TEAMWorks Guatemala - Day 7 - May 1, 2014

We apologize for the delay, but better late than never!  Please read about the final day of the recent Guatemala trip below!

Our prayers were answered at Anini with the caregivers being receptive and eager to learn the information we provided. We felt that being able to see the children and caregivers in their houses helped us to connect and establish a better relationship. Mike and Juan split off from the start to tackle the wheelchairs in house 5 and finish up any loose ends, while the rest of the group presented toys and equipment for the children and caregivers in house 1. They were excited to receive several large and much needed items, such as a bath chair, bench, and therapy ball.

The group then moved to house 6, where we provided several highly needed items as well. We were encouraged that the caregiver was implementing several suggestions from the day before, and we were able to give them a walker, physioball, educational toys, group activities around the house, and provided them with education on increased vocabulary and spontaneous language usage.

The therapist split up with Sophie and Kelly educating houses 2 and 3 with emphasis on functional group activities to increase social language and activity of daily life/ work skills. Then the rest of the group helped Mike finish wheelchair adjustments. Overall, Mike helped adjust about 16 wheelchairs at Anini!!! It was a huge group effort with our driver, translater and even the speech therapist helping fix some chairs. We are so thankful to have been able to spend so much time at Anini this past few days, and received a couple resident's email addresses to stay in contact. We are excited to come back next year!

In the afternoon we visited a new orphanage, where we were excited to see them already providing therapy services and school education to most of the residents and speech therapy was provided at the school as well. We were able to provide some updated equipment and give them a new stander which the orphanage director stated they use every day! Mike was able to drive to a rural farm in the afternoon and provided a new wheelchair for a sweet girl with osteogenesis imperfecta. We are hopeful this will allow her mom to keep her at home. It was a good end to our trip and we are grateful for the opportunity to serve these children!!

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