At 14, Jhon Alex Muñoz is the size of a 7-year-old. He tires easily, has difficulty walking and cannot fully control his arms and hands. No school exists for his special needs in his home town of Entre Ríos in central Bolivia.

Jhon Alex’s mother, Doña Benita, is a single parent who ekes out a living by working in her neighbors’ fields. Besides Jhon Alex, she is raising her older son, Jairo, who has an intellectual disability. Since she cannot afford a caregiver and does not own a vehicle, she often carries Jhon Alex on her back.

When Filomena Siles and Joseph Loney, a Maryknoll lay missioner couple based in Cochabamba, first met Doña Benita five years ago, she told them that the local doctor had said Jhon Alex would never walk. She wondered if God was punishing her. Carrying her growing son on her back was not sustainable. Even a wheelchair would not help, as the local dirt roads and trails are not passable for a wheelchair.

“We tend to challenge assumptions,” Loney says, “so we had Jhon Alex reexamined by our doctors in Cochabamba and learned that there was no physical reason that he could not walk. With our physical therapist and the rest of our team, we started an intensive therapy schedule, including teaching the exercises to his mother to double up on his therapy. We prayed that it was just the lack of muscle development that prevented him from walking.”

Maryknoll Lay Missioners Joe Loney (third from left) and Filo Siles (second from right) pose with Social Justice Foundation staff at the Maryknoll center. (Adam Mitchell/Bolivia)

After six months, Jhon Alex was able to stand and walk 20 feet on his own. Today he is still developing his motor skills, but “now he smiles as he walks, and his mother has regained her faith that a better tomorrow can be achieved,” Loney says.

During a recent visit to the Muñoz home, Doña Benita proudly showed off a newly rebuilt part of the house that Siles and Loney’s nonprofit had helped make possible. While Willy García, a nurse, worked with Jhon Alex, Loney reviewed Jairo’s homeschool notebooks and Siles discussed with Doña Benita a plan to earn more income.

Jhon Alex and Jairo are just two of the 770 people — 90 adults, 180 children and youth and 500 older adults — who are benefitting from the services of the Social Justice Foundation. The Cochabamba-based nonprofit was started in 2016 by Loney and Siles as a ministry of Maryknoll Lay Missioners.

“At the Social Justice Foundation, our vision is that people with disabilities will enjoy a life that is full and complete and that allows them to reach their maximum human potential,” Loney says.

“Our program is based on the community-based rehabilitation strategy,” Siles adds. “We focus on four components: health, education, social inclusion and economic sustenance.”

During a home visit in Entre Ríos, Willy García, a nurse with the Social Justice Foundation, teaches muscle strengthening exercises to Yeydy Olivera. (Meinrad Scherer-Emunds/Bolivia)

The Social Justice Foundation has its offices on the campus of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers center in Cochabamba. Besides Loney and Siles, it employs nine people — a physical therapist, educators, community organizers, a nurse, a psychologist and support staff. Some are based in Cochabamba and others in the two rural communities where the organization works: Tacopaya, high up in the Andes, three and a half hours to the west, and Entre Ríos, in the tropics, about six hours to the east. 

Tacopaya is a remote, spread-out municipality of almost 100 Quechua indigenous villages on the slopes of the Andes — some at altitudes exceeding 13,000 feet. Getting there requires navigating steep dirt and gravel roads that are often washed out and impassable during the rainy season.

While the Tacopaya area has been losing population as younger people move to Cochabamba or other cities, the population of Entre Ríos is growing fast and includes a large influx of poor immigrants. These tropical lowlands are characterized by rain, lush vegetation and agriculture.

In both regions, the team collaborates with people with disabilities and their families and neighbors, as well as with municipal authorities. Team members go to the schools to help teachers make their classrooms more inclusive and integrate students with disabilities. They supplement classroom learning by visiting students’ homes.

The team also consults with hospitals and clinics. As a result of their efforts, for example, the municipal government of Entre Ríos recently added new integral health assessments for children entering kindergarten.

Early detection helps address the needs of children with disabilities at an earlier age, giving them more opportunities for intervention and rehabilitation. In workshops with parents, the nonprofit promotes prenatal and infant care, which can greatly reduce the prevalence of disabilities.

The Social Justice Foundation also organizes support groups for the elderly. Meetings include medical check-ups, physical therapy sessions, eye exams and health information for aging adults. Participants are provided good nutrition as well as eyeglasses, mobility aids and access to vital social services. Gatherings include traditional Andean music and dancing.

Siles shares a tender moment with Jhon Alex Muñoz as his mother, Doña Benita, looks on. Thanks to physical therapy, Jhon Alex can now walk. (Meinrad Scherer Emunds/Bolivia)

This year the program was expanded to offer home repairs and greenhouses to grow fresh vegetables. All activities are oriented to helping older adults remain independent, maintaining their dignity.

Loney, Siles and their staff also support people with disabilities and their families with economic sustenance initiatives. Thanks to their efforts, a visually impaired young father in Tacopaya now keeps beehives and sells honey. In Entre Ríos, a deaf young man has set up a car and motorcycle washing business.

One of the nonprofit’s largest livelihood initiatives was spearheading a collaborative project to restore a reliable water supply to a remote Andean community in mountainous Tacopaya. 

Every year, for Bolivia’s National Day of the Person with Disabilities on Oct. 15, the Social Justice Foundation organizes a celebration in Entre Ríos with games, food, traditional dances and other activities. Loney explains that the event conveys a message: “Despite all the hardships people with disabilities face in their daily lives, life is worth living.”

The celebration keeps growing each year to involve not just people with disabilities and their families but also the local school, government and community leaders. “People with disabilities are worthy of having a public platform,” Loney says. “They’re worthy of having a place where others can see and celebrate with them, and a public event like this helps to promote their social inclusion and gives them hope.”

The event leads to new connections as more people approach the team about a son, daughter, other relative or neighbor who has a disability and would benefit from the organization’s services.

“Our first years, the celebrations were pretty small and the families were quite shy. The parents were somewhat embarrassed to bring their children,” Siles recalls. “But each year, participation has grown and become more enthusiastic. At our most recent one, I noticed a big change, especially with the boys in the traditional dancing. It was great to see the happiness on their faces.”

“I couldn’t have imagined the evolution of this ministry when we started eight years ago with pretty much nothing,” Loney says. “We now serve many people, and I hope that God allows us to serve many more.”

Meinrad Scherer-Emunds is director of communications for the Maryknoll Lay Missioners.

Featured Image: On a farm near Entre Ríos, Bolivia, educator Eulalia Balderrama, of the Social Justice Foundation run by two Maryknoll lay missioners, assists 3-year-old Juan Mamani Rodriguez, who has Down syndrome. (Meinrad Scherer-Emunds/Bolivia)