STAND Therapy Team

I have had the wonderful opportunity of watching the STAND Haiti Project go from being a dream/vision to reality a few weeks ago. STANDs  mission is to establish permanent access to orthopedic rehabilitation services in the country of Haiti through direct patient care and clinical training. 

STAND was in PdP for 2 weeks and our Miriam Center Therapy team partnered with them to provide pediatric OT/PT to the children who came. We were so blessed to work with Wendy who is an amazing Pediatric PT. She has a lot of knowledge and helped with many of the outreach waiting list children as well as children currently in our outreach program and even spent a day at the Miriam Center seeing 11 kids! We got 10+ new children that we have added to the outreach waiting list.

The first week of STAND I was blessed to get to be there everyday helping but the second week I had to head Grasseir, Haiti near Leogane to help with a special needs Health Fair. I was very sad to miss the second week of STAND but God had other great plans in store (once you read the next blog about my week in Grasseir you will better understand this). I have such an amazing therapy team who stayed behind and continued to go and work alongside STAND and get many of our children seen and help with new children. 

We took a lot of our equipment and supplies to PdP for the 2 weeks and so we were able to fit children for AFO’s/shoes, build PVC pipe standers and walkers, and make Haitian Adapted Chairs. The week I was gone the guys even made their first bucket chair. I was so proud of them. Over the weeks we were able to provide parents with education/home programming to each of the families as well. It was an amazing few weeks. 

During the first week a hurricane came through causing a lot of rain and wind. Surprisingly we still had a full clinic everyday! The waves of the Ocean were huge reaching the second floor balcony of the building. The STAND building is located right on the ocean which is so beautiful. 

It was such a blessing that STAND allowed me to overnight with them many nights during the week so I did not have to take the long and bumpy tap-tap ride each every day which also meant I got to sleep in and get to know the team better in the evenings. 

Here our some pictures from Wendy's visit to the Miriam Center. So thankful for the time she spent evaluating and making treatment plans from a PT perspective.

SOME HIGHLIGHT SUCCESS STORIES

1. Nerlande was finally able to get the specialized braces we have been trying to get her for over a year and now she can walk better!

This little boy walked with a walker for the first time. We also were able to get him a stander to be upright during the day and told him about the sensory classroom at the Miriam Center as an option for his son to go to school. 

~wanted to post video but internet not good enough :(

This little girl is 11 years old and had never stood before in her life and with this PvC pipe stander she is now able to stand everyday :-)

I loved seeing some of the mothers interact with, play with and love on their kids while they waited for equipment to be made. 

I also loved watching the kids interact with one another while they waited. 

I loved watching the families eagerly learn how to better help their children.

I hope you enjoy all the pictures. I truly think pictures speak louder than words! A big thank you to carlos and Nahum for sending me pictures of the week I was not able to be there! 

I would like to throw a huge THANK YOU out there to my therapy staff who were rockstars the entire 2 weeks working so hard and traveling 1 hour each way everyday which is exhausting in and of itself! You guys rock!