Teresa is 21 years old, with Down syndrome of moderate severity. She looks like a young teenager, though she insists on being treated as an independent adult.
She carries a double heritage—French and Italian citizenship, a bicultural upbringing.
She arrived in Rome in 1964, when she was six.
In those days, no one spoke of integrating disabled children into regular schools.
For ten years, she attended a special school for children with behavioral or physical disabilities. There she learned to speak, read, write, and do basic arithmetic, along with simple manual work—all in a reassuring environment, far from the demands of the mainstream world.
By age 16, Teresa had always been well cared for at home. She started going to the swimming pool: first for private lessons, then soon after to group classes with other children.
A harder period followed. Teresa needed school, work, and a social life—things that were essential to her wellbeing. During these years, she joined Faith and Light groups and always came home happy, saying: "I have so many friends!"
We will always be grateful to Faith and Light for what it gave her.
November 1974. A three-year weaving program opened at the ANFAS center at Villa Marini. Teresa attended faithfully, learning various techniques at the loom, with needle and thread, working with needles. Encouraged by her teachers, she gained a new sense of independence. Attempts were made to place her alongside non-disabled girls in public and private vocational training schools. She learned to go to school alone on public transport. Outside school, she joined the scouts at San Saturnino. She went willingly, though she didn't always take a very active part.
July 1977. The weaving course ended. It made sense to leave Villa Marini; there was no room for her to grow there anymore.
Teresa went back to studying and earned her primary school certificate in a special section at Scuola Vittorino da Feltre in October 1976.
Lucia Pennisi, 1979
