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A white flag attached to a wooden stick on a humble two-story building in the neighborhood "La Independencia" south of Quito, indicates to a specialized patrol that a person resides in the house
This is a mission brigade "Las Manuelas" composed of family doctors or specialists in different areas of disability, insertion technicians and members armed forces, a whole team starts slowly out of the vehicle in which the layers move, a small walker and a portable toilet chair.
The beneficiary is Angelica, a little girl who at 4 does not walk, does not speak and does not control her sphincters either.
But he manages to communicate the excitement that drives him to walk for the first time thanks to the taca-taca orthopedic and manages to tear off the smile of his mother, Janet Enelema, who does not know or thank the 39, badistance received by doctors.
32 years old and mother of two other children, with whom she lives in a small room of about 20 meters barely separated by a wall that divides a single bed of a room, explains Enelema that during the pregnancy was suffering from pre-eclampsia.
The girl was born with hydrocephalus, which caused intellectual disability, in addition to epileptic seizures and atopic dermatitis.
According to a map issued by the Ministry of Public Health, its degree is very serious and estimated at 83%.
"I feel very grateful because I never thought that they would help me and go home" Efe explains the mother before d & # 39; insist that the girl needs many medications, constant visits to the hospital and many expenses.
The help she receives is the first after her case is known, but the mission prepares a social report with her to provide help "The mission seeks to articulate interventions of the State to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities and their families " reports María Amelia Espinosa. , under-secretary of the "Las Manuelas" mission, part of the Plan One Life Technical Secretariat.
The mission has been renewed since November by the president of Ecuador Lenín Moreno, paraplegic since 1998, and who was his predecessor in 2009 when he was vice-president.
On Tuesday, he presented the work of "Las Manuelas" at the Global Summit on Disability in London in front of over 700 delegates.
The goal is to reach about 430,000 people across the country in three years, some already identified and others without a disability card.
Cases are brought to the attention of the mission in different ways, such as: or outpatient referrals, from those who are affected themselves, parents, neighbors or institutions.
The case of Angélica, known at the neighborhood health center, led to Miguel Ángel Naranjo, 53, father of two children
. Eleven suffered an accident rushing to a second floor and in the transfer to the hospital fell again and suffered a spinal cord injury and amputation of his lower limbs.
Since then, he is bedridden with the technical team a catheter for a recent urinary tract infection.
"I have always been head of the household, but it is in turn to take over" says his wife, his only caregiver and who has received training workshops to be able to cope with the situation.
The family has a monthly social bonus of $ 240, which allows them to at least advance, while the health care and medications they receive are free.
"At least, it helps us to study my children, food and supplies" apostille
Next to him, the members of "Las Manuelas" teach a new wheelchair and remind him that the benefits are not transferable.
The only access to the house is a narrow staircase suspended in the air, without railings and where the dogs rest, so Naranjo takes the opportunity to ask the authorities the accessibility that was promised to him
The mission has a budget of $ 22 million, has located 53,000 people with disabilities in 20 provinces and is expected to reach 70,000 homes by the end of the year .
Although the brigadists recognize that there is still a long way to go, his work has made disability visible in Ecuador an experiment that is now presented as an iconic example of the world. EFE
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