So much has happened in the last few days! I arrived at Herbertpur yesterday morning (Saturday). Our train arrived at Dehradun about 7 am and a driver from the hospital picked us up. Sharon, the occupational therapist showed me my room and we went to the “mess” to get breakfast. Then, morning devotions was immediately after that and then I went to see the Anugrah Center. So, it was a really busy day! Sharon she showed me around the intervention center and introduced me to the staff at Anugrah. The center is only open Monday through Friday, but the staff spend Saturday planning for the rest of the week. Sharon’s main job is an administrative role at the center. She coordinates all of the projects and supervises/trains the staff. The staff are trained to administer assessments and then Sharon helps to interprete the results and coordinate with the staff to develop goals for each child. Sharon told me that I can help her with intepreting assessment results and writing them in “parent-friendly” language so that we can give them to the parents.
Anugrah has one main intervention center and then too smaller centers in villages nearby. They also do home visits for children that are too low level to be able to come to the center or the parents don’t want to bring them. These children are visited twice a week. At the main intervention center, the children are divided into three main groups: vocational group, literacy group and early intervention. They also have activities that all the children participate in together. I will find out more details tomorrow (Monday). I am so excited about what I have heard so far! The staff here are so creative to use the limited resources that they have. It’s so fascinating! I saw alot of adaptive equipment (such as standing frames, wheelchairs, swings, etc.) that they made themselves with available materials. They have a workshop where alot of things things are constructed.
Today, I attended church that is on the hospital campus. It was so amazing to be able to worship with local believers. Most of the songs were in Hindi but the preaching was in English and then translated to Hindi. After lunch, a group of us went into town. The nearest town is Vigas Nagar which is about 5 minutes away. We walked down the street and took a bus. It was alot of fun. I bought some oranges and a shaw.
There are a couple of med students and a lady from Australia who are here for a short time like me. I have really enjoyed getting to know them. I also have an Indian friend who lives next door to me who has been so nice to me. A group of us watched a movie in her room last night. We watched a hallmark movie that I brought (Thanks Tyrell!). Well, that’s all I know for now. I will write more details about Anugrah later in the week.