History

Familia Unida began with Irma. In 1990, Irma was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, a chronic illness that changed her life forever. Irma was only 28 years old and discovered that she was paralyzed from the waist down; the doctors said she would never walk again. As a mother of two young children, despair and depression soon followed and Irma felt that ending her life may be her best option. As she struggled through this difficult time, Irma discovered that there were others with her same condition, except they didn't have the services that most patients received because they didn't speak English. This shocked Irma, as she soon began to discover the many Latinos affected by the disease, yet alienated from any proper care.

In 1991 she had a realization: she stopped feeling sorry for herself and decided to help the Latino population afflicted with Multiple Sclerosis. Irma, with the help of her family, began what is known today as Familia Unida. The project had humble beginnings, Irma invited her new members to the Resendez home, where they had Bar-B-Q's and shared their experiences about living with MS. Irma was able to develop intimate relationships with her new members, and was able to connect spiritually with the MS community; living with the disease can take away all hope from one's life, but with their new group, they were able to support and love each other, and improve their overall quality of life. This soon became Irma's mission. With her broken oven as her file cabinet, Irma began serving approximately 20 families. She provided valuable Spanish resources that still weren't available; she visited patients in hospitals; she translated for doctors; and she did it all with love and dedication, sometimes simply singing them a song or telling them a story.