Finally the Factor-H team got together in Colombia in April 2022, after a hiatus of two and a half years. During the trip, Ignacio Muñoz and Roger Cachope went to visit the families and kids we support on the Caribbean states, and spent 8 days traveling from town to town…

Our New Horizons program continues to evolve. Through a house-by-house survey we conducted in 2021, we have identified many more kids at-risk for HD living in very difficult conditions. This video clearly displays the environmental context in which many of the kids enrolled in the program since 2015 live, many…

The current objective of this educational intervention is to standardize the learning of children at risk of HD not enrolled in school so that they can be inserted or reinserted into the official formal educational structure. We began this program in 2020 and following a short discontinuation due to the…

Education takes many forms. We approach the issue of educating our friends, depending on their ages, from various angles. We work with educators and psychologists to help them cope with the specter of the disease and the very difficult situations they experience at home, and because of the fact that…

Objective of the re-structuring To implement a restructuring of the existing Abrazos Program to provide equity, physical and mental health to all children and adolescents of families affected by Huntington’s Disease (HD) in Colombia and Venezuela. extends prior Abrazos Program to cover all children living in HD families, regardless of…

Program “Abrazos” is an ongoing program in Colombia since 2015 (40 children as of 2020), and also in Venezuela since 2019 (120 children as of 2020). This program covers basic assistance – food, clothes, school supplies, dental and medical access. Additionally, program covers recreational and educational events every 6 months…

Matt Rota is an illustrator who has recently become associated with our kids’ program at Factor-H. Below are some of the illustrations he created recently for some poems I wrote about the kids to commemorate the completion of the 5th year of the program in Colombia. What began as an…

<br /> A few months ago I wrote a story about meeting Brayan, a young kid at risk for HD from Barranquitas, Venezuela (see blog post “Reflections on instilling a sense of hope”). Together with colleagues Matt Rota (https://www.mattrotasart.com) and Nicanor Cardeñosa, we put together a narrated illustrated story of…

What is the difference between having no hope and having hope? Meet Brayan, a 13-year old boy I met when visiting the town of Barranquitas, in Venezuela, in December 2018, the last time I was able to visit. This town is a forsaken, isolated village where in every corner one…

The project ‘Abrazos’ (Hugs) started in 2015 and it aims to provide donations for children in Colombia and Venezuela living in families affected by HD and in extreme poverty conditions. Their family situation is dire and many of the kids have been abandoned by one of their parents. Often times,…