TRAINING and EDUCATING NATIONALS

3 weeks ago I got another round of students from Loma Linda Universities Rehab Technician Program in PAP for their 3rd level 2 rotations. They will be spending the next 3 months learning Pediatric Therapy under me at the Miriam Center. Their names are Yvon and Steve. Since Nicholson is off at Rehab Tech School now I was in need of new Therapy Assistant that could also help with translating with the students. Due to some miscommunication we ended up finding 2 possible assistants. Carlos (my Haitian Therapist) and Presidue (Haitian Director of the Miriam Center) Spent a week with both of them before I came in and thought they were both a good fit. I decided to hire them both for the 3 month period. They will be educated on everything I will be educating the Rehab Tech students on. They both just graduated high school from Sonlight Academy in PdP which is an english school. Their names are Mary Christy and She-She (this is his nickname ;-) So Really it is like having 4 students right now. It has been a bit challenging at times having that many but GREAT as well. I am excited for the next 3 months to teach, train, and guide these students into a deeper knowledge and understanding of Pediatric Therapy (OT, PT, ST). 

STEVE

YVON

Mary Christy

She-She

These first few  weeks have been very busy and mentally draining. I always forget how tiring it is to explain everything you do and why you do it. lol. It has also been challenging to create 6 schedules without overlapping kids and so the kids are in the right space with the right equipment they need to use during their therapy time and that I don’t schedule 2 kids that need the same equipment at the same time. The past 2 weekends I have spent hours working on schedules only to find out the next week that I need to tweak and change things for the next week. Hopefully soon I will get a finalized schedule :-) 

Before coming back into Haiti I made Resource Binders for each of the students full of handouts and resource materials that we will be working through over the next few months. We have education slots built into the schedule on Monday, Wednesday’s and Fridays. So far we have completed the following sections during our education slots…

~Putting on and Taking off AFO’s and Hand Braces- we start each morning (9:00-9:30) putting on each of the kids AFO’s and Braces.

~Massage, Stretching, Therapy Brushing- Then we head to Severe & Profound Preschool and stretch/massage/therapy brush/put on foot AFO’s & hand braces from 9:30-10:00. With the Miriam Home Mom’s helping all the kids get done!

~Sensory Integration Training- we spent an entire day learning about each of the sensory systems (Tactile, Proprioceptive, Vestibular, Auditory,  Olfactory, etc.) and how to determine what type of sensory problems kids have (Hyper-responsive, Under-responsive, Seeking, etc.). This information seemed new to EVERYONE so we spent a lot of time working through it. We then got kids from the Miriam Center with the various sensory issues and they problem solved while working with them to determine what their sensory deficits were. 

~Therapy Ball Training- They watched an NDT Therapy Ball training DVD and then we practiced with a variety of kids with different diagnosis’s at the Miriam Center and practiced the various techniques. They all learned it is much harder to do it than they thought from watching it!

~Adapted Chair Making- we spent an entire day making new chairs for some of the Miriam Home kids. Many of the chairs are in bad shape and we are in need of making new chairs. We tackled adapting 8 chairs on this day. Everyone worked very hard and learned all about adapting a Haitian chair with Foam and Ductape

~YOGARILLA- YOGA has many benefits including (It enhances physical Flexibility, improves low muscle tone, refines balance & coordination, develops motor skills and motor planning skills, develops focus and concentration, provides sensory input, helps calm the sympathetic nervous system, and strengthens respiratory muscles). YOGARILLA is a kid friendly version of YOGA that the kids enjoy doing as they look at pictures of a monkey doing the exercises with them. We have done YOGA with the Friday outreach kids as well as with some of the Miriam Center children. 

~Pediatric Theraband Strengthening- While at the National OT Convention in Nashville I met Francesca Avalli who created a fun Pediatric Theraband Program called Handee Band. She generously donated a copy of the book. This is the material I used to train the students with. The kids had so much fun doing the exercises. Jennifer one of my PT friends came the following week and educated the students on Lower Extremity Theraband Strengthening Activities. 

~Homevisits- We have been on home visits all 3 weeks on Tuesdays. This is a time in which we go to the outreach families homes. See where they live, work with the child in their home environment, meet their family, have a time of Bible Study and prayer with the family and just spend time with them. I have heard a few of the students say that this is their favorite time of the week. 

~Pediatric PT evaluation- We were blessed to have Jennifer a PT from KY who comes to Haiti each year come and educate on PT Evaluations, YOGA, Theraband, Goniometry Lower Extremities and PT educational Handouts. 

~Pediatric Physical Therapy Handouts

~NDT treatment on a child with hypertonicity of the extremities and Hypotonicity of the Trunk

Next week they will be learning hand splinting, have a time to educate some of the families on the outreach waiting list and possibly casting & Constraint Induced Movement Therapy.

On non-education slots they have a caseload of kids. They are getting to be hands on working with all the different Miriam Home children. Carlos and myself go around helping them treat the kids. They also help everyday from 1-3:00 with the outreach kids that come from the community. 

PLEASE be praying for the next few months. Pray that I can teach clearly, pray for the students to continue to be eager to learn, pray for energy/strength/health for all of us. Pray that when the 3 months is up that they will each have a comprehensive understanding and the ability to apply pediatric therapy to a variety of diagnosis. Pray that throughout their time at the Miriam Center they will see and feel the love of Jesus Christ Evident all around them!

Bill, Meg and Kristen's Visit

My 2nd week back in Haiti I was blessed to have 3 first time visitors to NWHCM and the Miriam Center. Bill who is the founder of Fountains Of Hope a non-profit organization that produces water filtration systems and installs them in 3rd world countries like Haiti. He has been to Haiti 28x as well as to many other countries as well. He graciously planned a 3 day trip to our mission so that Meg (an Occupational Therapy professor from Indiana State University) and Kristen (A speech Therapist) could come spend a few days with me at the Miriam Center. He also installed one of his water filtration systems at the mission so that now all the water going to the main travel kitchen and boys/girls bathrooms has filtered water. Thank you so much Bill and Fountains of Hope!!!

So many of you may remember me talking about Meg over the past few months. We got connected through one of her students who found my blog and began reading it. This student approached Meg about wanting to go to Haiti with the school. Meg contacted me via email back in March requesting my assistance in writing a grant to get the funding to come to Haiti on a vision trip to see if it would be possible to bring students. Long story short over the next few months I got to spend a lot of time with Meg in Nashville at the National OT convention, in NYC at a class we took on how to make Adaptive Equipment out of Cardboard, and then in Indiana when I spent 2 days with her. It was so wonderful to be able to show Meg my passion of OT in Haiti. 

A big thank you to the Rotary Club of Indiana as well as the students at Indiana State University for helping get some new therapy equipment into Haiti. They brought in 2 new standers that are super adjustable in every area including being able to tilt them back in space and have trays that attach for the ability to facilitate play during standing. We have already had 4 children who have never been able to stand before STAND because of these new standers. We use them on a daily basis now!!! They also got 2 adapted positioning chairs in. One has already been customized to fit Emma and she uses it everyday! A big Thank you to Bill who spent an entire day trying to put these different pieces of adaptive equipment together with only 1 picture of each…literally took him ALL day. So glad he is an engineer and has an engineer mindset!! ;-)

While I was stateside I made PECS with the Kreyol written on them but was unable to print them secondary to not having the program. Kristen was gracious enough to print the PECS and Meg helped her laminate and cut them all. Kristen was able to spend 1 morning making a PEC communication book for the therapy room as well as 1 for Mary Julie. Mary Julie helped pick the pictures she wanted in her book and helped Kristen make the book. Mary-Julie goes home to PAP on vacation 1-2x a year with her family. She says the hardest part is communicating her need and wants. My hope is that with this book she will be able to do so more easily.  

Saturday morning before they left was super busy. Kristen was working on finishing off PECS while I showed Meg how to make PVC pipe toy hangers (which has been on my list of things to do for 2 years). They turned out good! I was also make 1 for Meg to take to PAP with her to New Life Children’s Home where they were going to be spending a few days. I also sent them with a binder of the english and Creole therapy handouts I have made that they could use for educating in PAP as well as some therapy supplies like vibrating therapy brush, therapy brushes, theraband, chewy tubes, etc. I am thankful that God has blessed us so that we can bless others with the supplies we have. 

We did a spontaneous home visits Saturday morning which turned into 4…lol. So Moseline mom had gotten back from going to market for me like she does every Saturday morning. She asked for me to come visit her home. I asked if my friends Meg and Kristen could come and she said OF COURSE! I was excited for Kristen and Meg to get out of the mission walls and to see the culture a little more. It was personally wonderful for me to visit Moseline’s home because while I was stateside FJS outreach blessing fund was used to help fix her roof and finish their walls. It was wonderful to see in person what a big difference something so small had on their family. Upon arriving all the neighbors brought their chairs to make sure we could all sit down. I was playing with Moseline on my lap and Her mom pulled out the photo album I gave her 2 years ago and all the photos I have ever given her of Moseline and her family. She went picture by picture showing Meg and Kristen each one and naming each person in the pictures. I saw in that moment how much the outreach families treasure the pictures I have given them over the years. 

I got to meet Moseline’s grandfather and older sister from PAP for the first time. Meg and Moseline’s older sister had a sing off which was fun. I prayed for the first time in all Creole (well I tried at least). It was overall just a wonderful hour of fellowship. As we were leaving one of the deaf guys that works at the Miriam Center was walking by. He asked me to come see where he lived and then proceeded to show me where all our deaf staff live as well as where Fedner & his wife live and where Fedner’s sewing shop is at. I had a great conversation with Fedner’s wife in sign language. I was very rusty and have forgotten a lot but I know it meant a lot to her that I was trying. 

                                                                                                  

I am working on convincing Kristen to come back for the summer next year and do Speech Therapy with the kids :-) And working on Meg to bring students for a service learning trip ;-) 

Meg has learned that tagging along with me involves ADVENTURE ;-p Thank you Kristen and Meg for Taking a LEAP of FAITH and coming to Haiti!!!