Last week we discussed some of the psychosocial implications in which having a disability in Ghana may result. First and foremost, we discussed the social stigma associated with physical disabilities and other diseases, most notably AIDS. There are stigmas associated with physical disabilities in all cultures generally stemmed from how a person looks, moves, or ambulates. People with disabilities such as Cerebral Palsy or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease) are commonly assumed to have intellectual disabilities simply because their physicality can lead to mistaken assumptions. Neither Cerebral Palsy or ALS affect a person's cognition. These assumptions can have vast negative impacts on a person's psyche and especially in areas such as Africa, I'm sure we will run into instances where people have been discriminated against due to a misunderstood physical disability. AIDS is a disease in which people are especially discriminated against, to the point of being shunned from their village. In addition to the psychosocial impacts, this introduces health concerns.
While we're in Ghana, I'm certain that we'll encounter differing views on disability and I only hope that I can not only understand their views but perhaps provide understanding of different disabilities.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Preparations and a Special Guest
As I continue to update the blog today...on March 4 we had a guest speaker from the social work department, Randi, come and talk to us about her experiences taking students to Ghana. She showed us a DVD she made about VCU social work in country and aside from it being amazing, it totally pumped me up to leave! Not that I need all that much encouragement. :-) She talked about what sorts of things we need to pack, what we need to do and what we need to avoid while we're there, and about the amazing people of Ghana. What struck me is the network of street children. For those of you who don't know (and I must admit that I didn't until recently), street children are orphans, children from bad family situations, or those who lost their homes and family who live on the street. It was fascinating to learn about how they take care of and rely on one another for support, money, protection, and encouragement. For example, Randi once gave a group a loaf of bread and instead of fighting over it, they meticulously divided the loaf so that each child got an equal share. A large amount of the children work for a living in dangerous jobs for little pay and are at constant risk of contracting diseases and infections such as Malaria. But, this is their way of life and from Orme and Seipel (Survival strategies of street children in Ghana), a boy stated "I think, tomorrow maybe I don't have money. So I will go and find some work to do. I will earn money tomorrow and buy some food which I will cook and eat."
Among other things, I am extremely excited to meet and interact with the people of Ghana, go to the market (which might be a bit overwhelming!), and visit the coast and the rain forest! But, in preparation for all of these exciting adventures, I'm first doing all the boring logistical stuff. Last Wednesday I got all of my vaccines (and subsequently couldn't raise my arms over my head for 2 days) and am in the process of filling out paperwork for my Visa. I've also begun to put my packing list together and am slowly acquiring all of the necessary *stuff* for the trip (at the top of my list is sunscreen, Deet, and Immodium). I figure if I make it to Ghana with those three things, I'll be ok. :-) Ghana, here I come!! Well, in 2 months...
Among other things, I am extremely excited to meet and interact with the people of Ghana, go to the market (which might be a bit overwhelming!), and visit the coast and the rain forest! But, in preparation for all of these exciting adventures, I'm first doing all the boring logistical stuff. Last Wednesday I got all of my vaccines (and subsequently couldn't raise my arms over my head for 2 days) and am in the process of filling out paperwork for my Visa. I've also begun to put my packing list together and am slowly acquiring all of the necessary *stuff* for the trip (at the top of my list is sunscreen, Deet, and Immodium). I figure if I make it to Ghana with those three things, I'll be ok. :-) Ghana, here I come!! Well, in 2 months...
Childhood Disabilities and Interventions
Back on February 25 (wow, where has the time gone?!), we had a meeting where we discussed some of the common disabilities, illnesses, and health conditions in Ghana. Obviously, AIDS is at the top of the list but I was surprised to learn that conditions such as Polio still affect children across the country. Stacey informed us that we are probably going to see children and adults with lasting after-effects of Polio and other seemingly simple fixes such as a child with Cerebral Palsy suffering from contractures (something that is avoided in the U.S. by splinting and proper use) or decubitus ulcers from lying in a bed or sitting in a wheelchair (something we would combat in the U.S. with pressure relief strategies and position-changes). It baffles me to think that we have access to vaccinations against diseases that are all but eradicated here in the states, but where we're going access to these vaccines, much less access to a medical facility, are considered luxuries (if they're considered at all). So much of what we're trying to do when we go to Ghana is to educate people about how they can help themselves and others around them. I only hope we can make a lasting difference on the people we encounter!
Monday, February 16, 2009
Planting Seeds
We had our third meeting last Wednesday (I missed the second meeting because my skills at reading a calendar are apparently impaired) and as always had a very stimulating conversation about our upcoming trip, current events in Ghana, and what sorts of things we would be doing while in country. Specifically, we discussed how we (5 OT students and 1 OT coming from the U.S.) could make a difference in the 2 weeks we have. Brace yourselves, this might be a long one...
The second meeting's readings and discussion were aimed at pinpointing and taking a preemptive strike at the "hero mentality" that so many people can have (and that we can easily develop) when taking this kind of trip. While it's great to go into a situation such as this with ideas of all the wonderful things you want to accomplish and all the people you want to help, it's even more important to go in with a mindset and attitude that says the difference you want to make is through the empowerment of the people you're helping, not in all the great things you're going to build and establish. It's easy to swoop into a rehabilitation center and make a splint for a child out of state of the art materials, but wouldn't it be more helpful to make a splint out of materials that are handy to the center at all times and to teach others how to duplicate that splint? Won't more of a lasting impression be left if we can empower others to teach and do for themselves?
Stacey gave us an awesome book to help us to start thinking outside the box when it comes to the practical things we can teach and demonstrate to others while we're in Ghana called Disabled Village Children by David Werner. The book is extremely interesting and has a whole bunch of ideas for making adaptive equipment, taking and teaching safety precautions for easily avoidable ailments such as decubitus ulcers, and so much more! No, this isn't a sales pitch for the book.
Our third meeting focused on what we were going to do in the 2 weeks we have to make a lasting impression with the people and in the centers in which we work. Again, we discussed not re-inventing the wheel when we get to the centers but working with what they already have in terms of resources and programs and building from there. We also discussed Ghana's Persons with Disability Bill, which is similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act (though very watered down and lacking structure and tangible goals). It was established in 2006 with a goal for full implementation by 2016...thus far, little has been seen it terms of action to meeting this goal. This is an interesting look at what sorts of attitudes towards disability we are going to encounter while we're in country. We also discussed the state of Ghanaian medicine and health care. Access to health care is extremely limited and holding on to what precious few doctors are in the country is very difficult (what I learned is called "brain drain" - who knew?!). I couldn't help but think of the similarities to health care access in rural areas in the U.S.
As an undergraduate student in the Health Information Management program at ECU, I took a class in rural health care systems. As a project, we were assigned a rural county in North Carolina and were given the general statistics of residents and their overall health statistics. Using this information, we were to develop 3 programs to target giving county residents greater access to health care specific to the health concerns facing those residents. Obviously, these were not programs that we were going to implement, but we did have to do the actual research and make contacts to determine the cost of each of our programs. Surprisingly, each program was very affordable and "do-able". It's amazing how much a little bit will go a long way in such situations. This is also an important idea for me/us remember while in Ghana, and I intend to do so!
The second meeting's readings and discussion were aimed at pinpointing and taking a preemptive strike at the "hero mentality" that so many people can have (and that we can easily develop) when taking this kind of trip. While it's great to go into a situation such as this with ideas of all the wonderful things you want to accomplish and all the people you want to help, it's even more important to go in with a mindset and attitude that says the difference you want to make is through the empowerment of the people you're helping, not in all the great things you're going to build and establish. It's easy to swoop into a rehabilitation center and make a splint for a child out of state of the art materials, but wouldn't it be more helpful to make a splint out of materials that are handy to the center at all times and to teach others how to duplicate that splint? Won't more of a lasting impression be left if we can empower others to teach and do for themselves?
Stacey gave us an awesome book to help us to start thinking outside the box when it comes to the practical things we can teach and demonstrate to others while we're in Ghana called Disabled Village Children by David Werner. The book is extremely interesting and has a whole bunch of ideas for making adaptive equipment, taking and teaching safety precautions for easily avoidable ailments such as decubitus ulcers, and so much more! No, this isn't a sales pitch for the book.
Our third meeting focused on what we were going to do in the 2 weeks we have to make a lasting impression with the people and in the centers in which we work. Again, we discussed not re-inventing the wheel when we get to the centers but working with what they already have in terms of resources and programs and building from there. We also discussed Ghana's Persons with Disability Bill, which is similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act (though very watered down and lacking structure and tangible goals). It was established in 2006 with a goal for full implementation by 2016...thus far, little has been seen it terms of action to meeting this goal. This is an interesting look at what sorts of attitudes towards disability we are going to encounter while we're in country. We also discussed the state of Ghanaian medicine and health care. Access to health care is extremely limited and holding on to what precious few doctors are in the country is very difficult (what I learned is called "brain drain" - who knew?!). I couldn't help but think of the similarities to health care access in rural areas in the U.S.
As an undergraduate student in the Health Information Management program at ECU, I took a class in rural health care systems. As a project, we were assigned a rural county in North Carolina and were given the general statistics of residents and their overall health statistics. Using this information, we were to develop 3 programs to target giving county residents greater access to health care specific to the health concerns facing those residents. Obviously, these were not programs that we were going to implement, but we did have to do the actual research and make contacts to determine the cost of each of our programs. Surprisingly, each program was very affordable and "do-able". It's amazing how much a little bit will go a long way in such situations. This is also an important idea for me/us remember while in Ghana, and I intend to do so!
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
First Meetings and Big Plans
Starting last Wednesday and throughout the rest of the semester, our group is going to be meeting to discuss the trip and also various topics pertaining to Ghanaians (specifically those with disabilities) and their culture. It being our first meeting, we largely spent our time going over logistics such as our itinerary, our activities in-country, vaccinations, etc. etc. But, we did briefly discuss a few articles on child development in developing countries.
It's so hard to imagine growing up without all the privileges and opportunities that I grew up with. Reading the literature pertaining to child development in developing countries presented me with staggering statistics; there are 559 million children under 5 years of age in developing countries, 126 million of whom are living in absolute poverty, and more than 200 million of whom fail to reach their developmental potential due to poverty, poor health and nutrition, and deficient care. The good news about this statistic is that children are amazingly resilient and can overcome much of the negative effects of poverty if, and that's a very big and important if, their environment and circumstances are changed or redirected. The bad news about this statistic is that if those circumstances are not changed, poor early development tends to lead to outcomes such as not completing (or in some cases, not even enrolling in) school, poor health outcomes, and growing up into poverty. It seems so unfair to be born into a life with the odds stacked against you. I consider myself a pretty strong-willed and resilient person, but if I was in that position I wonder if I could overcome those odds?
Reading this material reminded me of an NPR podcast of This American Life we listened to for a lifespan development course last semester entitled "Going Big". This episode featured a segment called the Harlem Renaissance about a project aimed at curbing urban poverty called Harlem Children's Zone. This project was aimed not at giving parents money or a job to get out of poverty, but at educating parents on the importance of early childhood development so that their children might pull themselves out of poverty. Among many other offerings, Harlem Children's Zone offers parenting classes (known as Baby College) that stress the importance of reading to children and building strong relationships, education for children, and a charter school to ensure that children complete school.
I think there's an extremely important message to be taken from this project that in addition to providing support in the traditional sense (monetarily, nutritionally, medically), we must also educate the younger populations (reading, writing, and arithmetic and also life skills and fostering healthy relationships) in order to stop the cycle of poverty and buffer against some of those negative outcomes of poor early development. I realize this is a pretty big bill to fill, but definitely worth thinking on.
One of our projects while we are in Ghana is to create a children's library for Sovereign Global Mission. Our OT honor society, Pi Theta Epsilon, at VCU raised money last year to purchase and provide bookshelves. Now, we are going to begin collecting children's books to stock the shelves. Teaching and raising literacy levels in Ghana is a very important step in the process of empowering younger generations towards overcoming the odds of stunted development and poverty. I'm so excited to be a part of this group going to Ghana to do what little I can to help children faced with unfair circumstances. Judging by our meeting last week, the amount of laughter we shared, and the fact that we completely lost track of time after a long day of classes is a good predictor of the time we hope to have while in Ghana.
It's so hard to imagine growing up without all the privileges and opportunities that I grew up with. Reading the literature pertaining to child development in developing countries presented me with staggering statistics; there are 559 million children under 5 years of age in developing countries, 126 million of whom are living in absolute poverty, and more than 200 million of whom fail to reach their developmental potential due to poverty, poor health and nutrition, and deficient care. The good news about this statistic is that children are amazingly resilient and can overcome much of the negative effects of poverty if, and that's a very big and important if, their environment and circumstances are changed or redirected. The bad news about this statistic is that if those circumstances are not changed, poor early development tends to lead to outcomes such as not completing (or in some cases, not even enrolling in) school, poor health outcomes, and growing up into poverty. It seems so unfair to be born into a life with the odds stacked against you. I consider myself a pretty strong-willed and resilient person, but if I was in that position I wonder if I could overcome those odds?
Reading this material reminded me of an NPR podcast of This American Life we listened to for a lifespan development course last semester entitled "Going Big". This episode featured a segment called the Harlem Renaissance about a project aimed at curbing urban poverty called Harlem Children's Zone. This project was aimed not at giving parents money or a job to get out of poverty, but at educating parents on the importance of early childhood development so that their children might pull themselves out of poverty. Among many other offerings, Harlem Children's Zone offers parenting classes (known as Baby College) that stress the importance of reading to children and building strong relationships, education for children, and a charter school to ensure that children complete school.
I think there's an extremely important message to be taken from this project that in addition to providing support in the traditional sense (monetarily, nutritionally, medically), we must also educate the younger populations (reading, writing, and arithmetic and also life skills and fostering healthy relationships) in order to stop the cycle of poverty and buffer against some of those negative outcomes of poor early development. I realize this is a pretty big bill to fill, but definitely worth thinking on.
One of our projects while we are in Ghana is to create a children's library for Sovereign Global Mission. Our OT honor society, Pi Theta Epsilon, at VCU raised money last year to purchase and provide bookshelves. Now, we are going to begin collecting children's books to stock the shelves. Teaching and raising literacy levels in Ghana is a very important step in the process of empowering younger generations towards overcoming the odds of stunted development and poverty. I'm so excited to be a part of this group going to Ghana to do what little I can to help children faced with unfair circumstances. Judging by our meeting last week, the amount of laughter we shared, and the fact that we completely lost track of time after a long day of classes is a good predictor of the time we hope to have while in Ghana.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Here goes nothing...
Hello! This is officially my first time blogging...ever. Though, I must admit that I do frequent the occasional celebrity gossip blog, a guilty pleasure when I'm either procrastinating or passing time. :-)
As stated in the "About Me" section, my name is Meredith and I'm a first year graduate student in Virginia Commonwealth University's occupational therapy program. Along with 4 other OT grad students and 1 of our professors, I will be traveling to Ghana this summer where we will be working with children at various orphanages and schools with Sovereign Global Mission. I have always had a love and passion for travel and have had the opportunity to travel abroad a few times in the past and loved every minute, always wanting to return as soon the plane touched down back in the states! I am very excited and grateful for this experience and can't wait for the semester to begin so we can get this show on the road!
This blog will chronicle my experiences during the next 5 months preparing for our trip, our time in country, and my reflections upon returning from Ghana. And so, here we go!
As stated in the "About Me" section, my name is Meredith and I'm a first year graduate student in Virginia Commonwealth University's occupational therapy program. Along with 4 other OT grad students and 1 of our professors, I will be traveling to Ghana this summer where we will be working with children at various orphanages and schools with Sovereign Global Mission. I have always had a love and passion for travel and have had the opportunity to travel abroad a few times in the past and loved every minute, always wanting to return as soon the plane touched down back in the states! I am very excited and grateful for this experience and can't wait for the semester to begin so we can get this show on the road!
This blog will chronicle my experiences during the next 5 months preparing for our trip, our time in country, and my reflections upon returning from Ghana. And so, here we go!
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