Monday, June 3, 2013

Cuidad Anini

Our first day of working at Cuidad Anini, a children's home, consisted of a tour of the facility. The residents there range from ages 1-54 and are split into 6 different houses. Casa 1 houses babies and children with cerebral palsy. Casa 2 is a boys home including several men with Down's Syndrome and Autism. Casa 3 is the "Princess House," with all women with similar conditions that the boys in Casa 2 had. Casa 4 housed people with more mild conditions who even do a variety of jobs and chores around the facility. Some even have jobs outside of the home. People with severe conditions live in Casa 5, where much of our work is needed. The last Casa, Casa 6, includes children who take part in a chorus, Special Olympics, and more. After our awesome tour, our team decided to tackle the wheelchair problems in Casa 1. A lot of mechanical work was done adjusting brakes, and properly fitting the children into the wheelchair. While working on wheelchairs, the children were taken out, placed on mats, and participated in therapy. Students were very helpful during this time to entertain and play with the children. The power of play is super powerful.

Paula helped entertain a child named Clara who seemed very disconnected from the room at first. Danielle, a therapist, quickly learned that she desperately needs and loves movement of any kind. Simply moving her arms around by dancing and singing while she was still in her wheelchair caused her to yell out in joy. Paula felt that she was able to genuinely connect with Clara.

Carly was drawn to a baby named Sebastian with a shunt. His development is really coming along great and Carly sang and danced with him. As Carly sang the Spanish children's songs, he was so adorable as his danced along in his crib. Brittany Hicks also took him out of the crib and engaged him in rolling around and laying him on his stomach. This position will help him build up strength in his arms, neck, and back that are not engaged in the crib.

Jessica Handwerk worked with a very smily, happy child named Walter. He was around 8 years old with cerebral palsy. He thought the bubbles that Jess was blowing in his face were hilarious. He was also very ticklish and joyful. Jess really connected with him by administering some simple therapy of gradually squeezing his arms and legs. This applied pressure really relaxed him.

Emily Riepenhoff played with Rogelio our whole time there. She was automatically engaging with this child. He appears to be about a year old, but is truly 5 years old. He was severely malnourished as an infant and develops at a much slower pace. He was very interactive and Emily and him made a great connection.

Written by Paula Vogelpohl and Jessica Hanwerk, OT students
Shoutout to our awesome friends, family, and roomies!




1 comment:

  1. Sounds amazing! Can't wait to see pictures and for you to return!

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