An extra boost where it’s needed most
Over the past two decades, the Sister Islands Association has expanded its efforts to support Ometepe young people who have special needs.
When the Sister Islands Association began sponsoring sign language workshops in 2008, some of the deaf students and their families got their first introduction to Nicaraguan Sign Language, a rich, distinct system for communicating.
Our efforts began during the 1990s, when we responded to a request from Ometepe for Braille typewriters and paper. Since then we have continued to grow our understanding of the problems faced by those in the special needs community on Ometepe.
In 2005, Dale Spoor led the first of several delegations focusing on children with special needs. Along with Beth Schoenberg, a teacher of American Sign Language interpreters, the delegation met on Ometepe with a group of deaf students, their parents, and Marcos Cordoncillo, the special education teacher. The result was a series of month-long classes in Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL) led by two teachers from the school for the deaf in Bluefields, Nicaragua. For the first time, some students and their families communicated using NSL.
In 2009, Sister Islands commissioned a survey by Marcos and Karla Varela, a local psychologist, that identified more than 250 people with special needs on Ometepe. We held an all-island conference bringing together about 200 Ometepinos, a 10-member delegation from Bainbridge, and officers of Los Pipitos, the Nicaraguan organization for people with special needs.
Continuing programs for deaf students
Daphne, a teacher at a school for the deaf in Bluefields, on the east coast of Nicaragua, helped teach some of the sign language workshops.
In partnership with the Bainbridge Island Rotary Club, the Sister Islands Association funds sign language workshops on Ometepe. We have also partnered with the Nicaraguan Sign Language Project, founded by James and Judy Kegl. Judy teaches a sign writing class via zoom each Wednesday with the help of Tomasa, from Condega, Nicaragua and Claribel from Alatgaracia.
In addition to her help with the Wednesday zoom classes, Claribel is our sign language interpreter for all the school-age children on Ometepe. With her support the very first group of 5 deaf students graduated from Altagracia high school in 2020.
In both 2015 and 2018 we sent a delegation to work with deaf students to teach photography and to create a photo exhibit.
Learn more about the fascinating history of the development of Nicaraguan Sign Language.
Yadder Guillen shows members of the Special Needs Delegation how he and other blind students use a computer equipped with a program that reads aloud the text on the screen. The students visit the Sister Islands office regularly to use the computer.
Programs for blind students
Since Sister Islands installed two text-reading computers in our office in Altagracia, blind students come to the office nearly every day to use these computers to explore the Internet, communicate via email, and write and print school assignments. Blind students in Altagracia have become a tight-knit group and communicate with blind students in other communities in Nicaragua, leading to enriching experiences. For example, the Sister Islands Association responded when Jader Guillen, one of the leaders, asked for funding to bring a Managua team to Ometepe for a goalball tournament. Goalball, invented in 1946 as a way of rehabilitating blind war veterans, uses a ball that makes noise when it is in motion. Players wear blindfolds, eliminating any advantage for those who have some ability to see. The team from Ometepe won the goalball championship in 2024 with the leadership of Francisco Hernandez, our special needs coordinator on Ometepe.
Besides coaching goalball, Francisco’s work takes him around the island of Ometepe, engaging in all the communities, to find and work with children of special needs. Because Francisco is blind, he spends a great deal of time working with other blind individuals teaching them braille, basket making, chess and the sport of goal ball to name just a few.
Programs for people with other special needs
With Francisco’s unlimited dedication, we provide services to children and families with a variety of special needs such as Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida, Cerebral Palsy, growth problems and learning disabilities.
Special Olympics for special Ometepinos
Norlan and Francisco compete in the sack race during “Los Olympipitos” in 2014.
Imagine hopping in a sack race with your eyes covered, listening for clapping to indicate where you turn around and go back to the start. For the two blind students who participated in the 2014 student delegation’s “Olympipitos,” this event was a chance to display fearlessness and independence that amazed the audience.
Student delegations from Bainbridge Island and participants in the Special Needs Program look forward to and enjoy the Special Olympics on Ometepe.
The first “Los Olympipitos” (combining “Olympics” and “Los Pipitos”) drew in ten deaf students, four blind students, and ten students with other disabilities, accompanied by family members and friends. Each of a variety of games was sponsored by a different community on Ometepe where children with special needs live.
Chaperone Colleen Carroll reflected the feelings of all who attended: “For me, the greatest thing of the whole day was watching our students and the Ometepe kids interact in such a genuine way, across the language barrier and across the ‘disability’ barrier that I think can be even more intimidating at times. Everyone was having a great time and just being themselves–even the older participants, some of whom are far older than our high school students, were caught up in the simple joy of playing games.”
How to get involved
Brenda Berry, Dan Bacon and Carol Carley share-chair the Special Needs Committee. If you would like to become involved, please contact us using this form.
Your donations to the Special Needs Program helps to fund much needed equipment like this wheelchair for Fabian. Fabian is a young paraplegic man who lives in the town of Merida. He is 26 years old and lives with his father and sister. Fabian communicates by wiggling his fingers to signal yes or no to questions and he greatly enjoys listening to music. He went to school through 6th grade. Fabian’s old wheelchair was falling apart and was extremely uncomfortable, so receiving this new wheelchair meant the world to him.