Orange-hearted warriors

We are women, each battling our own life circumstances, but we are all united by our most important role in life, the most exciting and challenging at the same time: being mothers of children with special educational needs. Warrior mothers , because we all have children with ADHD. Orange-hearted , because our children's disorder is just one more color among the many that make up their fascinating personalities.

The path of motherhood with a child with disabilities is complicated. It's full of highs and lows, brimming with fears and uncertainties that are sometimes difficult to manage. It's a journey many families travel alone, and it was in that solitude, and in the search for support as caregivers, that we came to know each other through social media. "Orange Heart Warriors" arose from a need to raise awareness of our children's condition and to educate the community that lives alongside them every day.

Why have we joined together?

We are twenty women from all over Spain, with a common goal: to offer support to families who need information and training, who need guidance on this journey, who need to know they are not alone and that together we can. Our main objective is to become a compass for all those families who, like ours, have at some point lost their way.

We need people to understand and support not only our children, but also the many others affected who live with and struggle with this disorder every day. Children who, from their earliest years, are judged, labeled, isolated, and humiliated, not only by their peers, but by society as a whole. Our biggest battle is their education in schools. Every year, we encounter many teachers who don't understand or support our children due to their lack of involvement and training regarding this disorder.

Orange Heart Warriors arises from a need to make visible the disorder of our children and to raise awareness in the society that lives with them on a daily basis.

ADHD, a common disorder in the child population

We look back and remember being very young, exhausted just by watching them. When they couldn't even walk yet and moved around without needing to get up from the floor. Their strength, their intensity, their constant restlessness… We remember those captivating smiles capable of catching even the most elusive gaze. Running after them along paths and sidewalks when we left the house. We imagined they were bright, alert children and heard phrases like: "Don't worry," "Children need to move," "I prefer an active child to a sedentary one," etc. ADHD lands in our lives unannounced, still nameless, without resources, without reasons, without understanding… like a boat adrift.

Support and resources for families

To offer support to all families who need it, we've created a free Telegram group where they can share their questions, experiences, successes, and challenges along the way. The group includes families with children of all ages, but we all share similar situations. The small victories of others give us encouragement at many times, and our shared fears don't become overwhelming. We understand each other, support each other, share information, and, above all, find companionship.

ADHD lands in our lives unannounced, still without a name, without resources, without reasons, without understanding it… like a boat that carries you adrift.

We've also launched a Facebook and Instagram account to raise awareness of ADHD, a platform and a mirror in which any family with a member diagnosed with ADHD, or even adults with ADHD, can see themselves reflected. There, they'll find testimonials, strategies, live sessions with professionals, information about the disorder, and tools to help them manage it in their daily lives.

ADHD throughout life

Webinar

We are reaching out to all education professionals —those familiar with the disorder and those who are not, those who believe they are doing a good job and those who simply want to learn how to connect more closely with their students. We want to empower you as vital figures in our children's lives. You need tools, because we see every day at school that you lack them. Therefore, we welcome all teachers who wish to join our small but vibrant community with open arms. We need you; our children need you trained and equipped.

Finally, within this entire movement, where we are being given a voice through various media outlets, we want to break down the social stigma surrounding having a neurodevelopmental disorder . We need the rest of society to understand it and for us to be able to talk about it openly and naturally. We don't want to open doors for ourselves as warrior mothers; we want to open the doors to a dignified life for our children, the true heroes of this whole story.