This book presents an ethnographic case study of the personal
motivations, advocacy, and activation of social capital needed to create
and sustain the Immortelle Children's Centre, a private school that has
served children with disabilities in Trinidad/Tobago for four decades.
Based on narratives by parents from the 1980's, current parents,
teachers, community advocates, and the author, who was the founder of
Immortelle in 1978, the study views the school within the context of a
nation standing in a liminal space between developed and developing
societies. It argues that the attainment of equity for children with
disabilities will require an agenda that includes a legal mandate for
education of all children, increased public funding for education,
health and therapeutic services, and an on-going public awareness
campaign. Relating this study to the global debate on inclusion, the
author shows how the implementation of this agenda would have to be
adapted to the social, cultural, and economic realities of the
society.