CAMAGÜEY.-The sparkle in the almond-shaped eyes and the innocence of the smile reveal that in their mind they are essentially children. They came into the world with Down Syndrome. They enjoyed last Sunday, as they have done since they found safety and love far from home.
Dysfunctional families and unfavorable environments were the problem noticed by the psychopedagogue and the community social worker, during a process that took the Center for Diagnosis and Orientation to a multidisciplinary consultation.
While science tries to decipher this mystery of being born with three copies of chromosome 21 instead of two, an institution in the city of Camagüey develops the potential for those who have the sign of this genetic alteration.
The Henry Reeve Psychopedagogical Medical Center is a home where 130 people with severe and profound intellectual disabilities are full-time, from this province and from Ciego de Ávila.
Founded on December 5, 1981 by the idea of Fidel Castro, it provides medical, psychopedagogical, rehabilitation and physiatry services, among others; and when the epidemiological situation is favorable, it will expand the capacity of partial resident patients from 37 to 74.
They call the nurse Yolenny Hernández Casas Mom, Aunt or Senora. Being a mother influenced her willingness to work there since she arrived for the student internship. Now her most urgent function is the sanitary control of those who access a space free of Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
Precisely, due to the risks of the COVID-19 pandemic, they suspended the presence of the partial residents, and the visits of the residents to the houses, although they facilitate communication by telephone, because despite everything they do not forget their relatives.
37 years ago, Miriam González Ramos began as a nursing services assistant. Today she provides the resources for cleaning, and supplies: “Everyone is lacking in affection. We will give it to them ”.
Of the universe of residents, there are 10 with trisomy 21, as pointed out by the French geneticist Jérôme Lejeune in 1958, although 92 years before that discovery, the British doctor John Langdon Haydon Down described the clinical characteristics and the syndrome was coined in his name.
The defectologist Gladys Fernández Guzmán considers love, vocation and systematicity as key. She motivates as a music teacher and demonstrates with learning achievements that they are educable children, that they do not deserve rejection.
The Down Syndromes stand out as athletes and artists, mainly the five partial residents. The center shines for the cleanliness and humanity of the 184 workers, and the government's concern for the dignified and full life of inhabitants with disabilities.
Guillermo Pérez Bancol considers his director's role to be more complex than that of ward doctor; however, for him it does not change the commitment to make children happy with the face of adults, children that Cuba protects in a bubble where it is taught to live together and to admire each one for their talent and their right to life.
Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez