Special Olympics-Azuay’s services include much more than helping young athletes

By Irene Gardner

Editor’s note: This is the first article in a series that highlights Cuenca’s (and Azuay Province’s) charitable organizations, programs and projects and their leaders and teams of volunteers.

Although there are many expats who have selflessly become involved in charity organizations that are making fantastic, positive impacts in Cuenca, many, but not all, volunteering expats have tended to become involved with the charities that were founded by other expats, possibly due to having a common language.

Raj Gupta (Special Olympics Professor) and Nelly Sarmiento (Provincial Director for the Special Olympics-Azuay)

However, it is doubtful that many expats know of the charity organizations founded in Ecuador, led and supported by Ecuadorian volunteers, with chapters in the Province of Azuay and, more specifically, in the city of Cuenca, many with some support provided through the Municipal GAD (Decentralized Autonomous Governments). The charity organization featured in this, the first story in the series, is the “Special Olympics-Azuay.”

The Special Olympics-Azuay organization would not be what it is today without its dynamic Provincial Director, Nelly Yolanda Sarmiento Pacheco. Director Sarmiento has been working with the Special Olympics-Azuay organization, a non-governmental entity, for nearly the entire 40 years of the organization’s existence.

In 1981, Director Sarmiento worked at the ADINEA school in Cuenca (located on C. Camilo Egas). This school helps to educate students with disabilities. She said that working in that school “led me to feel something very special within my heart for people with disabilities.” The Director added that “seeing the vulnerability, innocence and love of people with disabilities when doing sports and recreation” inspired her to become involved with the Special Olympics.

As with the Special Olympics organizations in the U.S., Europe, and other parts of the world, persons with disabilities make up the cadre of the participating athletes in its events. The Special Olympics competitions within Ecuador take place every two years in Quito.

Juan Sucuzhañay, (Special Olympics Swimming Coach) and Stanlee Espinoza, who is training for the triathlon event.

In preparation for their athletic competitions, Special Olympics-Azuay’s mission is not only to provide the coaching, the equipment, and the venues for the athletes to train in their chosen events, but also to give these special athletes the necessary encouragement and opportunities to develop and demonstrate their courage.

And it takes courage for each of these special athletes to expand their boundaries beyond their normal “comfort zones” — in their prowess in their chosen sports and in their ability to interact socially with their teammates, other athletes, and with the athletes’ families.

Director Sarmiento has approximately 15 volunteers who train 102 athletes to compete in their selected Olympic events. While these special athletes are in training to improve their sports’ aptitude, sportsmanship, strength and endurance, they are also coached in ways to improve their quality of life.

The Special Olympica-Azuay program is currently in need of equipment, additional permissions and time slots at athletic training facilities, and trained instructors for the athletes in the various sporting events that are included in the Special Olympics. Based on past experience, these special athletes ultimately experience genuine heartfelt joy through their accomplishments, through competitions, and the development of their relationships with the Special Olympics-Azuay coaching staff.

To ensure her charges — whom she calls “Champions” — are given the best possible support through the Special Olympics’ programs, Director Sarmiento actively recruits volunteers from institutions established for teaching and working with people with disabilities as well as universities with programs that teach students in the methods required to help persons with disabilities to thrive.

Special Olympics Champions training for the Soccer Event.

All of Director Sarmiento’s volunteers have special training for the work they do, including physical culture, and, as a multi-disciplinary team, they lead training workshops. The disabilities of the people with which Director Sarmiento and her volunteers are currently working are intellectual, physical, visual, psychological and social.

What is not widely known about the Special Olympics-Azuay, however, is that this organization has stepped up to take on more responsibility than just training athletes with disabilities for Special Olympics. Director Sarmiento’s organization is now not only helping non-athlete persons with disabilities, but also the disenfranchised and vulnerable communities within Azuay who have somehow fallen through the cracks of society, such as, the forgotten elderly, widows and widowers, the homeless, families in crisis, formerly trafficked individuals, and other endangered members of Azuay’s population.

Per Director Sarmiento, “Today, thanks to several enacted governmental policies focused on society’s most vulnerable groups, the most vulnerable population within Ecuador has become a priority, and those special citizens have benefited from these policies. The Special Olympics-Azuay organization has seen the need to leave its own comfort zone with the aim of generating more comprehensive benefits and programs.”

Director Sarmiento added, “The leaders, volunteers and support staff who make up the Special Olympics-Azuay organization in the canton of Cuenca in particular, and in the Province of Azuay in general, have a deep sense of compassion for humankind, a commitment to what they have taken on as their responsibilities, with an unshakeable belief that their work generates an enhanced feeling of well-being in each person with whom they interact.”

Diego Sucuzhaña (Coliseum Liaison) and Natalia Narbaez (Special Olympics Volunteer).

Additionally, the Special Olympics-Azuay program provides informational classes for persons with disabilities as well as their families and/or caregivers. Such informational classes help families and caregivers learn how to deal more adequately with possible adverse situations, to learn more about advances in healthcare and safety for the disabled, and perhaps to learn how to better manage the myriad of issues that are specific to the person in their care.

One of Director Sarmiento’s volunteers is Raj Gupta (pictured above with Nelly Sarmiento). Raj, as a professor with the Special Olympics, has taken on as his task the coordination, leadership and development of special projects and classes on behalf of the Special Olympics-Azuay organization.

Sarmiento concluded, “We at Special Olympics-Azuay have a goal to better the lives of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable persons in need of support. That goal mandates our efforts to encourage social acceptance and to educate communities about the challenges faced by these persons.”

To make a donation in support of the Special Olympics and its additional projects and classes targeted to help persons with disabilities, families in crisis, and other vulnerable persons; or to learn more about the classes provided by the Special Olympics-Azuay; or to sponsor an athlete for one year ($125); and/or to learn more about the critical needs of the Special Olympics-Azuay, you may contact the Special Olympics-Azuay office via What’s App text at 098 478 7828 or by email at oeazuay@hotmail.com. (Currently, written and oral communications must be in Spanish.)

You may also follow Special Olympics-Azuay on their Fan Pages, “Olimpiadas Especiales Azuay”, on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and others). The office for the Special Olympics-Azuay is located at Luis Cordero 5-21 and Honorato Vásquez, (el Sagrario), Luis Cordero Building, 5th floor, Office #4, Cuenca.