program provides families with a day long experience of learning from not only CASP professionals but from parents such as themselves who have shared their same fears, hopes and dreams for their child’s future. Families attending this workshop learn about the power of having high expectations, treating their child as a person capable of becoming independent, productive and happy and the power of becoming a teacher as well as a parent for their child. The parent/child teams from CASP conducted demonstrations of successful teaching and learning between a parent and their child for the audience and participated in answering questions after the workshop. For the 9 mothers and 1 father, this experience of being part of a team, to share life experiences they have with their children and meet other parents of Peru this was an exciting and unforgettable experience.

CASP would like to also thank our facilitators in the 10 cities who have been very important to the organization and logistics for a successful day. These facilitators identified support of other organizations to donate a location for the workshop, sound equipment, projectors, advertised through local media and Internet, and organized accommodations, meals and local transportation for each team. This day truly would not have been possible without their support!

The 10 cities were chosen in partnership with the volunteer facilitators who made a commitment to organize the workshops. The cities were: Cusco, Sicuani, Arequipa, Tacna, Moquegua, Pucallpa , Moyobamba, Iquitos, Chiclayo and Sullana. For 1st time the workshops were held in the cities of Moyobamba and Sullana.

The Realization of a Dream

Every dream starts in the mind of a person and in this case it was the dream of Dr. Liliana Mayo.

While pursuing an undergraduate degree in clinical psychology in 1977, Liliana was labeled a troublemaker by her academic advisor for asking too many questions. A military government governed Peru during the 1970s, and “radical”, well-read psychology students such as Dr. Liliana, were “punished” by being sent to complete internships in special education. However, little did Liliana know, this internship would change her life. She encountered a grim situation.

No educational infrastructure existed for people with severe disabilities as few people believed they could learn, meaning that most stayed at home learning little and accomplishing even less. Unable to turn her back on this reality, opening a school for people with different abilities became Liliana’s dream. With her parent’s blessing, she set up a small classroom in their garage. On August 20, 1979, Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú (CASP) became a reality. Eight students immediately enrolled and Liliana’s friends from the university became volunteer teachers. Against all odds and its humble garage beginnings, CASP has grown into an international full service center that educates over 450 students annually, ranging from birth to adulthood. This growth was also thanks to support from principle CASP consultant, Dr. Judith LeBlanc from the University of Kansas who joined Liliana's dream 35 years ago. Dr. LeBlanc's role in developing the CASP model has been integral to the impact of CASP around the world.

The continual education program includes curriculum for students, parents and siblings as well. This makes CASP unique, as the only center currently known of that persistently and continually teaches and refreshes family skills throughout the student's’ lifetime of education. The CASP model of inclusion into life is successful because families, schools, communities, and workplaces have become a team that is intensely dedicated to the success of each student.