I'm here, I'm tired and I've had a pretty crazy, yet amazing week. Basically this week has involved work! Good work, but tiring work. Life has been nothing more than this project for the past six days. After arriving at my hotel Saturday night, heading straight to bed, and then meeting with most of the team over breakfast Sunday morning, that's when it all began.
The No Ordinary Journey Project is set up and ran by our president Laverne, who is a mother of a 20 year old girl with cerebral palsy. Laverne has never let her daughters cerebral palsy be a barrier from them travelling the world together and it was on a trip to Vietnam in 2008 that started up NOJF. Laverne realized that those with cerebral palsy in Vietnam don't live life like her daughter, and she has created a vision of revolutionizing the care of children with cp and increasing knowledge and awareness within the community and medical field. With several journeys back to Vietnam leading to a conference in 2015, the foundation is taking another great leap. A three week project working with families and educating therapists in a rehabilitation hospital. I was invited to join her team back in October last year, and not really understanding much of what was involved apart from I would be joining a multidisciplinary team with a conductor from Hungary, an occupational therapist , physiotherapist and herself from Calgary. We are all dedicating our time to make this happen, which given the time frame is pretty hard for some of us to do. Its great to be part of such a dedicated and knowledgeable team, so different to my years volunteering before I graduated. We know how to laugh, prepare and read all situations clearly. The project nearly didn't go ahead and only two weeks before I found out the project had been moved from Nha Trang to Hue (two completely different parts of the country) This meaning there are several differences in what was originally planned, including younger children, and different therapists, but luckily the project was saved with Lavernes contacts and some great people on the ground. I know she had high hopes for Nha Trang and I'm not fully sure why they, at the last minute pulled out, but Hue have us and we are doing our thing with pride. Our project is sponsored by Rotary International, who have worked with NOJF for their recent visits to Vietnam.
So Monday, the day following Tet, (which seems so long ago) we were getting prepared to maybe have hardly any children come in (due to time management and expectation being slightly different to what we may know). We had a arranged a core hub of 10 students, with the aim of showing what development can be made in three weeks with the right intervention. But we got 14. This number is pretty unheard of for groups in my field, but as we tried to wean down to 10, the decision was too hard, so we confirmed we would work with all 14. This meaning, starting Tuesday we had 14 children, 14 caregivers, 4 therapists, 5 translators and 8 Vietnamese therapists all in one room. Those poor children must have the sense they are in a goldfish bowl, but my heart melts everyday, with their smiles. We all want the same thing for them. Some cry consistently which is nothing new to us, but they find time to smile and have the cutest little faces. I still struggle to pronounce their names, with my intonation being very off, but luckily, the families laugh along with me. I take it in turns each day to lead a series of exercises for EVERYONE to follow. The four of us have translators (all keen and young medical or foreign language students) who communicate with the families, and I try my hardest to intonate my voice, use sign language or just sing to keep them motivated and on task. I don't hold back with handling the children and do the actions on the parents themselves to help them understand the motions, and the positioning we are trying to achieve. We may not communicate clearly through speech but we find a why to help transfer the skills they need to learn. The translators repeat the families thanks to us each day, and its positive to see that they do try and implement our suggestions. This is major, we are in a place, where they aren't pushed as we are pushing them, (the therapists here really just don't have the time), but we are bringing new tasks and theories to the table. Today I had several families asking for pictures with their child, just knowing that I'm there for them, and willing to spend some one-one time appears to be invaluable.
The more we get to know, they more we understand about the physiotherapy and speech therapy training here, they are short courses, done as top up to degrees. From what we understand the 'doctor' sets the goals for the child and the therapists work on what they have been told. We have very young children, diagnosed with cp at very very early ages. Many caused by 'high fevers' which remain to us unclear, but either way we are here to to focus on the child now and where they can be. We are being asked every question under the sun, and I wonder who they usually go to to get the answers. We are here for the child, but I've tried to let the parents know they are special too, asking how they are, with a simple smile, or arm around the shoulder. Many are grandparents and I'm inspired with how they try to replicate the things I do knowing how tiring what I do is.They remain in awe at my singing, as this is quite clearly something not done here, and I'm never usually complented so much on this, so I'll enjoy it while I can. Singing and music is a universal language and I am making these children work very hard, so of course if I can remembered for something else I'll take it.
The afternoons are training sessions for the staff, and its nice to see the discussion happening, although they are still baffled why I feel I need to sing! Funny what I would believe is a no brainer doesn't translate so well to another culture.
The No Ordinary Journey Project is set up and ran by our president Laverne, who is a mother of a 20 year old girl with cerebral palsy. Laverne has never let her daughters cerebral palsy be a barrier from them travelling the world together and it was on a trip to Vietnam in 2008 that started up NOJF. Laverne realized that those with cerebral palsy in Vietnam don't live life like her daughter, and she has created a vision of revolutionizing the care of children with cp and increasing knowledge and awareness within the community and medical field. With several journeys back to Vietnam leading to a conference in 2015, the foundation is taking another great leap. A three week project working with families and educating therapists in a rehabilitation hospital. I was invited to join her team back in October last year, and not really understanding much of what was involved apart from I would be joining a multidisciplinary team with a conductor from Hungary, an occupational therapist , physiotherapist and herself from Calgary. We are all dedicating our time to make this happen, which given the time frame is pretty hard for some of us to do. Its great to be part of such a dedicated and knowledgeable team, so different to my years volunteering before I graduated. We know how to laugh, prepare and read all situations clearly. The project nearly didn't go ahead and only two weeks before I found out the project had been moved from Nha Trang to Hue (two completely different parts of the country) This meaning there are several differences in what was originally planned, including younger children, and different therapists, but luckily the project was saved with Lavernes contacts and some great people on the ground. I know she had high hopes for Nha Trang and I'm not fully sure why they, at the last minute pulled out, but Hue have us and we are doing our thing with pride. Our project is sponsored by Rotary International, who have worked with NOJF for their recent visits to Vietnam.
So Monday, the day following Tet, (which seems so long ago) we were getting prepared to maybe have hardly any children come in (due to time management and expectation being slightly different to what we may know). We had a arranged a core hub of 10 students, with the aim of showing what development can be made in three weeks with the right intervention. But we got 14. This number is pretty unheard of for groups in my field, but as we tried to wean down to 10, the decision was too hard, so we confirmed we would work with all 14. This meaning, starting Tuesday we had 14 children, 14 caregivers, 4 therapists, 5 translators and 8 Vietnamese therapists all in one room. Those poor children must have the sense they are in a goldfish bowl, but my heart melts everyday, with their smiles. We all want the same thing for them. Some cry consistently which is nothing new to us, but they find time to smile and have the cutest little faces. I still struggle to pronounce their names, with my intonation being very off, but luckily, the families laugh along with me. I take it in turns each day to lead a series of exercises for EVERYONE to follow. The four of us have translators (all keen and young medical or foreign language students) who communicate with the families, and I try my hardest to intonate my voice, use sign language or just sing to keep them motivated and on task. I don't hold back with handling the children and do the actions on the parents themselves to help them understand the motions, and the positioning we are trying to achieve. We may not communicate clearly through speech but we find a why to help transfer the skills they need to learn. The translators repeat the families thanks to us each day, and its positive to see that they do try and implement our suggestions. This is major, we are in a place, where they aren't pushed as we are pushing them, (the therapists here really just don't have the time), but we are bringing new tasks and theories to the table. Today I had several families asking for pictures with their child, just knowing that I'm there for them, and willing to spend some one-one time appears to be invaluable.
The more we get to know, they more we understand about the physiotherapy and speech therapy training here, they are short courses, done as top up to degrees. From what we understand the 'doctor' sets the goals for the child and the therapists work on what they have been told. We have very young children, diagnosed with cp at very very early ages. Many caused by 'high fevers' which remain to us unclear, but either way we are here to to focus on the child now and where they can be. We are being asked every question under the sun, and I wonder who they usually go to to get the answers. We are here for the child, but I've tried to let the parents know they are special too, asking how they are, with a simple smile, or arm around the shoulder. Many are grandparents and I'm inspired with how they try to replicate the things I do knowing how tiring what I do is.They remain in awe at my singing, as this is quite clearly something not done here, and I'm never usually complented so much on this, so I'll enjoy it while I can. Singing and music is a universal language and I am making these children work very hard, so of course if I can remembered for something else I'll take it.
The afternoons are training sessions for the staff, and its nice to see the discussion happening, although they are still baffled why I feel I need to sing! Funny what I would believe is a no brainer doesn't translate so well to another culture.
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