Noticias

Introduction and organisation: Could you tell us about yourself, Tukuy Pacha’s mission, and the areas or communities where you work to promote inclusion?

I am Francesco Bucci, Executive Director of Tukuy Pacha. Our mission is to promote capacity development, participation and the full inclusion of children, adolescents, people with disabilities, older people and other priority groups in Bolivia.

We implement inclusive development projects and programmes in the Department of Cochabamba. We currently work in the Valle Alto area, in Punata, Cliza, Arani and Villa Rivero, as well as in Mizque and several municipalities in the Cochabamba metropolitan area, with a particular focus on the southern part of the city. Our initiatives, which we carry out together with the communities where we work, include health, inclusive education, income generation and empowerment components.

Awareness and importance: Why is it important for children with and without disabilities to learn together in the same classroom?

… Because they are children! If you think about it for a moment, growing up alongside our peers is entirely natural: we grow up with our siblings, cousins, and friends from our neighbourhood or school. We learn through imitation. From a neuroscience perspective, this is underpinned by the way “mirror neurons” work.

Sharing experiences is especially important in childhood, because this is when we begin to develop the mental frameworks and perspectives that shape how we see the world.

The more we grow up alongside people with different backgrounds and abilities from an early age, the more we come to see inclusion as entirely natural…

Experiences and adaptations: What changes has Tukuy Pacha achieved through its work with and/or on behalf of children with disabilities?

Our work has started with families. Many parents initially struggle to accept their child’s disability. In some cases, they are still going through a grieving process, and we have tried to support them through it. Some families had stopped taking their children to health services after diagnoses were communicated to them in an inappropriate way. Now they are “making peace” with those experiences and seeking opportunities for their child to receive the care they need when they have a health problem.

During home visits, we have explained to mothers and fathers that they are the primary source of support for providing their children with a positive, stimulating environment. This starts at home. We then also work to help the child access an early childhood centre or school.

At the early childhood centres, some educators acknowledged that they had initially felt fear and anxiety when they saw children with disabilities. Through the project, however, they and their colleagues came to recognise that all children have the right to participate. The facilitators who initially felt afraid or showed some reluctance are now promoting inclusion in their centres. They also provide parents with further guidance and referrals. Some mothers from families we have supported for some time have referred other children with disabilities to us or to inclusive early childhood centres such as “Rayito de Luz”, in the Primero de Mayo neighbourhood.

In some schools, inclusion was initially more of a stated commitment, something formal. Now, however, school leaders have taken ownership of both the approach and its practical application. For example, one boy with autism becomes dysregulated and anxious when he spends too long in the classroom. The headteacher has therefore set aside a space where he can calm down. On another occasion, the same headteacher explicitly stood up for his rights in response to complaints from other parents.

At first, teachers may understand inclusion differently. For example, they may believe that a child with a disability needs an adapted activity or something very different from what the other children are doing. This carries a risk of exclusion. Inclusion means participation, and every activity should aim to involve all children. After trying this approach, teachers realised that it really does work: when they design an activity in which everyone can participate, it produces good results.

Challenges and barriers: What do you consider to be the main obstacle school communities face in achieving meaningful inclusion, and how can it be overcome?

One of the greatest difficulties arises when we do not take the whole community into account. Inclusion requires everyone’s involvement. If, for example, we fail to engage all parents across a school, some may object because they are unaware of the rights of children with disabilities. To bring about change, we need to move forward together.

Looking more deeply, we find prejudices and deeply rooted cultural assumptions that lead to the exclusion of people who are different. This remains the hardest barrier to overcome. It requires us to unlearn and question certain beliefs we have internalised.

Another very clear difficulty is that, in most cases and with few exceptions, the care of children with disabilities falls to mothers and sisters. This creates a physical and emotional burden, particularly for mothers.

Teamwork and community: How can families, teachers and the wider community work together to ensure that no child is left behind?

As a starting point, we can all rethink how we see children. When we see very young children, our first thought is often about caring for them. But if we recognise them as people with feelings, dignity, rights, ideas and thoughts of their own, we come to value their lives more fully and do our best to support their growth and development.

We then need to create opportunities and enable participation. Taking part in activities that bring people together helps overcome the tendency to keep children with disabilities out of sight, as well as fear and apprehension about difference. Children with disabilities must be included in these activities. Spending time together is the key to all of this, including overcoming the prejudices we discussed earlier.