Alumna strengthens ties to KU, helps children in Peru

Alumna Liliana Mayo, g'86, PhD'96, was featured in November in the New York Times' annual "Giving" section. In 1979, Mayo established a school in her native Peru to help children with autism. To strengthen her program, she later came to KU, where she trained at the Schiefelbusch Institute for Life Span Studies. She continues to work with her KU colleagues, including Judith LeBlanc, professor emerita in human development and family life. The following story is reprinted with permission, and will be available from December 11, 2002 through January 9, 2003.

Chancellor Hemenway with children last summer at the Anne Sullivan Center in Lima, Peru. Photo courtesy University Relations

Reprinted from
The New York Times

November 18, 2002, Monday, Late Edition - Final

OVERSEAS
Her Long-Distance Connections Came Through

By JOHN O'NEIL

CALL it a philanthropic version of "Six Degrees of Separation." How else to explain the link between Vincent and Mary Spader's farm nine miles west of Oldham, S.D., population 206, and the center for children with autism that Dr. Liliana Mayo Ortega started in her parents' garage in Lima, Peru?

Some charitable efforts are planned on a grand scale. Others just happen, one person at a time. Such is the case with Dr. Mayo's program, the Centro de Anne Sullivan del Peru.

Autism derails the development of skills during early childhood, including those on which language and social interaction are built. Compared with hunger, H.I.V. or malaria, the disorder does not loom large among the burdens facing the world's poor children. But for the families of children with the disorder, it is not a small matter.

Treatments exist for autism, but the cost of the intense, specialized teaching that is involved can make it difficult for even parents in the United States to obtain, let alone in a third-world country.

All indications are that the autism caseload is soaring in poor and rich countries alike, said Robert L. Beck, the executive director of the Autism Society of America.

Mr. Beck said he was not aware of any organized efforts to provide support for autism services overseas. "All of the autism organizations here are really scrambling because they're caught up in this explosion," he said.

Dr. Mayo's work began when, during her internship as a psychology student, she was transferred from a hospital to a special education school -- "as a punishment for asking too many questions," she said. There she met Patty, an autistic girl. "When I tried to teach her I realized that she learned fast," Dr. Mayo said. A priest then took her to see other autistic children, and what she still remembers as "just horrible things -- kids in cages, kids tied to chairs."

Two years later, in 1979, she opened the school, named after Helen Keller's teacher, in her parents' home. In 1984, with about 50 children enrolled, Dr. Mayo's parents sold a house they owned "so I could go the United States and see if we were doing a good job or not," she recalled. Dr. Mayo applied to the University of Kansas in Lawrence because she had been impressed with the writings of a psychologist there, Dr. Judith LeBlanc.

Once in the United States, Dr. Mayo said, she asked every autism specialist she met to visit her school and help train her staff. "The only teacher who accepted the challenge was Dr. LeBlanc," she said.

Dr. LeBlanc describes her first visit to the center as a bit of a lark. "I agreed because I was footloose and fancy free," she remembered. She was also in the area, Venezuela, and Dr. Mayo persuaded an airline to give her a free ticket.

Her reaction, Dr. LeBlanc said, is one she hears echoed from professors who come to help, "You people are doing what we talk about in the books, but don't always do."

That was when a path began to be worn between Lima and Lawrence. Every spring semester, Dr. Mayo headed north to chip away at a master's degree and then a doctorate in psychology, and every summer Dr. LeBlanc went south with a steadily increasing cadre of students and professors in tow. Dr. Mayo estimates that more than 300 people from the university have made the trip, often using tickets provided by American Airlines.

Dr. Mayo spent her time in Lawrence doing more than reading books. "I tried not only to study but to look for funding," she said. "Always I find people who would give you a little money, but also try to find you other connections."

Through Dr. LeBlanc, Dr. Mayo met a couple, Drs. Stephen and Carolyn Schroeder, who had created a nonprofit group called Annie Sullivan Enterprises to help students with disabilities who could not afford proper treatment. The Schroeders arranged for their group to accept donations to give to Dr. Mayo's center, which made them eligible for a tax deduction.

Word of Dr. Mayo's work spread to the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, a charity in Kansas City that sponsors children around the world. Members of the foundation pay $50 a month each to sponsor 42 of Dr. Mayo's students, according to its chief executive, Paco Wertin.

Several Roman Catholic churches in the Lawrence area set aside a yearly collection for Dr. Mayo's school. A priest at the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas asked his chief fundraiser, John M. Flynn, to see "if there was anything more we could do to help her out," Mr. Flynn said. He called Vincent Spader, who had been a partner of Mr. Flynn's father in an organic fertilizer business.

MR. FLYNN knew that the Spaders were financing housing projects in Mexico built by Roman Catholic missions. An-other business they ran, selling health products, had begun to make a larger contribution to charity possible, Mary Spader said in an interview. "Vincent always wanted to do something over-seas, but he wanted to make sure it went through the proper hands to where it was needed," she recalled. They felt secure "because John Flynn knew Liliana." The Spaders pledged $40,000 to construct the first portion of a new building for the center, Mr. Flynn said.

That summer, Mr. Spader died. Mrs. Spader met Dr. Mayo, consulted her own children -- "They all kind of participate, since I'm using their inheritance," she said -- and pledged an additional $120,000 for the first handicapped accessible structure in Peru. Since fulfilling that pledge, Mrs. Spader has continued to send $3,000 a month to the center, according to Mr. Flynn.

All told, Dr. Mayo said, assistance from overseas makes up about 80 percent of the center's budget. It doesn't all come from the American Midwest -- the Dutch Postal Lottery, for instance, provided $800,000 for the building and a painter from the Netherlands, Joop van der Wal, spent last week in-stalling the 40 paintings he had cre-ated in 12 hours to raise money for the center.

The center now serves 350 students, ranging in age from early childhood to early adulthood, with autism or other developmental disabilities. It emphasizes parent training, and its services include behavioral teaching, vocational instruction and job placement, Dr. Mayo said. The goal is to prepare students to live independently; in fact, she said, several graduates are their family's sole support.

The center also serves as a model for eight similar programs around Latin America and provides information through its Spanish-language Web site, annsullivan .fundaciontelefonica.org.pe/. "They know that the dollars they give us we stretch a lot," Dr. Mayo said of her donors. "We're very proud that we do first-class programs with fourth-class salaries."

Mr. Flynn, who has heard and made plenty of appeals himself, cited several factors that have made Dr. Mayo successful in finding support. "She has high expectations for those kids and great love for what she does," he said. "After being around for 20- plus years, she's a proven commodity."

Copyright (c) 2002 by The New York Times Company.
Reprinted by permission.

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