Gladney VP Marshall Williams travels to Czech Republic

Czech Day 3

Today Marshall and I traveled with Lucie and Martine to visit two orphanages today. The first was a orphanage for children 1-3 years old. It was about 30 minutes outside of Brno. It was a very well run orphanage. The walls were painted in bright colors, the caregiver ratio was 1 to 3, and the staff really seemed to be looking out for the best interest of the child. The orphanage director welcomed us and spoke to us about how the orphanage is run and how they assist families in taking care of the children.

We then drove back to Brno and had a quick lunch. After we went to an orphanage for children over 3 years old. Again we were very please with the way the orphanage was run. There were 21 children that live there and they live in 3 "family" units. Each family unit lives on one floor and each floor has a kitchen, living room, and then bedrooms for the children. It was a very neat concept to see.

Marshall and I have learned over the last two days that the Czech goverment is really invested in keeping families together. The government has many programs in place that enable parents to work through the issues they are faced with. Also, we learned that about 500 domestic placements are done each year!

After our visits, Marshall and I picked up our bags from the hotel and headed to the train station. We rode the train back to Prague and will stay here for the night. We fly out early tomorrow morning to Sophia, Bulgaria!

A big thanks goes out to Justin L. He has really helped us get around the last two days and has shown us a new side to Brno!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Czech Day 2

Today Marshall and I met Justin, an American missionary that lives in Brno, who escorted us to our meeting with the officials in charge of adoptions in the Czech Republic. We had a really good meeting and we talked a lot about thier systems for adoptions and they were particularly interested in how we support our families before and after they take placement. Tomorrow we are going to visit two different orphanages one in Brno and one about an hour away.

After our meeting, Justin took us to a lovely little French restuarant run by nuns. It was very very good. I had onion soup and a spinach crepe. Marshall had chicken noodle soup which looked like high class ramen!

After lunch, Justin took us walking through Brno and told us a little bit more about the city. Brno is the home of Mendel who came up with genetics. We ventured up the very steep hill to Spilberk Castle. It's very small but has wonderul views of the city. Justin also let us know that we are so very close to Vienna which I didn't know. Brno is a merchant city it has one of the largest trade shows in Europe and we saw that building from Spilberg as well.

Its been a busy day, but I'm looking forward to tomorrow!

Keely Lands on Her Feet in Peru

20 03 2011

Phone call– me and mom:

Me: Good news ma. I am safe and sound in Lima, staying with an amazing family with two adorable little girls.

Mom: Oh good. I was a little worried this time, but it looks like you landed on your feet…again.

Let me fill you in a bit. The short of it is: I left Colombia on said deportation day (March 11th) with basically no idea where I was going to stay when I got to Peru. Well, that is not totally true. That morning, before I left, I started getting a little nervous and thus got online and made a 2 night hostel reservation… just to assure I had somewhere to go. I got here late friday night and headed to the hostel. Next day arranged to have lunch with Giuli (more on her later, my volunteer contact here in Peru) and by the end of the evening Saturday, she had made a few calls a friend of a friend over-heard the convo in the car and before I knew it I was getting a tour of my new home. So here I am, happy and safe.

I have been reflecting a lot on that statement “landing on your feet.” But more, I guess the luxury, the luck, to have the faith that I will land on my feet. But even more… the luxury to jump in the first place. I am referring to the ability to take risks, follow my dreams, travel… to be the modern-day nomad that I am.

My experiences here in Lima have made me keenly aware of just how lucky I am to live my life this way. And most of that resolves around a community of Lima, Pamplona, that I am quickly falling in love with. I first heard about it as Giuli and I sat in her livingroom talking about all the amazing projects of Buckner Peru. Giuli is an art teacher… that now works for Bucker Peru wearing several hats including working with volunteers/mission groups, follow-up and she spends lots of her time “in the field” working with children in several orphanage/institutions and children at-risk in low-income communities. I loved hearing all her stories and projects. But the one that immediately grabbed my attention is an amazing prevention program they have started in a small area of Pamplona. They are working with 80 families in this sector of the city. At its most basic root, it seems to me, they are working to give these families, these children, hope. They are allowing them to dream, develop an identity, to value themselves. They are working to help them realize, truly believe, that they can achieve more. They are working to change the mentality such that these 80 families no longer sit idly with their hand in the air and request humanitarian aid,no, they are helping them organize, open their world view, and realize that these people– these 80 families in this few blocks of the city– can do it themselves. They are doing this through amazing creative ways: art, education, community projects.

Pamplona, bottom of the hill

Top of the hill... all those structures are houses

Giuli has helped me jump right in with this community. Today she and I gave a full day course for the almost 60 preschool teachers in Pamplona. There is a government program(which to my understanding appears to be very similar to headstart) that “supports” these programs. “Supports” being in quotes because they basically provide the bare minimum– a roof, a few tables, a few books and toys. The teachers are amazing, strong, animated women… but they are not teachers and have no formal training, they are women from the community committed to the future of these kids. They receive almost nothing and work very hard: there are 20+ students (age 3-5) for 1 teacher.

Preschooler outdoor play time

More recess

Burning some energy... choo choo train in the street right in front of the school

So today we covered preschool teaching 101 on 6 hours. They loved it. I of course want to stay and keep working with these women. I will spend a few days next week observing various classes to help them put into practice some of the things we discussed today. But there is so much to do. And they are so eager to learn.

Giuli working on puppets with afterschool group

I will also visit a few orphanages while I am here, including a special needs orphanage with over 100 children with disabilities. It’s quite an impressive place with lots of therapists and qualified care-givers. It has definitely been quite an experience!

And yes, the icing on the cake of my Peru experience, my new “land on your feet” family. They are so amazing. I have felt at home since the minute I arrived. We have had slumber parties, homework parties, art sessions, watched movies. They have taken me all around Lima to show me the big sites. And I really think that it is their personal mission as a family to introduce me to as much peruvian cuisine as possible (which I of course do not mind at all…. and neither does my stomach, butt and thighs). So in return, I have introduced the family to exercising. We take family runs at the park (which the six-year-old said was the “best day of her life”). It is relationships like these that make traveling so special– it’s about jumping, risking, and getting really lucky sometimes to land on your feet.

The fam... before one of our many feasts. Homemade ceviche.

Pajama party.... post blindfolded make-up game

Thanks again for all the support!!! Miss you all.

KO

Gladney Waiting Child Webinar this Thursday

Special Gladney Webinar

China Waiting Child Adoption Program &

March 2011 Superkids trip to Shanghai Children’s Home

Please join us for this special webinar featuring two child development therapists who recently visited the Shanghai Children’s Home for a one-week trip to train orphanage staff and meet some of the children available for adoption through Gladney’s Waiting Child program. This webinar will be a wonderful first-hand account by Pat Marcus who is an occupational therapist, and Kathy deMaCarty who is a speech therapist, about all they did during the course of this important trip sponsored by Gladney’s SuperKids Charity.

The webinar will be held on Thursday, March 24th at 8pm EST. Space is limited so be sure to register for the webinar today!

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