Miriam Home Program
Exists to provide the best care possible for 48 children and adults living with disabilities who need a home outside of their family due to death, unsafe living environment and/or abandonment. The Miriam Home offers an identity to each child in our care while loving them unconditionally. Our goal is to allow them the pleasure of being children, regardless of their limitations, and to raise them up as individuals as they grow into God-centered adults.
GOALS
• Continue working on improving the nutritional needs and creating specialized feeding plans for the children that need them
• Perform evaluation on each child, make a therapy plan, and then be able to work 1:1 with each child on their specific therapy goals. Also to create a way that therapy students and therapy volunteers can step in and treat each child as well.
• Re-Vamp the Visibility Box that allows any volunteer in Haiti to step into each child’s world AND interact, play, and thus provide therapy to each child.
• Work on helping the children to become as independent as possible
• Continue working on training the Hatian Miriam Center workers how to safely and appropriately work with the children on every level from feeding, to bathing, to preparing food, to diapering, to handling the children.
For Jonathan Sake Outreach Program
Is a weekly outreach program that provides a safe place for special needs children, together with their parents, to come and receive encouragement, occupational/physical therapy, training, guidance and love. Through this ministry we are making it possible for children with limitations to remain in the care of their families by giving parents the necessary tools to raise up their child, by empowering the parent the ability to see their child’s potential.
GOALS
• Reinforce/Review Home Therapy Program taught summer 2012 to make sure families are independent and feel comfortable with it.
• Continue Training/Empowering Parents to take care of their children & provide therapy to their children
• Continue Training/Empowering Presidue to run outreach program & provide therapy to the children and training to the parents
• To develop individualized therapy plans for each child with equipment we have available
• Continue to provide a toy lending program to families and provide each family with a home therapy supply kit for their child’s home program.
• Raise enough money to provide outreach families with transportation money to come to outreach program 1x per week ($2 per family per week).
• Raise enough money to purchase Solar Power Christian Radios through OMS Resounding Hope locked to Radio 4VEH radio station for each outreach family ($60 per radio).
Luke 2:52 Education Programs
The special education programs runs Monday-Friday providing a safe place for children with disabilities to learn. The idea behind this program is that all children deserve access to an education. Currently their are ~20 children from to community who come and join the Miriam Home children to learn. We strive to offer an identity to each child in our care while loving them unconditionally. Our goal is to allow them the pleasure of being children, regardless of their limitations, and to raise them up as individuals as they grow into God-centered adults. (Special Education Classroom, Austism/Sensory Classroom AND Severe & Profound Preschool).
GOALS
• Reinforce/Review therapy programs that were set up in these program summer of 2012
• Train the Hatian workers to incorporate therapy into each of these programs
• To go in & provide therapy 1:1 with the children in this environment to make sure that each is reaching their fullest potential in this environment.
Volunteers/Students
Volunteers and/or students travel to Haiti for short-term trips of 10-14 days or for an internship 1-6 months in length.
GOALS
• Create a learning environment that allows Therapy and Special Education students to get hands on experience. I currently have 5 OT students, 1 speech Therapist, 1 PT student, and 1 special education teacher who would like to come to Haiti summer 2013
• Find Therapists (OT, PT, ST, hand therapists, & Autism/Behavioral specialists) and Special Education Teachers who would be willing to come and serve in Haiti on Short-Term and Long-Term trips and have a environment that is appropriately set up for them to walk into.
Haiti Disability Network
A Network that is in the process of being developed that will link orphanages across Haiti working with children with disabilities. This will increase knowledge, open up communication, provide a place where training can be done, resources can be shared, etc.
GOALS
• Work alongside Kimmy’s House in creating this network so that resources can be shared.
• Set up first of hopefully many training conferences in Haiti …possibly get some well known therapy educators to come into Haiti for some training including: (Tina Allen Pediatric disability Massage, yoga for the special child)
