I've just finished up my first month here and it's finally beginning to feel a little more like home. People come and people go--I've met so many volunteers from all over the world...Australia, Japan, China, New York, Canada, England ect. Most volunteers only stay several weeks so I am constantly meeting new faces at the expense of saying goodbyes almost every weekend. However, there are two volunteers here Ben and Meghan who are saying for several months. We share many of the same ambitions, goals, and morals; making it comforting to have some source of consistency.
As I mentioned before, I have met up with one of the speech pathologists at the hospital who is helping me establish an educational environment for the disabled daycare. First, we are making all of the children ID nametags to place their bookbags and notebooks that we are going to create for them. Each notebook will contain a biography about the child's strengths and weaknesses, their family history, mental disability, and 2013 goals. This will help volunteers understand a child better in the couple weeks that they have to work with them. Since many volunteers only say for a short period of time---they aren't able to understand and work with a child properly. By creating children biographies, the volunteers will be able to call each child by name and know how to enhance their learning and development.
Most of these children have some sort of cerebral palsy, a condition in which there is brain damage in the area the connects the frontal cortex to the motor cortex. This damage usually occurs in pregnancy and/or early infant development, causing the child to have paralysis and/or uncontrolled motor movements. They also have speech problems and delayed learning. However, they are smart individuals with a lot of unchallenged potential. For instance, Duoy, the last boy in my pictures, is extremely intelligent and taught himself English just through interacting with our volunteers. I don't have a strong academic background in child development and/or working with the handicapped. However, this is what my trip is about right? Establishing something outside of my comfort zone.
Most of these children have some sort of cerebral palsy, a condition in which there is brain damage in the area the connects the frontal cortex to the motor cortex. This damage usually occurs in pregnancy and/or early infant development, causing the child to have paralysis and/or uncontrolled motor movements. They also have speech problems and delayed learning. However, they are smart individuals with a lot of unchallenged potential. For instance, Duoy, the last boy in my pictures, is extremely intelligent and taught himself English just through interacting with our volunteers. I don't have a strong academic background in child development and/or working with the handicapped. However, this is what my trip is about right? Establishing something outside of my comfort zone.
Here are some of the children that I am creating biographies for:
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