Percentage of Islander Children with Disabilities Grows

Forty children were evaluated on the first day of the visit at the French Harbour’s Adventist Medical center, which currently serves as a temporary non-emergency facility after a fire destroyed the Roatan public hospital.

One of the caretakers who came on October 31 was Victoria Cabreras, from Flowers Bay. She brought in Ian, her 10 year old grandson, for the preliminary evaluation. Little Ian did not speak until he was six years, and communicates infrequently. “We’ll see what the doctors will say, and so that we can help him,” said Cabreras.

After three days, a total of 140 children had been attended to. However, many other children with disabilities did not come. In 2015, a government medical census team visited Roatan and registered 112 people with disabilities, including 25 children.

Parents don’t know where to go and don’t know where to turn.

According to Connie Silvestri, founder of CATTLEYA center for the disabled, the parents of disabled children are often afraid that the child might run onto the street and be injured by a passing vehicle. While some parents see this strategy as their only tool of how to keep their disabled child safe, often that is not what the child needs. “Ignorance is such a big issue. With ignorance comes abuse,” said Silvestri. “They [the disabled children] get beaten a lot. They get tied down, they get chained down.”

Repeatedly these parents don’t know where to go and don’t know where to turn. The disabled children are often misunderstood and suffer in silence. “The children can’t express what they are feeling and they can’t talk to anyone,” said Silvestri.

In 2012 Silvestri has launched CATTLEYA with a part time teacher and two volunteers. CATTLEYA which stands for “Con Amor, Trabajo y Terapia, Logramos Educar y Avanzar” -With Love, Work and Therapy we Educate and Advocate is an island NGO that has a school component called CEDICA – “Centro Educativo de Desarrollo Inclusivo Cattleya” (Educational Center for Inclusive Development) where children and adults come to receive specialized attention.

The NGO is located at the Jackson Memorial Library in French Harbour. CATTLEYA makes it by with what it has, and sometimes it is not much. CATTLEYA has several sponsors that help out – Max Cable provides free internet, Arcos gives free water, and Norman family has given the use of the building for the last eight years. “Our teachers are not really specialists. None of them are therapists, none of them,” said Silvestri. “My everyday worry is how much more we could be doing. We need to educate the educators.” The three CATTLEYA educators are taking online courses in psychology at UTH.

CATTLEYA is taking care of 36 individuals with disabilities. The center is open from 7:30 am to 4:15 pm, five days a week. While the vast majority of them are children, some as young as four, there are also three adults in the program. To manage such a diverse group of students, the center takes care of their patients in developmental groups, with the biggest group having 13 children.

The children attending CATTLEYA suffer from a broad number of disabilities: autism, down syndrome, traumatic head injuries, and deafness. One disability dominates above all the rest, however. “More than half of the children here have autism,” says Elizabeth Peña, the director and math teacher at CATTLEYA.

According to Silvestri, there were no autistic kids on Roatan in the 1980s or 90s. Since Silvestri’s son was born with Down syndrome in the 1980s, she has been paying attention to families with special needs children on Roatan. Back then the island was relatively small, and the community living here was tight knit. The first known cases of autism on the island appeared in mid 2000s.

The origin and the frightening increase of autism rates was a taboo subject in the US, and in many ways in Honduras. In the 2024 United States presidential election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s candidacy for president brought badly needed attention to the issue of childhood vaccinations and autism. Kennedy has been nominated to head the Department of Health and Human Services, and has shown documents linking the American health crisis to an explosion in required childhood vaccines.

Frightening increase of autism rates was a taboo subject in the US.

While only one in 1,000 US children in 1995 had autism, in 2024 that number has risen to 1 in 25 children. The official government stance in the United States and Honduras is that the causes of autism are a great mystery; there are powerful interest groups vested in not determining the cause of autism. The pharmaceutical industry is one of these groups. “We got all of these new vaccines, 72 shots, 16 vaccines… And that year, 1989, we saw an explosion in chronic disease in American children… ADHD, sleep disorders, language delays, ASD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, ticks, narcolepsy,” said Kennedy, who wants to test every vaccine to the same rigorous standard as drugs already are.

Autism rates increases are indeed astronomical, and California is a record holder in this tragic category. In the last 35 years, the autism rate in California has catapulted 4,300 percent. In 2020, according to Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network, 1 in 22 California children have been identified to be on the autistic spectrum. California is also a national leader in childhood vaccinations.

The increase of autism has not only caused harm to children, it has caused destruction to entire families. “A lot of relationships end because one of the parents never accepted [their child’s disability], or didn’t want responsibility,” said Silvestri. “They abandon the family and leave to start a new life.”

A special needs child receives one on one attention from Karen Romero.

Helping Disabled Kids with Attention and Education

The Honduran government doesn’t do it, and perhaps it’s better that way. Like many communities in the US and Europe did in the XIX century and first half of XX century, analyzing their own needs and providing their own solutions, Roatan’s parents of disabled children are doing just the same.

One of such non-profit grass roots organizations is CATTLEYA with a school component called CEDICA – “Centro Educativo de Desarrollo Inclusivo Cattley” (Educational Center for Inclusive Development) where five days a week children from all over the island come to receive specialized attention.

The school was launched as a support group for mothers on the island in 2012. The parents of disabled children and children with special needs weren’t getting help from local schools and some even moved to US in order to provide specialize care for their children.

“They wanted a program that would meet their needs and treat them with respect,” says Connie Silvestri whose son Loren, 36, suffers from Down Syndrome.

that special needs children need regular help they can count on

It started with a part time teacher and two volunteers and it grew to where 20 children with Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, Autism and severe learning disabilities are being helped.“It’s a very challenging work of love,”says Silvestri, “As my son transitioned into adulthood we still face other challenges. Currently seven corporate sponsors, Rotary Club and Roatan Fishing Tournament help with financing day-to-day operations of CEDICA.

The CEDICA building is located in the Jackson Memorial Library in French Harbour. Two full time teachers, an intern, and a director run the day-to-day operations. Karen Romero is a schoolteacher doing the one-on-one teaching sessions and Mahely Gardado is a Honduran teacher working with the special needs kids. “In several years we’d like to be big enough to serve the entire island,” says Justin Romero, CEDICA Executive Director, who joined the organization in January 2018 from US.

Teacher Mahely Guardado with a group of older students study in a group session.

The sometime overlooked potential in many of the children is limitless. They can study, learn, be a part of community find a vocation and start a family. “A crucial part is to fallow up with consistency,” says Silvestri, emphasizing that special needs children need regular help they can count on. Sporadic teaching sessions just don’t help. According to Silvestri a government census team visited Roatan and registered 112 people with disability. Out of that 25 were children. With the total population of the island being about 100,000 people this is statistically quite low.

Still many island children with mental and physical challenges just don’t get treatment at all. They are left out from educational opportunities, recreation and support. They are hidden out of site and perceived as shameful and viewed as a liability. Thanks to efforts like that of CEDICA that is changing.