Therapy

Today, we spent time in the therapy gym at Zanmi Beni.

 The gym is actually a converted porch/sun room, with (relatively) cool breezes blowing in through the screen doors and windows. They have an old radio for music and a TV that played a Harry Potter video during the evaluations

Dr Forsythe and I met with two physiotherapists who work with the children there each weekday and we evaluated ~10 of the children.

 No one seems to wear shoes or socks around the orphanage and the shoes that they do wear most often  are sandals and Crocs. Here's a child wearing hand-me-down AFOs that were donated to the orphanage.

Here, I spent time demonstrating stretching techniques that they could perform and teach to others at the orphanage.

Our discussions with the therapists were limited by language barriers, but Dr Forsythe was able to use Google Translate (English to Creole and Creole to English!) to facilitate communications.

We found children who had visual impairment, hip dislocations, spasticity, scoliosis, club feet, hydrocephalus and more. We saw several who have outgrown their wheelchairs and took some measurements to see if we might find better fitting equipment for them back in the States.

Bon Apres Midi (Good Afternoon) !