Lazy Sundays

Yestersay I seemed full of energy, today just feeling lethargic.... even going swimming seems too much trouble.  I worked part of the day yesterday, planning the next months actions, then went straight to town on my bike for a bit of an exploration and shopping trip. It was a very successful day with things sorted that weren't even on my list! I even managed to get a hair cut!

Workwise last week was busy by Puri standards - I gave tutorials to the CBR workers on 3 afternoons. These covered the need for proper assessments, note updating and reviews - SMART goal planning, basic techniques and exercises/progressions. I think we covered quite a lot even though there was a bit of a language barrier and I had to wait for Madhab to translate and explain things several times. I got some positive feed back too 'they like my teaching style' which is a good start. Next week my plan is to go over each CBRWs' case load and encourage them to think about goals, treatments and time scales etc for each child. By the end of June I'd like to have meetings with the Health Visitors and other memebers of the care team that are involved with each child but we'll see how that goes!

The families of the children do the best they can with the little knowledge and resources they have. The children are in general well cared for, although thin I have so far not seen any pressure sores. The families often feel let down by the medical profession because there is 'no cure' for  their child. There seems little counselling and support/education for the families as regards CP and how to do the best for their child. Winning the families over can in some cases be the biggest challenge of the CBR worker before thinking what they can do for the child directly.
The villages are quite remote and there is very little public transport available. Play areas in the villages, apart from in some schools, are non existent as far as I can see. I have put forward suggestions for creating play areas to stimulate disabled and able bodied children alike - some brilliant ideas in David Werners' book 'Disabled Village Children' which could be easily replicated with a few strong and willing volunteers! Hopefully July will see swings, seesaws, climbing frames, tunnels and roundabouts etc starting to appear in some of the villages with several disabled children in them.

Schooling is of course very important to all children and aparently mandatory for primary school ages. The average family monthly income is about RS3,000/- I have been told that it can cost up to RS6,000/- per year to equip a child for school including uniform and books. If anyone has any fund raising ideas and would maybe like to sponsor a family/child perhaps we can start something.....(£1=RS75/- approx). That was just a by-thought from an encounter with some of the  fisherman's beach-village families and may be a future venture for consideration.