Cerebral palsy camp

In November Green Pastures Hospital hosted a camp for children with cerebral palsy.
15 children arrived on the first day, 3 more than we expected. 12 mothers came with their children, 3 mothers had two children that received care.

They lived in a small compound, sharing rooms and eating together. Every day we provided physio, occupational and speech therapy as well as working with other organizations to provide wheelchairs, home modifications after discharge and special seats etc for feeding. Orthotic devices and doctors appointments were made as required.

In a country where some people, due to their caste won't eat with other people etc we were a little apprehensive but the ten days went really really well and the parents left very positive. They received a lot of support from each other and also found ways that they could relate to their children better, provide ongoing therapy at home and manage complications related to feeding etc.

The camp had a mixture of expat and nepali staff, the main expat member was a pediatric physio from the UK, Vicky, who provided a lot of input both to the children but also to the staff.

We are really excited that funding has come to run a similar camp in April next year. There are a lot of disabled children that have received little or no input all their lives and so we could run these camps every week for years!

Here are some photos to show the fun that we got up to.

 Doing art therapy with the children, often in seating to help the children develop muscle tone etc as well as making it fun for the children.

 Bobita has ataxic cerebral palsy, when she tries to do intentional movement her arms and legs go in all directions. However, her drawing with her mouth was incredible.

 Music therapy, Deepa just loved to dance.

 Bivek learning to walk

 Subesh loved standing up and throwing balls...

 The therapy staff drinking chiyaa while the mothers danced...

 And some of the staff even took to the dance floor....

 while some of the children watched and laughed.... or took it in their stride...

 On the final day we had a celebration program and the children were awarded certificates for their hard work and the mothers took the opportunity to thank the staff....

It was such a privledge to be a part of a very inspirational two weeks. These mothers have mostly be divorced as they have disabled children but they supported each other to encourage the children to develop as much as possible and seeing the children teach each other their tricks for things such as getting in and out of a wheelchair was wonderful to watch. May the progress continue.