Project Play Continues

13 03 2011

I can’t even believe how this project continues to move forward. We worked the last two weeks giving the adolescents 1 on1 sessions assisting them during their play sessions with the little ones on their “caseload.” It was so much fun. I continue to be thrilled with the supervisors, Ana Maria and Wan Su (physical therapy students from Cali in their final few months of school). They do such a great job assisting the adolescents and keeping the session moving. Mostly I just love their attitudes– they are doing a great job. Here are a few quick pics of the adolescents conducting the play sessions.

Right before I left, we had a little party to kick off the program. We invited all the staff, ate Doritos and cake, and signed the contracts. This was a pretty significant moment for the leaders (adolescents) because from this point on, they will be receiving payment for their work. Also, I surprised them with the awesome t-shirts that I had made. They (of course) loved that too!!

The ProjectPlay crew with Cappie

I am really proud of how the workers at the orphanage are embracing this project too. Last Thursday, I finally officially presented the entire program to the psycho-social staff. They all were very supportive and thought it was a fantastic idea. In fact, one social worker commented that she had already seen a change in the way that the adolescents were addressing the younger kids in the institution– with more interest and acknowledgment. The director of the orphanage told me about several of the adolescents visiting her a few days before teaching her about motor development of infants and gross motor activities you could do to strengthen development (and they were using this type of language to talk about it. And one of the psychologists had a fantastic idea: they could have monthly meetings with the adolescents to talk about the progress of the children and treatment ideas. She saw so much potential in the project, they she wanted to be more involved. She talked about how it would help the adolescents but also how a meeting would help her and the other professionals and they can inform the professionals about changes they are observing to make their tri-monthly evaluations more accurate.

And everyday there are more and more kids interested in participating. Right now, only those that are 13 and older are able to be leaders. However, there are 4 younger girls (11 and 12 year olds) who are VERY interested in participating and have been involved and helpful throughout the entire training process. Thus, Ana is going to give them “future of ProjectPlay” classes every week. They will not be official leaders and will not receive pay, but they will work with Ana and learn about development, how to fill out the forms, develop their skills working with the children and will eventually age into the program.

I left feeling really good about what we were. And now they have about a month “trial period” while I am in Peru to see what hiccups there might be… and then we can brainstorm changes once I get back.

Once again, thanks to all of you who have had a role in making with program happen. So far it has been a great success!!

KO

Kelly's Wonderful Work with Orphans with Disabilities

This was my second time in Ethiopia working at Kebeb Tsehay and I feel pretty comfortable with the people and knowing my way around things so we didn't have any problems jumping right in. I had a few days to dig through and process everything I noted my first day back to the orphanage and get an idea of what we could feasibly accomplish during our short time (no matter how long you are in Ethiopia, it is always short- I have decided I could live there full time...now there's a thought! :) and never feel like I get it all done). Alex is seriously AMAZING. He is SO dedicated to the children with disabilities at the orphanage and I have so much faith in his capabilities. I mean we can teach him or show him something once and he just gets it. He's creative and smart and loves these children as his own.

(Alex)

It is also reassuring to know Alex's presence is constant and stable. We know, therefore, anything we invest in him- time, money, equipment, training- the children will benefit more fold that we can probably grasp. We were so excited to create a "physical therapy binder" of sorts which was birthed from a three hour training program we gave to the nurses. We had an informal, practical session with the nurses at the orphanage reviewing appropriate positioning specific for each child, development and how to best intervene with each child to prevent deformity and improve quality of life. If there is something I learned from last time, the best thought-out training with the best preparation is only as good as the people you present to. I need to clarify- I presented to AMAZING caregivers last time. They were interested and engaged during the training sessions and implemented so many of our recommendations in the following week. When I returned this time around, I realized that there had been SO many changes at the orphanage. There have been new directors, new buildings of epic proportions (literally, I had to do some double takes to make sure I was still at the same place!), the old buildings are undergoing renovations, the school building has changed and there have been a lot of changes in caregiver staff. In fact, there were only about four caregivers that were the same. Many have apparently retired or moved on, along with all the information we presented 1.5 years ago. We've been brainstorming and our future plans are for another post entirely, but our wheels are turning for longevity and sustainability of all projects, including training sessions. So the nurses we're very interested in our training program and once again, began implementing our strategies quickly. Nick and I know this is all fantastic but lessons learned, how can we assure all of these new strategies will continue with more staff changes?

Alex and Kelly with Binders

We received special permission to take pictures of some of the children for this binder. We spent one morning working individually with each child, taking pictures of different positions and physical therapy interventions. We were assured that a few basic English comments alongside each picture could be read since the time to translate just wasn't there, so we created a 22 page document that includes color pictures with simple, easy to read blurbs describing the what the picture displays. I was actually fairly shocked at how many hours this took to set up, format and print (although I shouldn't be surprised that things take long in Ethiopia by now :) ), but all that just made the final product that much more gratifying. We made two copies- one to be kept in the room with the children for the nursing and caregiver staff that have a few less pages because some of the higher level physical therapy interventions could cause damage over the long term if not implemented exactly correctly, and another for Alex that was complete with all the pages including those related to the stander (we'll be getting there too, I promise!). If the nursing staff changes, there is a copy for the new nurses to see with clean pictures and descriptions. If the binder disappears from the orphanage, Alex, our dependable, reliable, wonderful friend and who spends the mornings of Monday-Friday at Kebeb Tsehay, has another copy that he can recreate if needed. We used binders, page protectors and a simple format to hopefully increase the life span of our training manuals. This binder is the first on a small scale of what we're thinking for the future, but it's a start having taken some previous lessons with future visions which is what this partnership is all about.

K

Pat and Kathy's Final Days in Shanghai

Good morning everyone,

We are up and moving here in Shanghai. We were woken up last night at about 3 am as many in the hotel are up watching TV. We think everyone is trying to get updates on the earthquake. Our last days in Shanghai went by so fast. On Thursday, we spoke to rehabilitation center staff on the topics of speech therapy and cerebral palsy yesterday. They are eager to learn and we did several practical demonstrations of techniques for them. We also spoke to a group of community parents on techniques for children with autism. We did both practical demonstrations and lectures. They were very grateful. In the afternoon yesterday, we spoke to the teachers of the children with autism about setting goals for these children and how to improve their educational. We are so pleased to have the opportunity to work with so many different types of staff, so that even more children can benefit.

Last night after speaking for almost 6 hours we were invited to a reception dinner by the director of SCH. The vice director was also there and we teased about her about being the "director of food " because she always picks the dishes at the dinners. This dinner was traditional Shanghai cuisine; several whole fish, a dish I think was tripe, roasted duck, a soup with fish balls in it and a delicious desert soup with small dough balls it. Everyone loved dessert and the whole dinner was delicious.

We all summarized our visit and they were very pleased with the outcome of all our training. The best part of the trip was meeting all the children who will be part of the Gladney partnership. They were so amazing and we can't wait to see them find their forever families.

We need to get breakfast and leave for the plane. More summary of our trip and more photos to follow in a few days.

Pat and Kathy

Brace Trafficking

13 03 2011

Well. Lets call it just one more lesson learned.

It turns out, that if one has more than 10 of the same item when they travel internationally… said person must prove that they are not going to sell the items. To get more specific, if one asks a friend who is coming to visit to bring “a few braces” which turns out to be a donation of 56 braces, that person should ask for a letter verifying that these braces are in fact donations. If not, this poor friend will have to attempt to defend herself (in Spanish of course… which she does not speak) and explain why she has 56 braces (which for those of you who are not great at math is 46 over the legal limit). Basically you put said friend in a horrible position– she is now a brace trafficker.

The trafficker herself

Luckily we had Magnolia the super-translator who they let enter to help Cappie. The result was that we had to get a few letters from the orphanages to prove that we would be providing them with braces. One day later we had the black duffel bag in hand– a black duffel bag the size of a small adult, filled to the brim with braces. At this point I should send a HUGE thank you to the fantastic people who provided us with all these braces. CASCADE http://www.dafo.com which seriously is the best pediatric brace company in the world (I feel I have the authority to say that since I have seen braces in 4 countries now and they are hands down the best I have seen… okay, maybe I don’t have that authority– but I am going to say it anyway) They have a fantastic program in which they send gently used (or braces that did not fit kids appropriately) to organizations (like Super Kids) to provide bracing option for kids in need. And the other box of braces came from my FANTASTIC friends at Allied Therapy and Consulting http://allied-therapy.com in Arkansas where I did my residency last year. Thank you all so much for your kind (and not to mention speedy) donations.

We transferred the braces to my backpack and off we went to fit the kids. It was sooo awesome to see how the braces helped some of them. There is one little toddler, Louisa, who has increased muscle tone in her legs and thus has a hard time standing and attempting to walk– but with the braces she was able to take steps with me holding onto her hands… oh my gosh it was so awesome. I almost cried.

I think she liked them too

still happy... and walking!

We found braces that fit 8 kiddos (16 braces for those of you keeping score), plus two pairs of stretching braces. Magnolia, Cap and I took these braces to ”el Centro” the downtown part of the city where all the street vendors are, cheapest of the cheap merchandise, and we bought shoes for everyone. It was kind of funny– I just marched up there with my bag of braces and started sticking them inside shoes to see if they would fit. You have to understand that finding shoes to fit over braces is quite difficult even in the US. Usually you need to have pretty wide shoes to fit everything appropriately, but we made it work.

Cap modifying braces

Late night brace modifying session....

Finally… Cappie and I spent one evening a few night before I left pounding, glueing, cutting, ripping, sanding, poking holes… the experts call it adapting/modifying braces. I think what we did was more of a beat the crud out of it til it works type mentality. But we did it. And here are a few little dudes in their shiny new brace and shoes.

This little guy needs braces so he can spend time standing to help strengthen his bones

One of the much needed "stretching braces" that several of the kids can use

This little guy wasn't so sure about his braces... its the first time his little feet have experiences anything like this

Braces help this little girl stand up straighter when she is walking

She was really excited that these little pink braces fit her... they were her favorites

And there are still lots more braces to take to the special needs orphanage that I will go to in Costa Rica (and don’t worry, I will have a letter prepared for this journey.) Braces can REALLY make a difference in a child’s function movement (skills like walking, playing, running…. the normal “kid stuff”) so I am thrilled to have these available!!!

Thanks again to everyone involved in making this happen!

KO

Another Successful Day!

Another day packed full of activities!

BTW, just so everyone knows, the orphanage here is very large and beautiful. It is set on stunning, open grounds with several large buildings. The last time I was here there were over 500 children living on campus. The caregivers do an amazing job caring for all the children! We really enjoy getting to know these wonderful women whom we respect a great deal - they work so hard! The rehabilitation staff is also large. This staff works with the children from the community as well as in the orphanage. I am going to attach some pictures of a training session that we did today to work on activities for children with developmental delays and cerebral palsy. We had such a wonderful time!


We skipped lunch wisely so we could enjoy the reception dinner being held on Wednesday evening. We had been to many receptions during previous trips, so we knew the food would be delicious and plentiful! We were so happy to just have a quick rest at lunch and get back to work. Just after lunch we saw some children from the community. Following our work and suggestions we proceeded to the rehab department to work with several more children from the orphanage. We were also able to take some time to re-visit several children who are designated to Gladney. We wanted the chance to visit with them in an environment they found familiar.

The best part of this trip is the chance to help in the process of finding homes for children with special needs. We were privileged to see today several adoptive parents picking up their children to take home. It gave me goosebumps when I saw one family walk through the gates holding their child in their arms. Well, I hope to have that image in my dreams tonight. Another update coming soon.

Pat

Kathy and Pat's Great Day at Foster Care Center

Today was a great day!

Steven (SCH interpreter) picked us up at our hotel in a van and drove us to the foster care center. Accompanying were staff from SCH and the foster care center's supervising teacher. We were very impressed with the foster care center which provides activities for preschool children and supervision for foster parents. It was spotless and the staff was extremely open and welcoming. It was clear the staff really knew and cared about the kids because they kept adding in little snippets of information about the children.

Now about the Gladney partnership children. They are GREAT!!!!!!! Again, overall, they are in very good shape, most with mild conditions. They drew pictures for us, they danced - really showing off, they smiled and laughed and were just precious! They all have so much love to give!!!!

We were taken to lunch at a small restaurant in a private room - it was a great lunch!

After lunch, we returned to the foster care center to evaluate four more children who were so full of personality. One little girl leaned over and gave Kathy the cutest, big kiss:)



Wherever we go – we are met by children of all ages who just want to be held and hugged – so of course we try to do that as often as we can! The children are all beautiful. Each with their own special personality. This is one of the difficult and sad things about living in an institution – no matter how good the staff and facility – each child misses out on being the focus of attention and love. If only each of these children had parents who knew every detail of their lives. That is the gift that each parent gives a child.

All and all a wonderful day,

Pat

Pat and Kathys first day at SCH

Pat and Kathy hit the ground running their first day at SCH

WOW what a day!! We had a very courteous meeting with the new director and assistant director of Shanghai Children's Home (SCH). We discussed our schedule for the week which includes formal lectures on speech therapy, cerebral palsy, and autism, hands on workshops about development and play, and of course evaluations of Gladney's partnership waiting children. We cannot wait to see the children and hug them all!

We also described how Superkids was started by Gladney mom and humanitarian aid program specialist, Janet Fink. Janet's daughter, Jeannie, was adopted from the SCH when she was a little over two years old. Jeannie had a diagnoses of crossed eyes and nystagmus, both which were corrected several years ago. We showed her a picture of Jeannie (now she is 8!) and they were so happy to see her looking healthy and happy! The staff at SCH cares very much about all their children and work very hard to provide nurturing environments for them!

We began with a visit to the "Snoopy room." The children ran towards us, arms in the air, trying to touch us. They were ADORABLE! We then went to rehabilitation center to provide evaluation and treatment plans for two orphanage children. What makes SCH wonderful is their rehab center, which treats both orphans living on campus and children living in the outside community. Families living in Shanghai who have disabled children, bring those children to SCH for treatment. We love working with SCH rehab staff because they are so intelligent and open to sharing ideas. It's a gift to travel half way across to world to work together and exchange ideas for the benefit of children. We brought them physical and speech therapy text books.

Then lunch came around. We had a soup with tofu, rice, mushrooms, a small whole fish, a type of turnip,and cabbage. Kathy did better with lunch than I did. Then they took us to a rest room for tea and coffee. After tea, we started evaluating the Gladney partnership children....boy, are they cute!

We evaluated 5 children today and overall, they seem to be in good shape. Some have very minor conditions and others more extensive, but they were all sweet, and loving, and beautiful. When we return to the U.S. we are going to host a webinar with more specifics about our trip and the children we are evaluating.

We were still seeing children at 4:00 when the buses were leaving, so our ex-expatriate interpreters kindly drove us back to the hotel. Tomorrow we are going to fostercare to see more Gladney partnership children.

They are giving us a reception on Friday night!

Stay tuned for more updates and hopefully some pictures!

Pat