Iasi, Romania; Physical Therapy Internship - Jenna

        From the beginning of September until the end of November 2012, I participated in an international internship in Iasi, Romania. Half of my day was spent with a specific group of children in an orphanage while the other half of my day was spent with children in a hospital. Many of the children I worked with had disabilities or developmental delays. I had the opportunity to work with a physical therapist’s assistant at the orphanage. I observed and participated in therapy sessions in which she taught me exercises and activities I could do with the children.

          In the orphanage I was assigned to work with fourteen children ranging in age as well as in physical ability. With the children who could walk on their own, I facilitated group dancing and games to help them to be active. Three of the boys I worked with had muscular

development issues so I would try to spend time with them each day
massaging and stretching their muscles.  The two boys I worked with most both had cerebral palsy. Through attending their physical therapy sessions, I learned exercises I could do with them each day. The older of the two boys had difficultly using his arms and had very little control over his legs. He and I worked on bending and stretching his legs and arms a few times a week. To help with his muscle control in his arms, we would also play a game where he would

grab a toy from one side of his body and place it in a container on the other side. With the younger boy I focused mostly on standing.  Ana showed me activities we could be doing to strengthen his leg muscles and increase his balance. Each day I would get him out of his wheel chair and he would crawl around the room first to stretch his muscles. Next I would stand him up at a table upon which he rested his arms for balance. This allowed him to straighten and strengthen his legs. On my last day at the orphanage, he pulled himself into standing position at the table. It was amazing to see what even a minimal amount of physical therapy could do.

            Through this experience, my appreciation for and understanding of physical therapy has increased. As I practiced what I had been taught, I felt more confident in my ability to facilitate therapeutic exercises.  The practice also taught me that doing therapy is not a one-person deal. I had to get the children I was working with to participate for the therapy to be most effective. This internship has made me want to pursue a degree in physical therapy even more because of the good that I saw accomplished by even small amounts of therapy.

  

Iasi, Romania; Sf. Andrei's Orphanage -Britta

Iasi from my window

 When I first got to Romania, I had no idea what to expect. I hardly knew the language and I knew little about the people and customs, but I knew that I needed to be there and that my semester there would change me in ways I could not expect.  (sidenote: I cannot post any pictures of Romanian children as it is illegal to take pictures of any institutionalized children)

Trip outside of Iasi

Tomesti

outside of Iasi

Romania is in itself an interesting and beautiful place. The countryside in particular is gorgeous and varied.

me and my co-interns 

At the orphanage, I ran a room of 8-11 children, depending on the week. It was a special needs orphanage so most of my children had some sort of disability. The children ranged in ages between 6 months and 7 years.  I spent my mornings with those children Monday through Friday. I taught the older ones to read and write and I worked on all of the children's lingual skills and fine motor skills. My emphasis was to increase motor abilities and I worked closely with the resident Physical Therapist. I did a lot of PT and I saw a lot of success. I received a 2 year old who could not even lift up his head. After a month of rigorous PT, he could not only lift up his head, he could roll over and sit up! He was such a happy and fun little guy. I have many other similar stories but I cannot convey how fulfilling it is to see the results of your hard work, prayer and faith in helping a child.

Co-interns in scrubs coming home from the hospital

In the afternoons, I worked at a Pediatric Hospital and saw some of the most heartbreaking things of my life. I used the PT I learned at the orphanage to help all the little ones without parents who were sick at the hospital and all by themselves. It was so sad to walk into a room of 4-5 babies knowing that each of them had been abandoned either by the death of a parent or by a negligent living parent. I worked with these children to prevent bedsores and muscle atrophy, as well as to try to keep them on-track developmentally. Sometimes a child would be so ill that the best things I could do  was hold them or pat them gently to comfort them. I saw children in so much pain that death came as a relief as it ceased their suffering. In Romania I definitely had both the best and the worst days of life. 

Golia Monastery in Iasi

The very best thing about Romania was the people that I met. The children that I worked with are incredible little people. I am not capable of explaining just how much I love those little ones and how much they have changed me. Nor can I explain how difficult it was to leave them. I’ll just say that if Romania ever changes their adoption laws, I will desperately try to adopt any one of those children. They are so fun and wonderful. Yes, they were difficult at times, but overall they were such a joy. Their ability to love and grow was so inspiring and they really just bring me so much happiness with their sweetness and curiosity. Besides the children, the Romanian people were very kind and helpful. They were quick to try to help us with the language and with finding our way. Our neighbors were kind and interested in helping us and bringing us food. The branch members were the same. The people were really so loving and appreciative of the work we did.
 
I was told before I went that no matter how much I change the children's lives, they will change my life so much more.  This definitely has been true. I would go back to Romania in a heartbeat.  It was an amazing experience and I really am so grateful for it.  I'm grateful for the places I visited, the things I saw, the lessons I learned and the people I met.  It was worth the heartache, the break from school, the expenses and the time. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

me at a monastery

Lugazi, Africa; HELP-International- Jessica Stone "I Love the Broken Ones"

I started my internship and trip to Africa with HELP-International thinking that I would be helping many people and teaching them the information they would need to fight their poverty.  However, that was not the case.  I have been taught more by the people than they have been taught by me.

Carrying rocks from the mountain to build Seya School

I’ll be honest; living in Lugazi was no piece of cake.  We lived in Africa, and we lived like Africans.  A lot of Ugandans have nothing, but at the same time, have everything.  They don’t need cars, fancy houses, or a lot of income to be happy.  They are thankful for everything that they have, even though it is not much.

This summer has been full of amazing experiences and beautiful people that I will never forget.  I was the project lead for two projects in Lugazi, Uganda: The Children with Disabilities Project, and the Eye and Dental Camp Project.  Being the project lead for these projects I learned so much and came to love so many people.

I grew to love the Children with Disabilities project.  At the beginning of the summer our goal was to construct different devices for the children that would fit their needs.  This was a good idea, but during the summer we realized that this wasn’t exactly making the project sustainable.  We kept asking ourselves, “How are we going to keep this program sustainable?  How will it continue through the rest of the year while HELP is out of the country?  And how can we make it so next year will be able to pick up this project and run with it right from the first week?”

We made a therapeutic chair for this boy, Sam.

That is when we decided to switch our focus from the children to the parents.  We were still working on helping the children individually, but we decided to focus on the parents about their child’s disability.  No matter how much we help the children this summer; if the parents don’t know about their child’s disability and if they don’t know what they can do to improve their life, what is the use of just helping the child?  We need to educate the parents!  Once the parents are educated, hopefully they will have the desire to help their child on their own without help from HELP volunteers in the future.  We were hoping that by educating the parents, it will make it so they will continue to help their child while we are gone.  Then next year, volunteers can work on helping more families, present the information to the parents, and soon start a support group within the community for all the parents who have a child with disabilities.

After presenting the information to Joel's parents on Cerebral Palsy

After presenting the information to Noel's mother about Down syndrome.

I have come to love these children so much.  I know this is why I came to Uganda – to help these children experience more joy in their lives despite having a disability.  I have made a life decision while being here.  I am still planning on majoring in Exercise Science so I can be a Physical Therapist, but I am going to specialize in working with children with disabilities as a Physical Therapist.   I have found my passion as I have worked alongside Moses (a local Physical Therapist who works with children with disabilities) and as I have gotten to know and love these children over the past couple of months.

Partnering with Moses, we were able to get Daphine a prosthetic hand,

which she now is learning to use to help her with various jobs, like cutting potatoes.

Being able to do the Eye and Dental Campaigns have been a great experience as well.

Extracting teeth at the Dental Camp.

The Eye camp we held in Mbale was very neat.  Those people had gone years without being able to see.  Whether it was from cataracts, presbyopia, or whatever may be wrong.  It was amazing to see their gratitude.  It was like instant rewards.  Their smiles are definitely genuine.  I could ask for no greater a reward.

This man had cataracts in both eyes.

These two ladies both received glasses and were very grateful for them!

Cataract surgeries were performed at this eye camp

I left Uganda August 8th.  I wish I could have all the time in the world to stay there and help those people.  There is so much that can be done!  Uganda will always have a special place in my heart.  The friends who I have made will always be dear friends.  I will never forget them.  I love them so much.  They have nothing, yet have so much.  It has been a very humbling and great experience.  I will miss this wonderful and beautiful place so much and I hope I will be able to return one day.

Here is a movie I made for my Children with Disabilities Project.  Hope you enjoy it. :)

I have come to love these children so much. I hope through this video that you can come to know and love them as I have.

If you want to read more about what I did in Uganda, visit my blog: http://myadventureinlugazi.blogspot.com/
or for information about the internship visit http://help-international.org/

Provo, UT; Now I Can -Elizabeth

This summer I had the opportunity to be an intern at Now I Can, an intensive physical therapy center for children with neuromuscular disorders. This experience was incredibly valuable to me in preparing myself for my future as a physical therapist specializing in pediatrics. I got the chance to work one-on-one with our patients and in the process I developed greater patience, skills working with children, and appreciation for the miracle of our bodies, as well as knowledge of physical therapy philosophy and implementation. There have been struggles along the way but the overall experience has been life-changing.

Being an intern at Now I Can challenged me to develop greater patience and creativity in working with children. Most of the patients I worked with were about four years old and they had therapy four hours a day, five days a week. Understandably, it was a challenging thing for them physically as well as emotionally. My job as an intern was to help motivate them, keep them on-task and make the experience fun for them. With practice and by watching the physical therapists and the physical therapy assistants interact with the patients, I developed new skills at keeping children of all ages engaged in the task at hand and working their hardest. I learned empathy in trying to understand how the patients were feeling and what I could do to make the incredibly challenging therapy experience more enjoyable for them.

The kids' positive attitudes in spite of all of their difficulties have been immensely inspiring for me. They set an example of courage, perseverance and hope that inspires me to be better, to keep a positive perspective and have more gratitude for the many blessings I have received, especially in regards to my own physical body. I have realized that many of the things I take for granted every day, like walking, or putting on my own shoes or being able to use my hands are constant struggles for these children. It makes me appreciate how blessed I have been. As I have worked with the children at Now I Can I have gained greater gratitude, patience, creativity, and perspective. 

This internship was also an awesome opportunity for me to learn more about the work of physical therapy. The therapists and physical therapy assistants were very helpful in answering my questions and explaining why they were doing what they were doing. I had to take an active role in my learning and ask a lot of questions, but for every question I asked, the staff at Now I Can was ready to answer. 

I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to be an intern at Now I Can.  I feel like I am more empathetic and creative and I have a greater understanding of how physical therapy works and how therapists can really make a difference in the lives of their patients. Because of the hard work of the therapists and myself, our patients made amazing strides towards independence and greater ability. Interning at Now I Can gave me greater hope and an increased desire to work hard and prepare myself to be a physical therapist and continue to help children reach their goals.

To learn more about Now I Can visit: http://www.nowican.org/.