Day 8 #happiness

Okay so we never quite got the jumping thing right but we tried!
Today was our last day in the community and although it was sad to say goodbye I left with a sense of fulfillment. I believe we have made our little mark on this community and we have learnt a
lot about ourselves and each other!
I entered as one person and I am leaving as another- I am happy and grateful for what you have taught me Mariannridge and I will carry these lessons with me into the future...

Making news!!!

http://ndabaonline.ukzn.ac.za/UkzndabaStory/NdabaOnline-Vol2-Issue32/Clothing%20Donations%20a%20Success%20for%20Community%20Empowerment%20Project/

We did an interview with the UKZN journalist with regards to our Entrepreneurship project in the Mariannridge community! I am so happy and proud and cannot wait for everyone to hear about what we have been doing! Click the link above and check it out :) 

Day 7 #happiness

Today we had a goodbye party with our entrepreneurship group- as we sat there I reflected on how far this group has come. 6 weeks ago not one of them was motivated or truly committed to the project. They were negative and it was really difficult for us. Now they have taken complete ownership of their business and its proving to be truly successful! I was so happy and fulfilled by this moment realising how we have pushed through the bad time and now I truly believe we have changed these people's lives. This is OT and this is why I am inlove with it! 

Day 6 #happiness

A little tea and rusk break with my two other group members today! It has been such an amazing experience working with them and looking back today we have had some good laughs and fun times amongst all the hard work! 

Day 5 #happiness

Making things for our clinic staff development programme today! 

Day 4 #happiness

I found a little piece of home at the creche we work at today! This little puppy was too adorable and made me think of my puppies back home :) 

Day 3 #happiness

Bumped into some of the old ladies that are in the Wellness group we run on Mondays! They we're so happy to see us and greeted us with huge smiles and hugs! They told us about how much they had missed us this Monday (we had presentations at varsity so were not in the community on Monday) and could not wait to dance again!

Wow I am going to miss these ladies- working with them has probably been one of my favourite parts of community !

The Barefoot Community

https://www.ted.com/talks/bunker_roy

This video is a must watch!! It puts into perspective that sometimes it is just the small simple things that make the biggest different... We do not need to go into communities with our fancy idea's and intention to change and save the world... Its about looking for what the people already have, finding what their own knowledge and skills are... they are the teachers, we are the learners 

Day 2 #Happiness

Spotted the Grade 1's using the table's we gave to them during their remedial lessons..They used to have to press on the carpet on the floor which made practicing their writing skills really hard. We made these tables in second year out of cardboard- its called applied paper technology (APT). Felt good to know the things we are working so hard to do are making a difference- even if they small :) 

Day 1 #happiness

Today for the very first time I stopped and actually took in my surroundings in Mariannridge... To my surprise I discovered how beautiful the setting is. I felt as if I was somewhere far away in the mountains... I have been so focused on the problems and bad things in Mariannridge since we arrived but today I found beauty :) 

8 days of Happiness

So a few people on my facebook have embarked on this mission of 100 days of happiness where everyday for 100 days you find something in your day that brings you happiness and you upload a photo relevant to whatever it is....

Because we only have one and a half weeks left in the community I felt sad and decided to make the best of our last days... I therefore decided to do my last 8 days of happiness in Mariannridge- focusing on the good happy things- its been a tough couple of weeks but its time to see the good. SO here it goes, my last 8 days of happiness. Enjoy :) 

AFRIPACK

So one of our roles in the community is networking…. I have been trying to put my feelers out and make connections but last week Friday we made a network that I am SO SO excited about!

 We went to the Afripack factory- now Afripack does allllll the labelling for anything and everything you can imagine. Steri stumpie; coke; ricoffy; milo – you name it they label it. Now a big factory like that is bound to make some mess- tons and tons of off cuts; dud labels etc. come out of that factory with nowhere to go. A problem that a man called Mark who is the Group Sustainability Manager at Afripack has created the perfect solution for.

 He makes the most amazing things from all the recycled materials. His entire office- desk, chair, clock everything is made from recycled material. He happens to be looking for ways to supply people with these materials so that they can use them to make stuff and so we are going to form a relationship with him so that we can get a constant supply to Mariannridge and use them with our groups. And to make things even better Afripack is sooo close to Mariannridge! I really think Afripack is a great network and I am excited to see what comes of it!

Hippotherapy

We go and work  at Khetiwe once a week whilst we are on community which is a NPO run by a lady Glenys who is a physiotherapist. She provides therapy to children primarily with cerebral palsy and their mothers in the community. This week she invited us to attend Hippotherapy- horse riding with her and some of the children.

Now admittedly I have always heard about how amazing horse riding is for these kids but I never understood why or what was so good and had never really made an effort to find out. Turns out it is absolutely AMAZING! This therapy revolves around the movement of the horse. The horses movement is variable, rhythmic and repetitive and provides a dynamic base of support which is really good for their trunk control, strength and endurance. It also provides motor planning and gives sensory input to their vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile and visual systems. And what I found really interesting is that the movement of the horses back provides the same movement to that of walking!

So we can see why for OT’s and Physio’s hippotherapy really helps with meeting some of the aims common among all CP children. BUT who would have thought that Speech Therapists could also use hippotherapy as part of their intervention- yip!! The movement of the horse can be used to facilitate the physiologic systems that support speech and language.

The children absolutely loved riding the horses and it was so unreal to see how the children when completely transformed from when they were on the ground compared to when they were sitting on the horse. One little girl completely came to life- she was all smiles and laughs and was loving throwing and catching the ball from the horse and walking over all the obstacles.

It is so crazy how many amazing things there are out there that we can use as therapy we just have to put our feelers out and find them. 

The halfway mark

So we past halfway on our community block- time flies when you having fun right… so I thought I’d reflect a bit on the last couple of weeks…

Community work is tough….we have been running like headless chickens trying to find our feet and make our way through the community figuring out all the dynamics. A lot of time has been spent forming relationships and gaining trust of key members of the community. Trying to plan our intervention has been frustrating to say the least- people you need to meet with are always busy or they not at work that day. You speak to one person and they tell you speak to this person then that person and it goes on and on and it feels like you going nowhere.. but that’s community work- its endless persistence to make a change even if it’s a tiny change (which most of them are)… but now this week the ball is rolling, and its picking up speed. Twice today out of nowhere we received positive feedback and gratitude for the work we have been doing. One person actually requested our help with something- goes to show they trusting us and letting us in- HUGE progress. For me today that little bit of positivity motivated me in a big way- the little pebbles we have been throwing are going deep even though they not going wide. For me that’s a great achievement and I couldn’t ask for more.

Our entrepreneurship group is on its way and today I saw the effect that this has had on some lives already. One of our members is a paraplegic lady and her son who is also involved suffers from epilepsy and appears to have some cognitive impairments. She expressed to us today what this group has done for them- she had spent her days cooped up in her flat with nothing to do leading to great tension between her and her son whom she used to take her frustrations of her limitations out on. Now here they are, mother and son, out and about every day- not only to work but she is now catching up with old friends and going to visit them. Their entire aura has changed. Her son said to us today ‘I am sooooo happy to be out and working’. Amazing really… and not only that but she comes today with a peg bag she had sewed by hand the night before- beautifully done. Here she is using her talents and bringing them forward to extend and grow their business

Something I have really been enjoying in the community is going into the homes of our clients to work with them… it’s made me realise how the people we treat in hospitals are just a client not a person. Going into their homes you go into their lives and the person with the disability is not where your work ends- the entire family and context comes. There is so much more to a person than their impairments which is something we as OT supposedly take into our intervention but its only really become a reality now whilst being in the community. I’ve felt a part of something,  a part of their lives. Its fulfilling for me.

I feel a part of the community now. A sense of belonging nestles within me.

So this video doesn't relate much to my work in the community but i watched it and it made me smile... something so simple and small that just works and makes a huge difference.. maybe it is actually related to our community work. Watch it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlA9tXYxD8g

Teenage dream...

Today I ran my first group with teenage mothers in the high school. What I went in thinking and what I came out thinking was worlds apart. The world has a preconceived idea of teenage girls who are pregnant in that they are these promiscuous young girls who have gone out and got themselves into these situations, had the baby and left the responsibility to their mothers or grans and carried on with their lives like nothing ever happened. I expected to be going in and assisting these girls to explore their roles as mothers, to be the mothers their babies needed whilst still being a child…. But that is not what happened. We did an activity which got the girls talking about their lives and what was happening currently. As the stories unfolded it became a common thread that for these young girls their babies were their escape. The babies are the light in their very dingy dark lives. It was hard for me to fathom because for me, and many of my friends having a baby now would kind of ‘ruin’ our lives. My goals and plans would have to change dramatically. It would be hard not to be frustrated and devastated. However for these girls on the other hand, having a baby is a way out from their unhappy lives of mothers with mental illnesses; situations of being homeless and households overflowing with drugs and alcohol. They were proud to be mothers…. they explained their babies as being the only thing making them smile…. I was confused and shocked by this at first but giving it some thought it makes so much sense to me now. Their greatest desire was to be the best mother they could be to their children; they want to finish school so that they can work and provide for their children one day. Completely not what I was expecting. Once again the world changes me – wasn’t I meant to be changing the world?

Reflections...

As part of our fourth year we do research. My group’s research is based on gangsterism in Mariannridge where I am working now. Gangsterism used to be extremely rife in this community around the apartheid era. We conducted our first interview today with the librarian who lived in Mariannridge for years, particularly during the time of gangsterism. She told us stories of the horrific murders that took place and the disabling fear of all those that lived in the community. She spoke and spoke, the memories so fresh in her mind it was as if it happened yesterday. I began to realise for the first time why we were doing the research topic we are. Gangsterism is truly a “symptom” or Mariannridge and although we have been working there for three weeks already, we in fact know very little about the deep roots of the community.  These people have such a thick history that defines and makes the community what it is today and if our aim is to uplift this community we need to make sure we understand it first. Our research could really help us to focus our intervention in the community into the right direction.

We have all heard or read about gangsterism- but it seems so farfetched and unreal. Today it became so real to me and I realised how naïve and isolated majority of us are to what life is actually like out there. These people in Mariannridge reside no more than 20-30km from me and yet we are worlds apart. It’s frightening.

To be honest it’s a lot easier to live life allowing yourself to be naïve of the struggles and lives of the people around us. And that’s probably because we feel so helpless so rather just pretend it’s not there. Sometime I wish I could be naïve but most of the time I think to myself living in your own little world is not living. 

The story of stigma....

Yesterday my heart broke. I was staring at a mother lying in bed and her 10 year old child lying beside her with his arms around her.
The story of this mother and child is such a dreadful one. The child had TB meningitis, had to have surgery and after the surgery he ended up having a stroke which left him a hemiplegic. Not long after the 31 year old mother had a stroke, found out she was immune-compromised and then had a second stroke. She now sits in such a deep depression; I’m not quite sure how to get her out of it. She lies in bed all day and rarely leaves the house. And her son just loves her as much as he can and wipes the endless stream of tears from her face. At ten years old, he is disabled and now is taking on the role of a carer to his mother.
The stigma of HIV is so powerful. She has completely isolated herself from family and her community from fear of them knowing about her illness and the implication of this. As an outsider it’s so frustrating because I can see what she is doing to herself and her family and all I want to do is scream at her  ITS NOT THAT bad!!! You can be healthy! You can live! Look at what you are doing to your poor child!..... but I don’t understand what it really feels to be like in her position. In her mind what she is doing now is the better option.
I feel so compelled to help her but at the same time I feel completely powerless. This is not depression where we go for walks and do fun things to make the person feel better. This is going to be a huge huge challenge for me….
As I left her house one of her neighbours approached me. He is so concerned about her and can’t understand why she is not getting better. I tried to explain that she is depressed etc etc without revealing what really lay beneath it all. He then said to me “Can I ask you a secret question? Does she not have HIV/Aids?”…. My heart dropped as I said no she does not. Obviously I cannot reveal that kind of information. It was hard though because this neighbour really is concerned and wants to help, he wants to pay to take her to the doctor because he wants her to get better and can’t understand why she is not. But this is half the problem now, people are starting to question because she has been in bed for 3 months. Is she could get up and start living her life most people would be non the wiser of her illness…. I wish she could understand and realise this…



watch this video which discusses the stigma of HIV. something that stood out for me: "While HIV is life changing it is not life defining"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIhFcjcc568

Getting down to business...

So we coming to the end of our second week of our community block already which is hard to believe but what we are starting to realise is we have planned and planned and now it’s time to start doing. I think we are so hesitant because we don’t want to start until everything is planned perfectly and we know it will work but that’s not how this is going to work. We need to hit the ground running and actually start DOING. Rather try and fail then fail to try right? SO the project that we getting going next week is an entrepreneurship project for some of the disabled people in the community. We have the idea of helping a few selected unemployed disabled people in starting a business of selling second hand clothes. I decided to read up on entrepreneurship and disabled people and these are some of the things I found really interesting…

The employment rate for people with disabilities is ridiculously low compared to people without disabilities worldwide and as Occupational Therapists this is problem that is “right down our alley” and we should be part of the main drivers behind increasing the employment rate of people with disabilities who are capable of working. So why not start right here right now in our community? I read through a study that was done on ‘The Emerging Workforce of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities’.  This study revealed some interesting information that ‘self-employment and entrepreneurship are part of a nationwide strategy to help disabled people transition from unemployment or underemployment to gainful employment and self-sufficiency’. It also revealed that disabled people are TWICE as more likely to be self-employed as people who are not disabled. Why you may ask…. The answer is obvious really. Despite some improvements people with disabilities are continuously ‘disadvantaged socially, vocationally, economically and educationally’. People with disabilities are defined by their disabilities rather than their abilities and employers fail to recognise their capabilities. This results in disabled people being ‘refused jobs, given less responsibility than co-workers, paid less than co-workers and denied promotions’ as well as bad attitudes towards the disabled by co-workers and employers and physical barriers that never get addressed. The frustration of this makes it obvious then why people with disabilities turn to self-employment. If we think about it self-employment allows the disabled to have control over their schedules and transportation, they will have flexibility in their job tasks and will be able to have all the necessary work accommodations.

Reading this study is made me aware of how empowering this project of ours can be. This project could serve as a vocational rehabilitation strategy for disabled persons in the Mariannridge community. This could not only be beneficial to the individuals involved but also aid in creating awareness about the possibilities of employment for disabled people.

I am really excited to get this project going and I think it could do great things for the disabled in Mariannridge…. Let’s see if entrepreneurship transcends disability!!!

 

Blanck, P. D., Sandler , L. A., Schmeling , J. L., & Schartz , H. A. (2001). The Emerging Workforce of Entrepreneurs with Disabilities: Preliminary Study of Entrepreneurship in Iowa . Iowa Law Review , 1583-1661 .

This a video which shows a disabled man who is successfully self-employed. Click on the link to take a look 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTsWj8QPXDk

And we call ourselves "professionals"??

Today we were finally able to conduct our first home visits which was very exciting. It felt to me that going into these people’s homes was a way in which to step inside these people’s lives and actually begin to understand. The second home into which we entered was a step into 'the real world'if i can call it that… Let’s name the lady from this house Katy…

The depression in Katy’s household greeted us at the doorstep. Katy, a middle aged lady is severely ill with cancer which has spread through her breasts; lungs and is now progressing into her spine. She had an appointment booked in February to see the Oncologist however she fell days before her appointment and fractured her hip and so was physically unable to get to her appointment. Her husband phoned to tell them that they would not be able to make the appointment and requested that they be given another date. In his words they were then ‘punished because they had missed their appointment and so were given another appointment two months later for the 29^th of April’ which was yesterday. Yesterday Katy’s husband got her up and ready to go to the hospital, they paid ridiculously over-priced transport to get to the hospital only to be told when they arrived that the Oncologist was not in today. Nobody phoned them to tell them not to come. And as if that wasn’t bad enough they were then given another appointment for the 24^th June, another two long months away. So the question is now who is punishing that Oncologist for not holding up her end of the deal? How many people had made their way to that hospital yesterday, paid all the money they had for the month for transport to get there only to be told sorry come back in two months’ time. It makes me feel sick to think that we as health professionals can behave in that way because I know for a fact that that Oncologist is not the only one. And when our clients don’t attend therapy we get angry and wonder why? Because this is the message that we as health professionals are sending out, why should they care if we don’t? We do not deserve to be called “professionals” if this is how we behave….

And there Katy sat in front of us with cancer literally consuming her body as we spoke. What if June is too late? Here was a husband so dedicated to get his wife better, he’d given up majority of his work so that he can take care of her. I felt embarrassed and ashamed hearing what they told us and I’m sure that running through her mind were negative thoughts of us “therapists” and if we were really even going to help her.

I know this is what happens every day in this country but today it became real for me. I have flu and I see the doctor a day later, Katy has cancer and has to wait four months. I know I cannot save the world but if anything I know I will never let myself be that kind of health professional.

I’m beginning to think some health “professionals” need to get a degree in humanity because it seems like they’ve lost theirs somewhere along the way. 

Aaaand we're on our way

So one week down in the community already and it feels as though we’ve been busy busy busy but what have we actually achieved so far? Well um not much to be honest besides admin work and meetings. That’s what it feels like anyway but reflecting back on the week we have learnt a lot of valuable lessons already. This is what I’ve learnt in 4 days:

1.       The importance of immersing yourself into the community in which you will do work- we have spent a lot of our time this week walking around meeting people; introducing ourselves; getting to know the roles of some of the individuals in the community and really just saying hey what is this community all about and what’s going on here. Ideally to really get to know your community will take alllooooot of time but unfortunately we only have six weeks in Mariannridge so our time to do this is severely limited but hey I guess this will be a continuous process throughout our time spent there

2.       It’s all about the community members, NOT US and what we want! After all we are the outsiders- as therapists we are all used to working in hospitals were quite honestly what the therapists want to do and when they want to do it is what the client will do and when they will do it. But not in the community as we realised. We are required to do home visits to individuals houses as a team of therapists (speech therapists; audio’s and OT’s) along with the CCG’s (community care givers) who take us along to all the houses. So we went to the CCG’s this week ready to do our home visits with them but to our horror they told us we could only start with home visits next week as the client’s had been informed that this is when we are coming to them and so they will not be ready for us this week. This upset us greatly as we only have two days together as a full team as next week has a public holiday and the following week we have to present our clients to our supervisors as part of our formal assessment. So in our minds we HAD to go to their house this week no matter what. But then we sat back and thought about it. We are going into their homes and are offering a service to them- surely they have the right to say when it suits them to allow us in and when they would like to receive the treatment we want to give them. The answer is not to just go and force ourselves on these clients because hey we giving them a free service they need. No the answer is the presentations can wait, we will go when they want us to go.

3.       Nothing is instant- so a lot of our time this week has been spent meeting with people to propose work and projects we would like to begin in various areas in the community. Even though we have had these meetings there is still a lot of groundwork to be done before these projects will actually begin to happen. It has been frustrating me so much because I feel like we doing all this stuff but getting nowhere. But actually I’ve realised now that the groundwork is probably the most important stage of all our work in the community. Starting that process; creating those networks; digging out those paths is the real work- actually doing the stuff in the end is the easy part.

4.       Bonding with our team- its funny to think that we have all been on the same campus, actually been in endless amounts of lectures together for the last three years and still we do not know a single thing about each other and what work each of us does. Im referring to the speech therapist and audiologists here who are part of our team in the community. We spent part of our morning on Thursday with the audiologists who were performing hearing tests on the grade one students (we ended up here mainly as a result of not being able to do our home visits but lets just pretend we had always planned on going there) we got chatting with all of them and eventually they actually invited us to do some of the testing on the students that they were doing. WOW it was amazing and such good fun. At first we felt a bit guilty that we had ‘wasted time’ but no we had not. We had already formed such a bond with them and we got talking about our work and what they have been doing in the community- we shared experiences and we told them about our projects that we had plans for in the community. They showed so much interest in us because we had shown interest in them and as a result they are now contributing to many of our projects. Yes we could’ve sent them a message- told them what we were doing on whatever day and asked them to join in but the result would’ve been that they wouldn’t have shown any interest in our work. But because we made the effort, created those NETWORKS and RELATIONSHIPS they wanted to reciprocate. Just getting an understanding of their work and what they do made it so easy for us to see where they could contribute to the work we are planning on doing. And honestly the more the merrier right? Who wants to do all the work anyway

So what can I say but there are exciting things to come in the next few weeks and these definitely are not the end of the lessons I will be learning J

EXPECTATIONS...

Today was our first day in the community of Mariannridge. Waking up this morning I didn’t know what to expect but for the first time ever I felt a sense of peace on the first day of prac. We climbed out the bus in Mariannridge and walked towards Ridge Café and the MCC (Mariannridge community council) offices. Nobody was there waiting for us. Everyone just carried on around us like we were invisible…. This is somewhat different to what has been happening the last few years were we are met by an OT or someone who is in charge at the hospital or wherever we doing our prac and our supervisor is there asking us questions and laying out the expectations. Quite the opposite of what happened this morning. At that moment I felt lost and wasn’t sure what to do, but after some time we ‘forced’ ourselves in by going and introducing ourselves to whoever was around and taking a walk up to the school and getting involved with the groups that were running. When I was driving home this afternoon I started thinking about what had happened this morning. We are so used to structure and being told what we must do. We have always known what our supervisors and clients are expecting from us. But I don’t believe community block is not going to be like that. We have to look for things now. It’s not clear cut, there are no ‘specified’ roles for an OT in a community. It’s up to us to find our role and not only do we need to find it but we need to find a way to fill those roles too. It’s going to take one heap load of confidence and trust in myself something that has been my downfall during my three years of studies thus far. So then I asked myself why am I not nervous and worried if this block is asking of me something that I lack? The only thing that I could put it down to is that the expectations and pressure now in this block are no longer coming from our supervisors that greet us at the door on our first day. This block to me has no academic pressure…... It has real pressure, it has people pressure- how can I help these people? What do they need? What can I give them? What’s going on in this community? And that’s the pressure that drives me because I care about and love people more than anything in this world. I’m tired of academics. I’m ready to just be a human being and use myself as a resource.