Yara’s Story

The name Yara means small butterfly; also, strength, courage, and power. When our Yara entered this world, like a butterfly she flitted into our lives, transforming our world in her own special way.

Yara Samaroo was born July 5, 2014 and received a diagnosis of Trisomy 21 (T21), commonly known as Down Syndrome after her birth. Further to that, there were health challenges in the first year of her life. 

• At just 3 days old she underwent her first life-saving surgery to clear an intestinal constriction.

• Then at 5 months old, a second major surgery to repair a major hole in her heart.

After that time of challenge, her health and development were on a steady path of improvement. She continued to blossom from day-to-day. 

Nonetheless, her larger-than-normal abdomen had always been a concern for us and was the subject of much prayer and medical specialist consultations. 

While overseas on vacation, an undetected intestinal issue was at the root of Yara’s sudden passing on April 1, 2018 (just 3 months shy of her 4th birthday). Yara left this physical body for heaven on no more an auspicious day than an Easter Sunday, Resurrection Day!

Yara showed us the unimaginable enormity of God’s love for us. She too showed a type of unconditional love, for others and was fond of animals. 

Through Yara we were moved to compassion, as our eyes became open to a world that many people are unaware even exist. A world where:

• kids live in Intensive Care Units (ICUs).

• kids and adults with disabilities are overlooked or disregarded because they do not express themselves in a manner that most consider typical, or they are incapable of physically moving the entire body

• learning to make the smallest movement is harder than climbing Mt. Everest.

Along this journey, we met persons who could neither move the majority of their body, nor speak in a way we understand, but had multiple university degrees, or understood multiple languages. 

Thanks to the help of Brain Developmental Specialists at Doman International, little Yara herself, although just 3 years old, was able to read and understand what she was reading at the level of a 7-8 yr old. 

• Yara read specially designed books on Engineering, Science, Geography, World Figures, and Animals.

• She could identify world monuments by name, past U.S. Presidents, famous composers, different types of plants, trees and flowers, and animals.

• She knew about the water cycle, how flight, buoyancy, and photosynthesis worked.

• She complemented her spoken language with sign language. In fact, her knowledge of sign was always more advanced than our own and we often had to play catch up with her.

• She also knew the addition and subtraction of numbers less than 100.

Yara faced many challenges with great determination.

Yara taught us that all achievements by kids are worthy of a celebration! The beauty of watching Yara grow in slow motion revealed to us how amazing God is. The things we took for granted with the development of a typical kid, we got to see how much effort it took for her to achieve. 

Our hearts were filled with joy watching her antics. She was never to be outdone by her big sister Arya!

Yara was a ray of sunshine to all who were privileged to know her, as she exuded pure joy. The memory of who she was and what she achieved is embodied within this Foundation, building a legacy that will continue for many generations to come.