Providing educational opportunities for persons with disabilities in developing countries using solely volunteer contributions isn’t easy, but Jennifer Catron and Edwin Blanton have found a way to work this mission into the fabric of their lives, and the result is impressive.

While working as Peace Corps volunteers in the Eastern Caribbean island of Dominica, the two young professionals met and instantly bonded. This partnership resulted in the creation of the San Antonio-based international non-profit organization Ready, Willing…Enable! Inc. (RWE).

Ready, Willing…Enable! provides access to education for persons with disabilities, education to family members of persons with disabilities about the disability, and education to communities that “disability is not inability”. Eighty percent of persons with disabilities worldwide live in developing countries, according to the UN Development Programme (UNDP). Ninety percent of children with disabilities in these countries do not attend school, says the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

With 98 cents of every dollar raised going toward programming, since 2006 Ready, Willing…Enable! has been able to achieve a lot! RWE has provided multi-disciplined educational programs for youth with disabilities in Dominica, assisted persons with disabilities by helping them access transportation, education classes, and Special Olympics games.

With 98 cents of every dollar raised going toward programming, since 2006 Ready, Willing…Enable! has been able to achieve a lot!

Accomplishments include:

• Conducted annual week-long interdisciplinary day camps for students with disabilities in Dominica. Over two hundred youth have benefited from these free programs!
• Coordinated service trips abroad for over 60 RWE Ambassadors, giving them the opportunity to learn a lot about themselves in the process.
• Sponsored a program for House of Hope to train 12 caretakers in the care of young adult residents with disabilities, PLUS conducted a one-day camp there.
• Provided funds across several years to keep the only wheelchair accessible vehicle in Dominica in operation.
• Provided computers for a school for children with autism in Paraguay.
• Arranged and sponsored the tuition, room, board ,and books for one student who is blind to achieve their university degree.
• Provided educational programming for approximately 400 San Antonio-area youth with regards to developing countries and disability awareness.
• Provided supplies and tutored/mentored students at a school for children with disabilities in Mexico.
• Provided laptop computers, a brailler, and other supplies for students with disabilities in Dominica.