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Claireth Mendoza’s 6-year-old son Drake wriths in his mother’s lap. She asks him to raise his head and the boy straightens up.
Drake has cerebral palsy and until recently had trouble doing simple things like looking up at his mother.
Mendoza credits Drake’s improvement to treating horses using guided horseback riding that affects posture, coordination, and muscle movement compromised by cerebral palsy.
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“It’s been slow, but the progress is pretty noticeable,” Mendoza said.
Drake is one of 103 patients treated at the Caracas Integrative Therapy Center Foundation (CTIV) in Venezuela, a nonprofit that provides horse-based therapy to children and adolescents with physical disabilities.
CTIV is not closed to low-income households and subsidizes 50-100% of costs for some economically distressed households.
The aid has been a lifeline for 26-year-old Mendoza, who is unemployed in the world’s most inflationary country.
Patricia de Chumaceiro, Founder and Director of CTIV, said:
Chumaceiro’s inspiration for opening CTIV in 2008 was personal. Her youngest son, now 18, was born with cerebral palsy and has been in private equine therapy.
Located on a 13,000-square-meter site on a hilltop east of the Venezuelan capital, CTIV employs a team of 16 people, including social workers, psychologists, speech and occupational therapists, and physical therapists, to conduct 45-minute sessions. Help children with 2. Or 3 times a week.
Riding lessons, art galleries, and facility rentals help pay subsidies for families like Drake.
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For Mendoza, the opportunity for Drake’s free treatment was a relief when she sometimes struggles to put food on the table.
“I am very grateful (…) there has been a lot of progress,” she said.