Stories from the Field: Carmen Ureña

To watch Carmen Ureña work with the disabled children under her care is to see a true teacher in action. The children’s faces light up when she enters their home and without missing a beat they rush to embrace her. It’s hard to believe that this kind, gentle and fun-loving rehabilitation worker was at one time a constantly angry woman who hit her children and had a volatile relationship with her husband.

Carmen Ureña entered International Child Care’s Community Based Rehabilitation program at the suggestion of the local school’s director. Carmen’s daughter had been held back in third grade three times and needed more specialized help than the school could offer. An ICC rehabilitation promoter began visiting Carmen and her daughter every week. Through these weekly visits Carmen learned important exercises to use with her daughter, which helped her daughter’s studies. More importantly, Carmen learned how her abusive behavior and constant fighting with her husband was harming both of her children. She and her husband began changing the way they related to one another and improving their parenting skills so that yelling and hitting no longer felt necessary.

Having seen how effective ICC’s program was for her family, Carmen wanted to become a rehabilitation promoter herself. She entered the Community Based Rehabilitation training program and quickly became an excellent worker, visiting the homes of four disabled children and teaching their caregivers what daily activities would help them develop. Fearful of her husband’s reaction, she kept this new work hidden.

Four months after becoming a rehabilitation promoter, a supervisory position opened up in Carmen’s community. Though new to the program, Carmen had shown herself to be dedicated and very talented and was the best candidate for the position. This promotion necessitated her telling her husband about her new job. She got the support of her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, and then together they told him of this new opportunity. Though reluctant at first to allow her to do this work, he soon saw the benefit to his family. Carmen also insisted that she be permitted to go back to school. She will graduate from high school and expects to enter university in the fall.

Although International Child Care’s primary work was with Carmen’s daughter, our commitment to empowerment and working with a caregiver led to even greater improvement in the life of the whole family.