Leonardo, 25, has muscular dystrophy, a disability that causes progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. He has lived in a residential institution for persons with disabilities in Brazil since he was 15. His mother felt she had no choice but to place him there. “I suffered deeply when Leonardo had to be moved into the institution…, but I had no other alternative. The state doesn’t provide me with any support to care for him at home,” she said. Her hope was that the institution could care for him in a way she could not.

Leonardo shared a room with 24 other men and women with disabilities. Beds placed directly next to one another, without even a curtain for privacy. Leonardo had no control over his life, subject to the schedule and decisions of the institution. He remained stuck in bed most of the day, even for meals, with nothing meaningful to do: 

I am placed in the wheelchair in the mornings, but I have to be put back to bed because … there is no one to put me back again in the evenings. I miss my home and would want to live with my mother, but I understand she is getting older and wouldn’t be able to support me physically.

In 2017, Leonardo moved back with his mother for a short period because the institution where he lived could no longer provide the specialized support he needed. By the end of 2018 he will move again to a different institution that is now under construction.

Report by the Human Rights Watch