So you must all be wondering where I actually fit in time
for any work, what with all the diving, trekking and trips to the islands. Work
hasn’t featured a lot in my blog entries to date, so it must be about time to
let you know what I’ve been up to during business hours.
A bit of background: my assignment here is an AVID
assignment through Austraining International, funded by AusAID. I have been
assigned to work with the Vanuatu Society for Disabled People to set up Early
Intervention services for children with disabilities. My assignment outcomes
include (but are not limited to) improving access to facilities and services in
the community; increasing disability awareness; and creating a higher profile
for disabilities in Vanuatu… Easy, right? I should be able to achieve all of
that in 12 months! Hah!
So lets start small. My number one goal on arrival was to restart an
early intervention group that had been running last year, but had folded due to
a lack of staff (local or expat) to run it. My “Pikinini Group” is now running
two mornings a week for two hours. There wasn’t much info on what had been done
before, so I have developed a simple program loosely based on some multidisciplinary
programs run in Northam. I have a regular group of kids attending - about 15
accessing the service and averaging about 6 kids per session. This has been
made a whole lot easier thanks to a large amount of donated books, puzzles and
toys from Australia – a huge thanks to friends, family, Northam colleagues and
the Shoalhaven Crossroaders for all your generous donations! The program consists
of a schedule of activities targeting a range of developmental skills through
stories, songs, craft activities, dancing, obstacle courses and play. So far this
has been a huge success – the families that attend really value the service and
I have already seen huge improvements in the children’s skills!
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| Play dough time in Pikinini Group! |
The next hurdle is to source a local counterpart who I can
train up to run the group in the long term – it is not exactly sustainable if I
continue to run the group as it will most likely fold again when I leave in
February. This is proving to be a little more challenging. The society that I
am working for currently receives NO funding (not from the government, not from
donors, not from grants, nothing). There are only 3 paid staff members – one
field worker, one accounts worker and the director. They are only just
surviving off the sales from a car, which was donated by an expat lady who was
leaving the country, but this is fast running out. This means that they will
soon not have money to pay their power and phone bills, let alone fund programs
and resources… The frustrating thing is, there are two case workers who
travelled to Fiji two years ago to complete training in disability, however since
returning there has not been any funding to pay them a wage and so their skills
are not being utilised – these two local people are currently working
elsewhere, not in the disability sector. So my current priority is to try to
find some funds to secure at least one of these workers back on the team! In a
country where everyone is looking for funding to run one program or another,
grants and pools of money are quite competitive, but I am hopeful that
something will come along soon!
Another issue we are currently working to overcome is the
state of the VSDP building. My office is an old demountable that is not secure,
is falling apart (the kitchen has been condemned and there are holes in the
walls) and requires a lot of repair and maintenance. We do have quite a nice
therapy space, with a mural that was painted by the women from the prison next
door, but when there is no running water in the tap in the bathroom, the work
environment is not ideal! The Port Vila Rotary club have teed up with Rotary
New Zealand, and are planning repairs and extensions to the building through a
series of Busy Bees, including a fence to secure the area, an outdoor play area
– very exciting! – new kitchen and bathroom, and eventually new offices, with
part of the building being demolished. Construction is due to start next month,
which will be great!
A group of women in Port Vila have also recently formed
their own NGO called Friends of People with Special Needs, whose role will be
to fundraise, lobby and apply for grants and equipment for the centre. There is
certainly a lot of good will around, and I am hopeful that we can really make a
change. It’s quite motivating to have so many people wanting to help out!
I do have a loose kind of “multidisciplinary team” that I
am working with here:
- Sue is an Occupational Therapist from Australia, full time
mum of 7 month old Jesse and wife of Frank. Frank is carrying out a volunteer
assignment in agriculture here, but has a keen interest in disability and can
be quite handy with wheelchair adjustments and repairs! Sue and Frank have been
in Vanuatu for 3 years or so, and have been a great resource for me finding my
feet here and filling me in on what has been done in the past and how
everything works. Sue is very keen to get in and help out, and we have done
many a home visit over recent weeks with Jesse and their house girl Mercy in
tow.
- There is one local case worker, Tom, who I share an office
with. Tom has an interest in wheelchairs and is a great resource for locating
families and getting in contact with new clients. Also a great opportunity for
me to practice my Bislama as much as possible!
- Elison is the executive director of VSDP, a chief from the
island of Pentecost with a heart of gold and lots of great ideas, just limited
time and resources to follow them up.
- Dunstan is our accounts worker, also from Pentecost, and
gets around on crutches due to childhood polio. Another great person to
practice my Bislama with, and he often comes to find me to tell me to “spel
smol” (take a short break) and “storian” (have a chat) with him in Bislama.
And that’s it for current staff! Hence there was a lot of
excitement when I arrived, and a lot of hope placed in my being here. I am
feeling a bit of pressure to deliver and create something sustainable that may
have a chance of standing on its own two feet after I leave!
In the meantime, I am getting huge job satisfaction out of
helping children and families at an individual level. As well as the group, I
have been trying to get out and see some children at home. This is often easier
said that done, and can be a bit of a logistical nightmare to organise at
times, with no addresses, disconnected phones, a language barrier and limited
transport - but hugely valuable to see the kids in their home environment and the
limitations that go along with it.
Community visits have been made somewhat easier by my
discovery of a community bus that we are able to use for free on the odd
occasion when it is available. I am hoping to find a local bus driver who is
happy to help out so that we can set up regular clinics, but for now I’m it! So
I have been driving a left hand drive, manual, 12 seater transit van through
the disorganised and pot-holed streets of Vila, through informal settlements
with one-way dirt roads and potholes that turn into swimming pools after rain,
undertaking 7-point turns in order to find my way out again. I’m telling you,
it is an experience!!
So in short, my job has taken a turn from Speech Pathologist
to “generic therapist”, wheelchair technician, bus driver, first aider (fixing
various sores and infections of pikinini I encounter along the way as well as
taking one to the hospital last week with a suspected asthma attack), and
everything in between. A few additional skills to add to the resume!
One of my biggest highlights of the job so far has been a
week with a Physiotherapist from an organisation called Altus Resource Trust in
Auckland. Altus run programs throughout the Pacific, sourcing equipment and traveling to countries for about a week at a time running therapy clinics. We have been liaising with Altus for a
couple of months, sending photos and information on clients we are working
with, and they have sourced some wheelchairs and equipment for us that they
arranged to be shipped over (my dealings with customs to get them through with
the minimal fees and taxes possible are another story, for another time, but
frustrating!!!). This resulted in a week with Sue (OT), Sue (Altus Physio) and
Susannah (SP) – easy to remember names! - travelling around Port Vila and Efate
carrying home visits and fitting wheelchairs and pushers for kids (and some adults) with a
range of disabilities.
Some highlights of our week with Altus in pictures:
(The families have consented to me sharing these pictures with you)
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| One happy camper with her new "truck" |
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| These two brothers have an unknown diagnosis - they both reportedly developed normally for the first couple of years of life, but then got sick. Neither of the boys are able to sit independently, so prior to fitting them with chairs they were constantly either lying down inside at home or being carried. A wonderful, caring family to work with. |
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| Doctor Suz to the rescue - re-dressing some nasty looking infected sores on this little one, whose legs were severely burned in a fire 2 years ago when a mosquito net caught alight. Poor thing is petrified of white people - but her legs are healing nicely! We have given her a pusher for transport in the interim while she waits for a wheelchair. |
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| One of the more challenging wheelchair fittings - a gorgeous seven-year-old with hydrocephaly |
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| Making friends with the locals |
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| "Truck blong Anna" - we managed to get a small smile out of her as we were leaving! |
The week was a huge success, we were able to provide seven
kids and two adults with appropriate seating and transportation and provide the
families with hope that they never thought they would receive! And Sue is
hoping to come back in about 4 months time to follow up, and possibly bring an
OT and a wheelchair technician from Altus along as well.
I’m sure there is lots more to tell, but I might leave the
work update on that positive note. I hope there are a lot more success stories
to follow!
Until next time, ale gudnaet.
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