Santiago Bilinkis l Risk and Reward - Trying to live a life out of the comfort zone

Uruguay, January 1980

She was 17. He was 19.

In the middle of Summer they decided to take a break from their jobs as a secretary and a bank employee and spend a few days camping with friends close to Cerro del Toro in Piriápolis. The weather was good for a few days of rest at the beach.

On January 7th they decided to take his motorcycle (a Gilera 150) and head to El Chuy, a small town in the Brazilian border, to do some shopping, replenish the camp and, at the same time, spend some time alone. It was a very hot day, they were wearing sporting clothes, shorts, running shoes.

After the visit was over, they headed back to camp.  Exhausted by the heat, they stopped at a bar along the route to drink some fresh water and had a small argument because she, overheated and with her hair down to her waist, did not want to use the helmet anymore. Very decisive, he simply said: “If you don’t wear it, I leave you here”. And with that determination his decision defined the fate of her life.

A couple of few hours later, around 6PM, the sun was still shining high. When they got to a crossroad called El Trébol de Piriapolis (The Clover of Piriapolis), they suddenly saw a bus coming out of control in their direction. They tried to stop, but the crash seemed inevitable. And then the miracle happened.

The bus did not stop. No. Neither could avoid them. She does not remember the moment, but the bus hit them tough.

When she regained conscience, she felt the blood streaming from her forehead like a waterfall. She was on a vehicle… an ambulance. Her immediate reaction was to reach her arm for him. She touched him at her side. A long time passed by before they told her he was dead.

It was a tragedy. For him. And for her, who suffered serious injuries which left her with difficulties to move still today.

And it was also a miracle. A miracle that today, almost thirty years after, is still the motor of Bea’s life to help thousands of people.

It is not that it wasn’t painful. It took her years to leave behind her pain. Years to beat the forecast that she would never walk again. Months to heal the wounds in the body and years to heal the ones on her soul.

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Dating to a few months back, I spend one day a month (my “Non Profit-day”) with a Social Entrepreneur, thanks to Ashoka’s help. A few weeks ago, I met Bea Pelizzari and the organization she created, La Usina.

In their own words, La Usina “promotes a change of attitude with respect to the handicapped, to allow them to exercise their full citizenship rights.”

With Bea we visited a couple of the Protected Factories helped by La Usina. There, men and women with different levels of handicap (generally mental) work, not to be entertained, not to rehabilitate. They work because being productive is their right. And their potential. Because it empowers their autonomy, gives them space in society and contributes to a full citizen life.

The visit was extremely interesting and I plan to write about that soon.

But in a day that was very emotional from the beginning to the end, what impressed me the most was the miracle on that January 7th, 1980. I could see how to some people who survive, tragedy anyway destroys the, while it makes others find who they really are and serves as a motor to live lives that are bolder, riskier, more committed with others.

No one could imagine that sunny day that a life was lost, another one was shaken and thousand were changed to be able to overcome disability and live a fulfilling life, “being valued and respected in their diversity.”

The need is huge. Much bigger than you may imagine.

Only in Argentina, there are over 2.2 million people with disabilities.
The impact reaches 8.8 million if you consider immediate family.
One out of five Argentinean homes have a disabled person.
And 38,4% have no medical coverage whatsoever.
Unemployment rate in this group exceeds 40%.
And 43.9% of the homes, the disabled person in the person directly in charge of the home

Sources: National Survey on Disability 2004 (National Institute of Statistics and Census), ILO

In this terrible context, La Usina tries to set people with disabilities free.

You can help La Usina by donating money, voluntary work and especially by signing for the “Que se cumplan” campaign, that promotes the laws on disability that already exist in Argentina be complied. You can also gather other people’s signatures. Here you can see some of the persons who already signed.

I am very thankful for Bea for what he taught me that day and because she allowed me to share her story with all of you.

I close with a quotation from Eduardo Galeano that I saw in a Protected Factory’s wall and is one of the main phrases at La Usina: “Somos lo que hacemos para cambiar lo que somos.” (”We are what we do to change what we are”).