Children's Development Program

Mark and I have been involved in a little nepali run NGO, Childrens' development program (CDP), that helps very poor children with their education. It is run by Shankar and Bishnu Panthar, friends of ours from our church.

Firstly, they try to keep the children with their parents but provide support for school fees for the children to attend local schools as well as help with buying uniforms, stationary etc.

If the children are really bright and the local school can't provide for this or the parents are really struggling to feed them they bring them into a hostel that they are running in Pokhara and allow them to attend Pokhara schools. We have been to the hostel a few times and seen the impact that having a loving Christian family environment has had on some very behaviorally challenged children.

Mark and I got the opportunity to go to one of the villages and see the families that CDP is supporting. We were really encouraged to see Shankar and Bishnu providing support but also encouraging the family and community to help each other as well.

 This little boy is supported by CDP. We spent a lot of time trying to convince his mother to take the child to Kathmandu and get his eye checked. He went to Pokhara but they wanted to send him to Kathmandu for a small operation which will save him from blindness, The cost and the time away from her home duties as well as the belief that he was born like this and 'that is life' has put the mother off.

 We met other children at the school where they are studying. The buildings are simple.

 Bishnu keeping an inventory of the supplies that are being given to the children.

 A little boy receiving shoes to wear to school.

 Jo was asked to give the school supplies to the students - they were so excited.

Hospital Games

INF has a celebration of it's work every November. As part of the celebrations there are prizes for patients who win a series of competitions that are run the week before. 

There were a variety of different competitions/races for people with different levels of ability. All provided a lot of entertainment for us all.

 The first competition was throwing sandbags into a bin - the winner got 8/15!

Those in a wheelchair partook in a wheelchair race. Some wheelchairs are much more suited to the terrain and some people are far more used to using a wheelchair than others, some only just receiving a wheelchair or using a ward one. However, fun was had by all.

 Many of the leprosy patients competed in a marble on the spoon race. Some found it rather hard to balance the spoon as they had no teeth!

 Then it was the staff's turn. The women had their legs bound together and had to race there and back with crutches...

 Once the women were finished the men went. However, the men had an added challenge. They had to carry a balloon to the other end, pop it by sitting on it, get up (with their feet tied together) and race back to the starting point. Just to make life more fun, where the balloons were to be popped, the bisi (water baffalo) had just walked and left some nice deposits leaving the spectators almost in tears of laughter!

 There were plenty of spills, I think some people needed the crutches afterwards!

A wonderful Friday afternoon's entertainment!!!

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.