This week has been a bit of a disappointing week. The high school teachers at Mariannridge have decided to strike ...illegally...and rippled to the Primary school which is hampering our intervention in the community. We met an astonishing matric pupil who we interviewed and he was sitting with Jenny trying to find out what the MCC could do to help as he was worried about his grades slipping during this time. This really got us thinking about what we can do because there are a few members in the school that want an education, that want to better their lives and want to make something of themselves. We thought about implementing a programme that will continue to educate the students despite the strikes (as these seem to be a common occurrence). This will be set up with the MCC and may involve parents to help facilitate and run these programmes. This will act as a buffer so that learners that want to learn are not deprived of that right.
We are still awaiting the counsellor’s visit in the community and the concrete bins. It's as if the community runs on their own different time to the fast pace city that I am used to. In a way it has its perks, it contributes to the relaxed beauty of the community and there is time to be a community, but everything is taking so slow. In a presentation in our tut today, it was raised that we must constantly remember that although we have academic time frames and we would love to see the produce of the seeds we have sown, we must remember that this is for the community and not for our benefit.
Monday, despite my flu, we charged on with the baby development. The more and more children that we see with delayed developmental milestones, the more we realise the importance of this project. Intervention needs to begin here, before school. This project could really be run well with the speech and language students as we should always see the child holistically and some of these moms have to take time out of their working day to be at the clinic so instead of the OT's noticing a speech problem with the child and asking the mom to then bring the child back for another assessment, just is not going to work. If the OT and speechies assessed together at 1 time, this would be really beneficial for the child and mother. I was looking at all the NGO's that look after our communities and implement projects and i found the Robin hood foundation. This NGO runs a project ( and have visited St Mary's hospital) that involves giving baby care packs to new mothers. This project is called "Love the babies". Here is the quote of their website http://www.robinhoodfoundation.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=116: "A Love the babies" bag is essentially a baby shower in a bag. Love the Babies bags are always so well- received by the needy mums who we donate to.
Included in these bags are toweling nappies, disposable nappies, second hand and new baby clothes, booties, hats, bibs, blankets, towels, toys and teddies.
Occassionally, if we receive sufficient donations, special items such as aqueous cream, baby shampoo or powder are included in bags.".
With this wonderful project already being implemented, I wondered if maybe a Stimulation pamphlet that we created could be put into these bags as a prevention type of programme. Im sure Mariannridge is not the only community that we are seeing children that are not being stimulated at all. This would really be a great opportunity for us to intervene on a large scale.
On Thursday, at Khitwe, Kaylee and I treated a very mild spastic quad. She visited the clinic for a speech therapy as she was having trouble feeding and was non-verbal but externally communicative. They were trying to get her to make to count and recognise the numbers and colours using flash cards. Looking around the clinic I spotted foam numbers and thought of wetting them and getting her to stick it on a mirror counting the number, recognising the number and colour while incorporating grasps, trunk rotation, trunk flexion, sensory stimulation, weight bearing. She grasped the activity quickly and was screaming with excitement when a number stuck on the mirror. She engaged so well with the activity and that when i really noticed the difference between other professions and OT. When treatment is carried out through an activity, the therapeutic value and outcome is just so much greater. The client is active in the activity ensuring active engagement and this was just fun for the child. The sensory stimulation with water ensured it was age appropriate and just made it that much more exciting for the child. I really do just love this profession.
Friday=play day! We dedicated the whole day in the community to staring the play area. This consisted of cleaning up the area, washing the area, marking and painting the area. Although it’s a play area…it meant hard work for us. Probably the most manual labour I have participated in in a good couple of month but how incredible it was to finally get the play area up and going and the success we all felt when we looked at all the work we accomplished. The children all took great interest in the play area and were already trying to skip and jump in the play area. Monday the play area will be completed and my blog post will go into more detail then but for now...
The prac is coming to an end and we are all feeling mixed emotions. I feel fulfilled and after a gruelling 7 weeks of psych, I have fallen in love with my degree again. Their is just something about giving back to others that makes one feel a joy that cannot be put into the correct words. It makes me feel like I have purpose in life and if I can experience this feeling every day in my job...what more could i asked to be blessed with in an occupation. Viva Occupational Therapy!
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