Por un Mundo sin Abuso (“For a World without Abuse”) magazine, December 2021: 10 years of the Fundación para la Confianza

10 years of the Fundación para la Confianza

The Fundación para la Confianza turned 10 in December 2020, and we are celebrating a year later. It is already more than a decade of working with the two extremes of humanity. On one side, with evil, the harm, the sadness of thousands of people who, during their childhood, were used as objects by those who should have cared for and protected them. Many of the people who were victims saw their lives turned into a hell, and in the most unjust way imaginable. The child abuse and mistreatment we work with, in prevention, intervention and support for victims, makes us look into radical evil and saddens us, leaves us feeling helpless and angry. We would like to be able to turn back time and make it so that they did not live through what they suffered, so that they could have the chance to be happy, a chance so often snatched away.

But at the same time, in that same encounter with suffering we have seen resilience grow, the stubborn hope that also often knocks from within to light up the lives of those who were victims. The pain of the injustice suffered becomes vital energy to fight against abuse, or empathy to understand others who suffer and to accompany them in getting back up, in rebuilding together a new meaning of life, of struggle, a rebirth to change the world. And this process is as unthinkable as it is beautiful.

It is true that not everyone who has been a victim has had the chance to survive. There are those who could not go on with their lives, and we hold them in our memory. That suffering and memory cannot be forgotten and must be transformed into energy to work and fight with more strength, and with more meaning. That suffering will drive us so that, over the coming decades, no one feels that life is not worth living. This is our firm commitment and also our joy in working at the Fundación para la Confianza.

José Andrés Murillo, Executive Director of the Fundación para la Confianza

How do they dream of a world for people with disabilities?

Testimony of two students from the Liceo Industrial y de Minas Ignacio Domeyko school

Héctor, second-year secondary, class D

Even if cities are adapted for access by people with disabilities, they want equal treatment, regardless of their situation, that is, they are not comfortable being constantly reminded that they have a disability; although on occasion they may need help, it is best to ask them whether they want it, since sometimes they are quite self-sufficient, which at times makes them feel uncomfortable when their opinion on the situation is not taken into account. On many occasions they are viewed in terms of their limitations or what they are NOT able to do, when they may have developed different skills that allow them to take an active part in different areas such as social, family, work, education, etc.

In conclusion, people with disabilities are more self-sufficient than we think, we should not make assumptions about what they want or need but rather ask them directly whether they require any support, as any one of us might need it.

Martín, second-year secondary, class A

I dream that people will not be treated as if they were something strange and that they will begin to be treated as what they are, and they are PEOPLE. Many try to “help” and do so with good will, but they do not know how these people feel afterwards, sometimes they can feel bad or like a burden when that is not so. There are thousands of people with disabilities and many are independent and perhaps do not need the help they are given; for example, I have a friend who is 19 who, after an accident, sadly lost both his legs, but he likes to be treated like a normal person and now he takes what happened to him with humour and carries on with his normal life from before the accident, he can drive, he has his job, but he cannot play football again; even so, he is coaching younger children and keeps doing what he loves.

Something else that affects them is that cities and buildings are still not prepared for people with certain disabilities, but those are things that are much easier to solve. What affects them more is that people call them “people with different abilities” because they are not, and we have to start treating them simply as people. I know this is what I said before, but I repeat it because people must learn that when those people need help they will ask for it, as any one of us would.

The mindset that exists in this society has to change, and it is not only me saying so, people with disabilities and the people close to them say it, we need a change.

Fundación para la Confianza: 10 years of history against child abuse

News from the Fundación para la Confianza · By Josefina Barros

This month marks 11 years since the start of the Fundación para la Confianza, together with the launch of the book that gathers the path travelled in this first decade.

In this period it has been possible to make the rights of children and adolescents visible, as part of a movement that has exposed a reality that used to be hidden, such as abuse, sexual harassment and neglect.

To find out in depth how this journey has been, we spoke with our Executive Director and the foundation’s founder, José Andrés Murillo, who emphasised that the organisation’s approach has always been for trust to be a factor of strengthening for the community and not a risk or a sign of vulnerability. That is why, in these 11 years, one of the most important milestones is the publication of the book Lucid Trust.

Among other important projects, for Murillo the creation of mutual support groups has been a key process for people to find one another and to be able to support each other. This allows each of them to feel valued.

He also mentions that the revival of Línea Libre (the Foundation’s helpline for children and young people) has been fundamental in establishing a direct relationship and providing immediate help to children and adolescents. Almost 2,000 contacts a month are currently handled.

In addition, the creation of the Observatorio para la Confianza (the Foundation’s observatory), which has a professional team that monitors what happens to children under State protection, has made it possible to achieve changes by investigating and making visible the treatment they receive. On this, Murillo said that “Many times these children are forgotten and that has been painful. We must look for research methodologies to achieve changes and transformations in the way the State treats them”.

Besides the difficulties of carrying out this work sustainably, for Murillo the real challenge is working with the human pain caused by adults. “At times this situation is incomprehensible and hard to bear”, he explained. However, he adds that these situations are overcome thanks to the comforting thought that a person who has been a victim of abuse can indeed move forward. “Fragility has helped us to be stronger, we work from fragility for the wellbeing of children and adolescents, for their rights”, Murillo said, expressing gratitude that this situation keeps their feet on the ground and gives them clarity about their goals.

One of the great challenges of the Fundación para la Confianza is to strengthen spaces of recovery so that they are accessible to everyone who has ever been a victim. At the same time, it is important to guarantee that childhood is a criterion of wellbeing. “Turning our country into the best place for children to grow up is something civil society can achieve; however, we need politics and the private sector to commit”, he stressed.

For our Executive Director, the publication and creation of the 10-year book means recognising the path travelled and setting down the history so as to be clear about where we want to get to as the Fundación para la Confianza.

Daniela Osorio, head of the Santa Lucía school: “Today there is a society that sets low expectations for children with visual impairments, and that greatly influences self-esteem”

Interview · By Joaquín Mansilla

Fundación Luz (Light Foundation) is an organisation focused on educating and training blind and low-vision people so that they can acquire skills and autonomy in the personal, social, educational and working spheres, enabling them to be included as active citizens.

This 3 December the International Day of Persons with Disabilities was commemorated. In Chile, more than 850,000 people have some type of visual impairment, so as a foundation we considered it important to learn how childhood and adolescence unfold from that reality. Daniela Osorio, Head of the Santa Lucía School in La Cisterna, run by Fundación Luz, joined us in this task.

Society in general is deeply affected by visual impairment in childhood. Daniela Osorio says that she is faced daily with inappropriate comments such as “poor thing” or “God bless them because they are special”. “Sometimes people talk as if the children were not present, simply because they have a visual impairment. Children tend to think that those around them do not realise their abilities and what they could achieve. So, today there is a society that sets low expectations for children with visual impairments, and that greatly influences self-esteem”, the head stressed.

From the standpoint of the educators themselves, Osorio highlights that it is also very important for teaching staff to keep up to date on the notion and the methodological aspects of working with children and adolescents with visual impairments: “Educators must also be trained. Sometimes they use very outdated concepts or have prejudices, such as that the children must have some developed talent or a sense that stands out above another”, as Daniela indicates, that is part of a wide range of neuromyths.

The Santa Lucía School is one of the most important projects of Fundación Luz, which has developed a complete methodology based on the consideration of all aspects of the life of a child with a visual impairment. Daniela Osorio stressed that “Fundación Luz, from early care onwards, takes it upon itself to receive the family in an environment of emotional support and plenty of information”.

In relation to this, Osorio emphasises that working with families is also a complex task that requires constant study and application of methodologies. “There are families who demand too much or, on the contrary, are extremely overprotective. That profoundly affects, for example, the child’s physical and mental autonomy. Besides, permanent psychological support is very important”, the professional mentions.

“If the inclusion law had not come out, we would be in the same conditions as before.”

All the same, although Fundación Luz promotes its methodology in pursuit of autonomy and effective inclusion, that is, that it be people with disabilities who adapt to society, it is no less true that this requires a legislative push. “If the inclusion law had not come out, we would be in the same conditions as before, and today we have to understand that there are rights that cannot be overlooked”, Osorio concludes.

Inclusive education: the need for change

Current affairs · By Josefina Barros

One of the most necessary advances as a society is the inclusion in education of people with disabilities; for that, both new policies and structural changes in the education system are needed.

This month the importance and purpose of the PIE, the School Integration Programme (Programa de Integración Escolar), have been questioned, starting a debate on what is needed to achieve greater inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities from childhood.

To go deeper into this topic we spoke with María Cristina Radbil, director of the Fundación Pro-Mueve, and Florencia Ituarte, a member of the same NGO. On the School Integration Programme (PIE), the foundation commented on how it works in some schools: “Today schools are working with the PIE, and that means that children with some special educational needs, temporary or permanent, take part in school life”, Radbil clarified.

However, the NGO’s director also highlighted the need to go beyond what this programme proposes. “When we speak of integration, the child is inside the classroom but attends only some hours, or is present some hours and not others”, Radbil said, emphasising that the goal must be inclusion.

“Strictly speaking, what should happen is to hold the class and for everyone in the room to learn. That means having a methodology for everyone and assessments for everyone”, she added, noting that it is hard to achieve inclusion when there is only one person in charge of a classroom. For this reason, even where schools have an inclusion programme in pre-school, once the child begins primary education it is no longer possible to keep implementing it.

“In Chile there are special educational needs schools, so there is also a debate. What is right? That everyone should have a place to go to school, or that mainstream schools should be more inclusive?”, Florencia Ituarte put forward.

For Radbil, Chile is not advancing enough; however, some schools now say they are on the road to inclusion, carrying out a more responsible integration. She also added that the Labour Inclusion Law has been a good tool for giving visibility to disability by creating jobs, so universities and schools will consequently have to focus on an education that can fill those jobs.

As a society, moving forward in seeking improvements on this problem is essential. María Cristina Radbil explained that those who live with some cognitive disability become, in the future, people who stay at home and who lose their right to belong to this society. She also added that, during childhood, they lose the ability to relate and to learn from interactions with other children.

“A great many things can be done from disability, but the most important thing is visibility, dignity, the right to live a dignified life, and they do not have it.” Florencia Ituarte

“We always think that from disability one has to enter the real world, and in truth it is the other way round. A great many things can be done from disability, but the most important thing is visibility, dignity, the right to live a dignified life, and they do not have it”, Ituarte concluded.

Radbil and Ituarte stress that people with disabilities are born fighting, but doors are not opened to them. Both agree that the necessary information on this subject does not exist, and that only when one lives alongside a person with a disability does one manage to see it empathetically. That is why the challenge is to evolve into a society by and for everyone.

Special Olympics: sport as a means of inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities

Current affairs · By Diana Bernal Allendes

For more than 50 years the NGO has focused on strengthening, through training and competitions, the abilities of athletes with cognitive disabilities, in order to instil values and create inclusive spaces.

• 5 millionSpecial Olympics athletes, in 192 countries
• 1 in 5households in Chile lives with a person with some type of disability
• 850,000people in Chile have some type of visual impairment

A little over 10 years ago, Special Olympics came to Chile with the mission of supporting, through sport, children, adolescents and adults with intellectual disabilities. The organisation, which today is made up of five million athletes from 192 countries, was born from the ideals of Eunice Kennedy, who believed that sport could unite people and offer the same experiences to everyone.

Kennedy noticed her sister Rosemary’s sporting skill and the lack of opportunities she experienced because of her intellectual disability. That is how, in 1962, she created a summer camp in the yard of her home so that children and young people like Rosemary could explore their abilities. Years later she organised the first Special Olympics International Summer Games at Soldier Field stadium in Chicago, thus beginning a struggle that spread throughout the world.

The president of Special Olympics Chile, Carolina Picasso, says that for the NGO sport is very powerful in generating inclusion, which is why they use it as a tool for personal development. “It provides competences such as discipline, learning to work in a team and respecting positions. But it also generates self-love and strength when, through training, the goals they set for themselves are achieved”, she details.

Picasso explains that sport allows people with and without disabilities to interact on the same teams, which helps break down beliefs and social barriers about their abilities. In fact, this way of working, which they call the Unified Sports programme, has been incorporated into five of the seven disciplines: football, tennis, basketball, snowboarding and skiing. The others are athletics and equestrian events.

“We seek that what we can develop on the court is later replicated off it, and so move forward faster and further, as we say, towards the inclusive society we dream of”, says the NGO’s representative. She also adds that the unified format is precisely what is needed to learn and become aware of disability, considering that in Chile one in five households lives with a person with some type of disability.

Work with children and adolescents at Special Olympics is key; its president stresses that they try to instil an appreciation of diversity and their right to be included in society. She also says that the goal is for them to “reach their full potential through sport, so that this potential can then be transformed into leadership of their own lives and of their surroundings”.

Picasso says that perhaps it is taken for granted that everyone can play sport, when in reality it is an activity that is not easily accessible for children, young people and even adults with intellectual disabilities. That is why Special Olympics athletes make the most of every opportunity: “they arrive on fire when they leave their schools to come and compete, because there are definitely not many opportunities”, she says.

Although considerable progress has been made in the inclusion of people with cognitive disabilities, Picasso admits that there is still a long way to go. “I think that becoming aware that each one of us is responsible for reducing disability is the first step, because we are the ones who put up the barriers”, barriers that have to do with not making adjustments to accommodate the limitations of these people, she concludes.

Testimonies from 10 years of our history

Cards from Línea Libre and the Fundación para la Confianza

“No one would want a child to go through a situation like that, neither a boy, nor a girl, nor anyone, but these are things that exist and we have to open our eyes and understand that it is not something so far removed from reality.”

Carolina Reyes, head of the Jardín Castorcitos nursery school

“In certain calls it is silence that takes a leading place, becoming a backdrop for what we are about to hear: I can’t take any more.”

Diego Riveros, psychologist and coordinator of Línea Libre

“Realising that there are far too many, thousands of people who have lived through the same thing as you, was very striking, but it was also very comforting to know that I had helped, that the report had encouraged people to uncover their own cases of abuse.”

Elisa García Huidobro, personal testimony

“We realised that we had to look at what was happening in the relationships of our students, in the affective and sexual sphere, and a phenomenon came to light that spoke to us of toxic, abusive relationships. That was when we said: ‘we need training in this, we need to do something’.”

Juan Roberto Rantul, head of the Colegio San Mateo

“The first time my daughter’s school assigned her a teacher, I fell apart and was seized by a great anguish. It was the first time I considered the option of sharing my story and asking for support, because at that moment my daughter was the same age I was when I began to be abused. I did it convinced that my secret was more harmful than useful.”

Estefanía Milla-Morena, personal testimony

“The team at the Fundación para la Confianza faces pain, abandonment, injustice and trauma every day. Many of our days begin with a call from a person who has spent days, weeks and months gathering the strength needed to ask for help.”

Valentina Correa, Projects Director