Teletón – It’s All of Us

By Katia Fazio

I remember it every year, like clockwork.

The excitement, the ads on television and on billboards around the city, the assemblies at my school which encouraged us to donate because the smallest donations could make the biggest change… I even remember the song, created as publicity with a very catchy rhythm, about the account number to donate in (24.500-03) which probably every Chilean knows. It is probably one of the biggest events in the country. November is the month of the Chilean telethon (colloquially called, ‘la Teletón’): a charity that comes together annually to raise money for children with developmental disabilities and their treatment. It is broadcasted live on most national television channels for 27 hours and it aims to surpass the amount collected the previous year. Since it first aired in 1978, it has only failed to achieve its goal twice.

In this article, I will shed light into the history of Teletón and its development, highlighting its impact on the Chilean population. This will be seen both from the impact of donations and the rehabilitation centres on disabled children, who are the main beneficiaries of the charity, and the role of Teletón in raising societal awareness regarding disabilities.

Long before the existence of Teletón, in 1947, an association of medics and parents jointly created a rehabilitation centre for children that had suffered from poliomyelitis, an infection that often causes paralysis [source]. After the development of the vaccine against polio, The Aid Society for Disabled Children (Sociedad Pro-Ayuda al Niño Lisiado), as the rehabilitation centre was called, widened its focus and accepted children with other conditions that affected their psychomotor development. As a charity, it required donations to continue operating but it was only towards the mid-1970s that the Sociedad Pro-Ayuda found itself in financial difficulties – which is when Teletón comes in play. A famous television host wanted to create a charity event for a group in need, when he met the president of the Sociedad Pro-Ayuda and decided to raise a million US dollars for the organisation through his wide television outreach. He communicated with national television services to air his programme, and it was an impressive success: he raised almost 2.5 million USD. What was initially planned as a five-year project resulted in the ratification of the Teletón Foundation, which would organise the event annually for (nearly) every coming year [source].

Today, Teletón is one of, if not the biggest, televised programmes in Chile. With the money collected through the years, fourteen rehabilitations centres have opened along the country. The development of innovations has led these centres to remodel and acquire new technologies to aid the children’s rehabilitation. This not only means better treatment for current patients, but also the possibility to accept more patients every year. Only in 2020, nearly 30.000 people were treated in Teletón, a number which has increased through time [source]. Moreover, the amount of money raised through Teletón has increased exponentially: if the initial amount in 1978 was 2.5 million USD, the amount collected in 2022 was approximately 42 million USD – a 1580% increase [source]. In a country with a population just over 19 million people, the help Teletón provides and the outreach it achieves is remarkable.

Even though Teletón has received criticism claiming it provides a paternalistic perspective towards disabled people, it has also played a significant role and done immeasurable work to increase both awareness and visibility of disabilities in Chile. Of course, there is a vast amount of publicity through television or billboards, but Teletón has also engaged in other methods. For example, the Foundation created a ‘mascot’, Teletín, that attends different events. It is specially popular with children.

In my own experience, every year, Teletón representatives would come to my school to talk about the work they were doing, and often it was people who had been treated by the organisation that would shed light on their own experience and treatment. By expanding the voices of disabled people instead of telling their stories for them, Teletón always attempted to step away from prejudice and stigmatisation. This way of learning and raising awareness is particularly effective for young children and teenagers, and always made an impact among my classmates when those meetings ended. Nevertheless, one of the most significant experiences related to Teletón and their campaign for awareness is when they contacted my school (and many others) so that the older students would go to a rehabilitation centre. This was an opportunity I still hold close to my heart and made me realise the importance of Teletón as an organisation and the work they do.

Now, Teletón is an event that people wait for with high expectations. In a country deeply divided by the political spectrum and socio-economic demands, Teletón is one of the beacons of hope that unite the Chilean people without fail every single year.