22 Dec 2011
French School, Palma Supports Med
19 Dec 2011
Rays of Light for the Blind of Sebeta
Our team of volunteer psychomotor experts have now returned
from Ethiopia. They left behind
them an equipped gym, which is now in full swing with psychomotor, and sensory
integration activities put on by three monitors who they trained during their
trip. These are the same monitors
who we have working in the Messi Room.
Above all they have left behind many happy children whose lives have
totally changed in the last few months.
Children, as all children, who are happy playing, climbing, jumping on
cushions on the floor…things that are very normal for most children but very
difficult for others.
Apart from the recreational side of these psychomotor
activities they will also be very useful for the reading, writing and
understanding classes, in that they help to teach time and space orientation
and the coordination of shoulders, elbows, wrists and fingers, the executive
parts of the body and postural control.
After this work in the gym the children move to the
classrooms and this helps to make their lessons more real and significant. Since there are two classrooms, one
where they teach reading and writing and one where they do more manual, tactile
tasks and the gym, each of the three monitors will pass from one area to the
other with their own group.
The initial stage in the teaching of the monitors is now
complete and they have been able to enjoy many of the new sensations as much as
the children. They have now
started sensorial integration work with the children who are severely and
intellectually disabled.
The changes in the children are incredible, this can be seen
in their drawings where they are now able to represent things around them in a
much more real and recognisable fashion and relate them to themselves. Many children have started to draw
their homes and talk about their own lives and their roots…this has been very
emotional for them and for us.
Photos: activities in the gym, teaching the monitors,
pretending to be blind so as to be better able to teach (including our representative
Dr Zerihun).
17 Dec 2011
Dagem...The Richness of Abugida
The disabled who live in poor countries count for very
little and yet there are so many of them.
The poor have a much greater chance to suffer disability as mothers
rarely receive appropriate prenatal care or suffer difficult births without
help, or for other reasons such as malnutrition, poliomyelitis or accidents. It’s difficult enough to live in a poor
country but very much more so if you have a disability.
Cerebral paralysis is common in Ethiopia due to lack of
prenatal care and infections. As
if the disability alone is not enough and due to the general lack of education,
this disability carries the stigma that people believe it is a sign of bad
luck, that it is the hand of god acting against the family.
Through Dagem we are managing to break these taboos, he is
accepted at the school and has enriched the lives of those in the nursery and
the whole school. In these photos
you can see him meeting Laura again, our wonderful Occupational Therapist
volunteer who facilitated Dagem’s incorporation into the school by teaching
Nuria, his daily Ethiopia care, and his mother how to care for him. Dagem recognised her, lifting his head
and giving her a big smile.
In the last photo we see Jonas, the little boy with the
eternal smile, who suffers from the same condition but in a much milder
form. Laura is applying a
thermoplastic support to his hand.
Hopefully, as we continue to fight the taboos, we’ll see more such
children in Abugida in the future.
The Rich Sun of Abugida
12 Dec 2011
Times are Changing in Sebeta
We are late in making contact, it’s been difficult to get a
connection and in addition we’ve had very little time. The children of Sebeta now have a
psychometric room and three fantastic monitors who will accompany them in the
process of their personal evolution.
We’ve managed to arrange that not only the adults of the
school but also people from the village, the seamstress, the carpenter, the iron
maker, the pillow salesman etc are involved in the project. It is becoming an enriching experience
for everyone. The director of the
school is aware of all that is going on and has so far accepted all the
proposals that we’ve made and there are many, as we are working quickly in
order to get as much started as possible in the few days that we have left. At least Dr Zerihun, who performs so
many roles for Mediterranea and with such a big heart, always accompanies us.
The children, following their first sessions, have
communicated through drawings and words that they feel content, fortunate and
confident. Following the first
day’s sessions we’ve had a further 35 children sign up for the second day. The biggest success so far has been the
Ethiopian monitors who have been very motivated, making big efforts during the
teaching and practical sessions, with the creation of materials and even out of
their working hours, dedicating time to meet with us to discuss the events of
the day, to ask questions, share their thoughts on changes, situations that
they’ve noticed and to share their emotions. They are very motivated, engaged and continually asking good
questions.
The work with the children is very intense and productive
and we are learning as much from them as they are from us. To see the children move no one could
tell that they were severely visually impaired and to share in their joy no one
could ever say that we speak different languages because it is plain to see
that when it comes down to it we all speak the same language.
Regards and a hug from Sebeta
NB The psychometrics are working with the children who have
the poorest vision, the blind and the virtually blind, those who due to their
disability have the least stimulation.
The Spirit of Christmas at the Portals Christmas Fair
For those of you who were looking for the Spirit of
Christmas last Sunday I can tell you without doubt that it was to be found down
at Puerto Portals at the annual Winter Fair on December 4th. The crowds arrived and mingled with
each other: they ambled through
the assortment of pretty Christmas stalls, many of which were decorated with
magical fairy lights. Santa Claus
hats were everywhere and the angels from the local school sang traditional
Christmas carols. People relaxed
listening to the music and enjoying the wonderful food that was on sale everywhere. The smell of the
mulled wine and the mince pies told us Christmas was just around the corner.
Right in the middle of all this activity was Mediterranea’s
very own Father Christmas with all his little helpers! They worked their magic turning
anything and everything into liquid gold.
They asked people to guess the weight of the Christmas Cake, they sold
draw tickets for one of the biggest and best Christmas draws with over thirty
prizes to be won, they shook their collection tins and the crowds queued for a
chance to take part in the fun and play the game of Tombola. Father Christmas sat the children on
his knee while they told him of the things they hoped he would bring them on
Christmas Day. The spirit of
Christmas was everywhere.
At the end of a long and very enjoyable day we counted the
money, hoping we had raised a significant amount for the charity that is so
close to all our hearts. It was
humbling to realise the generosity of the crowds that had passed by our stall
that day. We had raised a phenomenal
amount -just over 3,000euros. The changes that will be
made to people’s lives with the work that the volunteers of Mediterranea will now be able to carry out will be incredible.
The stars will shine brighter in Ethiopia, in Ghana, and in
Mallorca not only because of Mediterranea but also because of the Spirit of
Christmas that was down at Puerto Portals at the Winter Fair
Contributed by Med Member Diane Oatley
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