Just beyond the familiar El Paso land mark we refer to as “Cristo Rey Mountain,” a beautiful little escuelita for children with disabilities can be found. In stark contrast to the hustle and bustle of a busy section of I-10 lined with the UTEP complex, miles of high-end retail shopping centers and affluent neighborhoods, life on the other side of that mountain can be described as very difficult at best.

A trio of Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati are following the call that Christ placed in their hearts to (extend a loving presence across the border bringing) hope to some very special children that live in Rancho Anapra, one of the most impoverished and violence-plagued communities in Mexico. A very modest community center that originally began over twenty years ago in a priest-friend’s kitchen to provide basic medical attention to his parishioners has evolved into Proyecto Santo Niño Escuelita de Montessori, a bi-nationally certified non-profit that relies on donations and small grants to operate.

In a community such as Anapra, resources for education and related services for children with disabling conditions are scarce to nonexistent. Without funding or adequate preparation, most of the surrounding schools are in no position to address the complex needs of these pupils and openly discourage them from attending. In some very sad cases, children have been turned away at the door with their parents being told that “we don’t take children like that here”. More and more children are showing up at our own doors after these experiences as well as after attending for a few years and then being dismissed because they haven’t been able to learn as expected.

Now in our third year of implementing a Montessori curriculum that allows each child to progress at their own rate in a welcoming environment shared by learners of all shapes, sizes and aptitudes, we have tripled the number of children we serve. We recently added a class for the toddler-siblings that needed to be kept busy and have children through the age of 18 in a preschool class, and lower and upper “elementary” classes. Additionally, we are blessed to be able to provide them with support services including speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, bio-feedback therapy and Neuromovement Education. We have students with spina bifida, hearing loss, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, dyslexia, birth trauma injuries, oxygen deprivation, autism, developmental delays and genetic anomalies. Sprinkled among them are more typical learners that have a sibling with a disabling condition or who were failing to thrive in the regular school setting. They provide great modeling and witness to the fact that people with disabilities are endowed with the same inherent dignity that anyone else is, and that people should not be segregated from the rest of the community based on ability or handicapping condition.

To take care of our children, we sometimes have to take care of their families when a crisis arises. For example, when a family with no means loses a house to a fire, there is no insurance policy to help them get back on their feet or rebuild. We try to help as we are able with the big and small crisis that would be catastrophic for the security and well-being of the families with children with disabilities.

And lastly, with an eye to the future, we offer tuition assistance to the young mothers and older siblings who have the drive and capacity to pursue higher education to do so. This would be impossible without our support, but is critical in building capacity to support a family and increasing the likelihood that they will be able to break the cycle of poverty that is so prevalent in Anapra.

Scenes from the upper classes Celebrating Mexican Independence Day