CENTRAL IL (HOI) - Following years of preparation and fundraising , a new program to help children with Cerebral Visual Impairment is launched.
Alex Camacho was diagnosed with CVI when he was eight months old.
From the beginning, his family struggled to get him a diagnosis or rehabilitation after. From then on they made a commitment to get help for others going through the same experience.
In 2008 the Camacho family traveled from their home in Morton, to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to see an expert on cerebral visual impairment and receive a diagnosis for Alex.
"Visual impairment can be rehabilitated with certain strategies. We just kept thinking, this would be so great if we could bring what were learning in Pittsburg and Cleveland back to Central IL," Alex's grandma, Susie Camacho said.
Alex was already working with Easterseals at the time, so the family decided to see if they wanted to collaborate and start a new program. Easterseals was on board.
"This program was born out of a need to provide school staff some support and figuring how to work with these kids and families also some support," Research and Development lead for ALEX program, Mindy Ely said.
Easterseals is partnering with schools to help them understand how to assess and support kids who are diagnosed with CVI.
"We also have a component where we go work with the family and the school to provide some support afterwards to help them integrate the recommendations and the ideas that were born from the assessment," Ely said.
Camacho says they've already started working The ALEX Program with the visual therapist at Morton schools. She says getting to this point was an uphill battle.
"When your baby needs so much as Alex needed as a baby, everyday is a struggle, and every appointment with a doctor can just be blow after blow, so it was just very hard," Camacho said.
But it was worth the fight if it meant getting Alex the help he needs and learning how to help others along the way.
"It just really means a lot to us that we are going to be able to help other children," Camacho said.
Easterseals is now actively working to partner with the medical community to make diagnostics less of a hurdle for families.
Susie Camacho says they continue to fundraise and grow The ALEX program. If you would like do donate, you can do so on Easterseals website.
As for Alex, he's doing great and turns 13 next week.
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Local family starts program to help those with Cerebral Visual Impairment - HOI ABC
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