Transforming speech and language therapy, Guyana
In Guyana, VSO is improving services for people with disabilities by strengthening the skills of local health workers. Merle Sobers works at Ptolemy Reid, a centre for children with mental and physical disabilities. She has spent the last eight months working alongside VSO volunteer Hannah Kay, the only speech and language therapist in the country. Here Merle describes the long-term impact Hannah has had on her work.
I’ve been a rehab assistant for eight years now.
The aim is to ensure that the people we work with have the best quality of life that we can help them to achieve. That’s the overall goal.
Working with Hannah is very encouraging.
She makes a lot of aids that help us help the children. She explains things we don’t know and don’t understand, and she helps us to write new goals, make them realistic and make them achievable by making them simple. This has really been very helpful for me personally as a rehab assistant. When you see this little goals being achieved, it makes you feel so happy.
I worked with a little girl called Selina.
Hannah said ‘use just one or two words at a time to improve her vocabulary, don’t do too much, and eventually she will get the words’. So we identified a few words with a game and we went with that for a few weeks. Eventually her vocabulary increased from three words to ten words.
A schoolboy called Chico didn’t know how to identify colours.
Hannah made some learning aids on how to identify colours, and now he can tell you the colours, which to me is very good.
Hannah has brought a more organised, better way of doing things.
She has been here a short time but her friendliness and openness to share and teach us has impacted us, and also the school and the children she works with. We have become better equipped to do more when she has left. It’s a long-term benefit because when Hannah has gone we’ll still be able to do more and achieve more with the children. What Hannah is teaching us will improve quality of life, no doubt about that because it has improved our lives as rehab assistants and the way we do things. She will improve the quality of life of everyone she comes into contact with.
