From Postural Care to the Warehouse

Sammie and I had a wonderful morning at Yancana Huasy. Twelve mothers and their children attended a special session on night-time postural care, consisting of a presentation (translated by our amazing friend Luis) followed by a practical session. At least one of the parents had attended a postural care training last week, taught by Elizabeth, OT at Yancana Huasy. But these parents wanted to learn more and get help problem solving their children’s unique situations. For the practical part Sammie and I and several Yancana therapists formed two teams, with the mother/child duos divided between us. Thus each child had opportunity for individual attention in the group and all the mothers learned much more about postural care than if they had been present alone with their child. It was great learning all around!

Jesus and his mother, who had attended the training last week, provided our favorite story of the day. When it was Jesus’ turn, his mother was quick to tell Sammie that she wanted to demonstrate what she was already doing at home with Jesus after attending the first training. She was doing a great job and Sammie had only one suggestion to improve things a bit. Jesus’ mother shared with the group how her son is sleeping better at night and her enthusiasm came from the heart. We are encouraging these mothers to tell other mothers of children with movement problems about postural care. Parents are powerful!!!

Common household items are ready to use for the practical session on postural care.

Some of the mother's and their children, waiting for the class to begin. — Some of the mothers and their children, waiting for the class to begin.

Jerson and his mother learned about protecting his back and hips by sleeping a new way. — Jerson and his mother learned about protecting his back and hips from distortion by learning to sleep a new way.

We ended our day at the Caritas del Peru warehouse, where we had a lovely surprise. Much of the separation and organizing of the wheelchairs was done preliminarily by the guys in the warehouse as they removed and inventoried the cargo from the containers. This will shave hours off the process of preparing the wheelchairs for transportation across Lima and across Peru, meaning that we will likely be able to finish the process tomorrow – a day earlier than expected. With Yancana Huasy staff and a cohort of 8 other volunteers tomorrow, we should be in great shape. And maybe have a bit of time to rest before the rest of our team arrives this weekend…