Betty Cecilia Lugo

She studied Medicine and Special Education, in Venezuela and in the United States, at the University of Zulia and the University of Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the end of the 1960s, she moved to Lagunillas Municipality, Zulia, where she started the education for children with disabilities in the East Coast of Lake Maracaibo (Costa Oriental del Lago de Maracaibo). In that part of the country is located a main oil production center and the area includes all major cities in the western region of Zulia state.^[5][6]

She moved to Maracaibo in the 1980s where she founded the first association of the state of Zulia to treat depression and bipolar disorder. She was also co-founder of the charity association "La Casa de la Misericordia" in Maracaibo, where she served as an active benefactress.^[7][4]

Lugo was born in Caracas, Venezuela, on April 20, 1946. Her parents were Raúl Lugo Montero, born in La Vela de Coro, Falcón State, and Prefect of the Maracaibo District around 1950. Her mother was Dalia Emilia González Palmar de Lugo, born in Maracaibo. She went to primary school in Caracas. She started High School in the United States and finished it in Maracaibo at "Colegio de la Presentación, where she graduated with honors.^[8]

She died in Maracaibo, on September 23, 2017. Her remains rest in the church "Padre Antonio María Claret" in Maracaibo. She is survived by her son Luis Eduardo Giusti Lugo and her daughters María Elena Giusti Lugo and Claudia Giusti Lugo.^[3]

Lugo arrives at the East Coast of Lake Maracaibo in the late sixties. By that time Special Education was an unknown field and, as a consequence, it was not included in the educational programs of any public or private school. Disabled children were kept in their homes by their parents, without any interaction in society.^[9]

Lugo perceived this situation soon after her arrival in Lagunillas and started a crusade to claim attention on the problem. This is how the idea of creating a place for children with disabilities was born. She decided to start a campaign in order to found a school, where disabled children could be educated, play sports and have an active life outdoors.^[9]

Thanks to her skills on special education she succeeded in persuading ladies within local oil society to be part of a committee, in order to collect funds for the project. She also achieved that foreign oil corporations, operating in that part of the country, accepted to include the project into their donation programs.^[1][4]

AZUPANE-Lagunillas started on May 4, 1974, in a building with large gardens donated by Venezuelan Shell Company. A school bus was lately donated by the business community, to be used for the transportation of the students to the school.^[1][10]

AZUPANE- Lagunillas made the society of that part of Venezuela aware of the importance of special education. Lugo continued her crusade encouraging public and private bodies and corporations to start more projects on special education. When she left the oil district the school was fully settled, increasing the number of students every year. The local society had become aware of the situation of children in need of special education and the Ministry of Education envisioned similar projects. The school became lately part of the government special education program, which was developed after AZUPANE-Lagunillas and lately extended throughout that region of Venezuela.^[5] Today AZUPANE-Lagunillas is a public primary and high school for students with disabilities, called "Jesus Enrique Lossada Special Education Institute".