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!

Diana's Visit :-)

Diana is a facebook Haitian OT friend who lives in Miami. She has been friends with me on Facebook for a few years. I enjoy seeing her OT related posts and she has been a close follower and supporter of my work in Haiti. Diana was born in Haiti (actually in a neighboring town to where the mission is). One of the things I love about Facebook is how small the world becomes. She lived in Haiti till she was I think 10-12 and has been living in the states since. She has visited Haiti quite a few times over the years but had never come to Haiti to use her OT skills before. She just started school to get her doctorate in OT a few weeks before her trip to Haiti. 

I got to spend 7 days with Diana. She stayed with family in PAP for the first few days and was able to attend Rehab Tech Graduation with Janet and Myself. She was also able to come to the end of the the HAOT meeting. She was able to visit the new OT/PT school in Leogane. 

She rode the bus back up north with me (after my couple day stay with my friends in PAP). It was so wonderful to have her along for the 7 hour trip back up north. We talked about a lot over those 10 hours :-) 

She stayed in town with her cousins and relatives during the 3 days who was in St. Louis. She came and spent the days at the Miriam Center learning/seeing my life and therapy world. It was so wonderful having her here. The kids and staff loved having her here. My only complaint is how short her stay was ;-) lol. 

We all can’t wait till your next trip back!!!! Thank you Diana for taking time from visiting family and friends to come and serve at the Miriam Center. We look forward to her next visit. 

HAOT- Haiti Association of Occupational Therapy

I could write 2 blogs for this but am going to condense it into 1 as we have met 2x since I have blogged last. I am going to start by answering some questions that you might have as you read this...

WHAT IS HAOT?
HAOT is the National Haiti Association for Occupational Therapy that I am helping start in Haiti

WHY ARE YOU STARTING IT?
The best way to answer this questions is to flashback to a blog I wrote in May...

First I have to start with a little back story Janet O'Flynn from NY contacted me a few weeks ago as she & some of her colleagues & friends were working to start the first ever 4 year OT and PT bachelor programs in Haiti. She got my name from a few people that had met me in Haiti and actually had gotten my name from my student Allyson as well. a few weeks before the conference in Nashville I was able to have a long phone conversation with her about their plans about this GREAT program. Well we had set up to meet on Saturday of the conference. On Saturday I had the wonderful opportunity to not only meet Janet but some of the other team members as well as the delegate for Columbia for the World Federation of Occupational Therapy.

During our conversation we realized that in order for the therapy school that will be opening this fall in Haiti to be recognized & accredited through the WFOT the country of Haiti had to have a National OT Society which it currently does not have. An OT living in Haiti is recommended to start the program. Since there are only 3 OTs living in Haiti (and I just learned about the other 2 from the WFOT) I was elected to start the national OT society. I have till March 2016 to write a constitution (i can request constitutions from other countries to assist in writing it). In March the constitution will be taken to Columbia to the next regional WFOT 

So starting the society is my small part in getting a bachelors program that has their accretidation through WFOT (The World Federation of Occupational Therapy).

WHAT DOES START UP INVOLVE...LOOK LIKE

Some of the starting things include:
1. Writing a constitution and By-Laws that will then have to go before all the countries in our region at the next regional meeting in March.
2. Locating OTs and people who would like to be apart of the society
3. Electing Officers
4. Starting a bank account
5. Creating an intake form

WHERE ARE YOU IN THE PROCESS?
First I would not have gotten anywhere in this process if it were not for the WFOT help and if Trinidad and Tobago in Africa had not given us right to use their constitution (TTOTA- Trinidad and Tobago Occupational Therapy Association) as an outline/model for what ours needs to look like. Over the last 4 months I have worked on writing the constitution and By-Laws rough draft. Janet O'Flynn has been very gracious to proof read it.

Once we had a good rough draft we had our first face to face meeting in PAP, Haiti in September along with others interested in helping and be apart. The following is my Facebook post from that day....

"This afternoon we had the first face to face meeting to discuss the starting of the National OT society. We all had a chance to share our passion of moving forward in creating the association and spreading OT awareness across Haiti as well as creating education opportunities in Haiti. I presented the rough draft to the constitution and we will re-convene in a few weeks to make changes before submitting it to the WFOT (World Federation Of Occupational Therapy). Please keep us all in your prayers for wisdom as we move forward with this HUGE project, favor with those we need to help us with getting the association recognized by the government, etc.

A big shout out and thank you to Nahum and Nicholson who volunteered their Saturday afternoon to participate in the first meeting and make sure their were no translation problems. They also brought good questions that facilitated the conversation"

Everyone who was at the Meeting

We had a sign in sheet

Good conversations happened

So thankful my guys were able to be there and be apart of this important day

YAY for OTs
Me, Janet, Diana

I took what we discussed at the first meeting and made some updates to the constitution and By-Laws. We had a second meeting at the beginning of October. During this meeting we read the entire constitution out loud and made corrections as needed. Prior to this meeting 4 OTs read over the constitution and added their thoughts and comments via email. At this meeting we voted to accept this constitution as our best draft that would be sent off to WFOT!

Just yesterday I sent the final draft of the Constitution off to WFOT. We are waiting to hear back from them :-)

WHAT'S NEXT...

November 21st we are having out first official HAOT meeting and will be electing Officers, Executive Committee, The Delegate for Haiti and a 1st Alternate Delegate. Please be praying for this meeting and for wisdom in electing officers. 

NAHUM...LLU Rehab Technician Graduation!

WOW…It is hard to believe it has been 2 years since Nahum started Rehab Tech school. I know that many of you reading this have prayerfully and financially given to help Nahum get his education and I want to THANK YOU! I wish you each could have attended graduation alongside of me but since I know that was not possible I wanted to share this special day with each of you. 

Friday afternoon the day I arrived was the students who were graduating final exam day. As I walked into the school they were all anxiously waiting around to hear whether they passed or not. When word came that everyone had passed…the silence/nervous energy quickly turned to excitement! Lots of hugs and high fives and cheering. 2 years of hard work and it paid off! What a moment. The picture below captures a glimpse into the moment. 

Friday and Saturday evening I enjoyed hanging out with Nahum, Nicholson and some of their friends catching up and celebrating Nahum’s graduation. Saturday evening we celebrated with a dinner at the guys house and then 4 of them came back to my hotel and we taught them how to swim followed by a game of PIG Basketball. We shared ALOT of laughter and fun!      

Sunday was the BIG day...GRADUATION. 2 year of hardwork has paid off for Nahum! I am also proud of my students who did their internships under me at the Miriam Center Yvon and Joel. Words cannot express how proud I am of you! Before Graduation started I was able to get some pictures 

Joel and Nahum 

Nahum, Nicholson, Me, Yvon, Joel

I was lucky and got a front row seat for graduation and was able to get some really good pictures.

Nicholson (who will graduate next year)

Nahum getting ready to walk  down the isle

Yvon- one of my students for 3 months

Nahum

The ceremony was absolutely beautiful and all those who spoke & shared did a great job encouraging the students and spoke truth into them. The emphasized message of graduation was on using their gifts/talents for the Lord and how they are dedicating their lives to a life of service through therapy...to help those in need.

The pictures below our of the guys receiving their diploma's

Yvon

Nahum

One of my absolute favorite parts of the entire ceremony was the candlelight ceremony. The class of graduating class all lit their candles and walked across the stage and lit one of the students candles from the 2015 graduating class. The symbolism is so powerful!

I kept thinking...how this program is very difficult to get into...they have around 100 applicants each year and only take 12-15 students each year...Each of the students on that stage graduating conquered many hurdles to be on that stage...they studied their butts off the last 18 months and they were walking across that stage different people!

Nicholson class (who will graduate last year)

Nicholson and his buddies

 GRADUATING CLASS 2015

All of these guys completed their fieldwork under me at the 

Miriam Center at some point in the last 2 years. 

Johnson, Yvon, Nahum, Joel, Me, Steve

THE MIRIAM CENTER CREW

NIcholson, Nahum, Presendieu, and me

Nahum with 2 of his siblings

Nahum and his wife

Yvon and his wife

I loved getting to spend time over the few days talking with the founders of the school who are also professors. So thankful they followed God's calling and opened the school! I know this program has been life changing to so many

Sandra, Rhonda, Todd, Me, Everrette

IT was also wonderful to meet all these OT's in person at the graduation. It was so wonderful to be surrounded by so many OTs with the same passion for Haiti. I am Excited to work alongside each of these women in spreading OT awareness across Haiti. They are all going to help with the formation and starting the National HAOT Organization.

Me, Janet, Consuelo, Diana

This is Rochelle who is the Fieldwork Coordinator and helps run the office portion at the school. She is the one who coordinated all the students coming to the Miriam Center :-)

I have some EXCITING news. It looks like I will be teaching a week long class in December before I head back to the states for Christmas. I will be teaching Adaptive Design to Nicholson's class. I am excited and a little nervous. Please pray for me as I develop the curriculum content and plan for the week.