We left the compound at about 8:15 via call taxi (which was an adventure in and of itself – it took us forever to figure out how to tell the guy how to find SPASTN) and headed out to Red Hills, a villiage North of Chennai proper. It took us about an hour to get there due to the huge amount of traffic, the sketchy roads and the fact that our taxi driver didn’t really know where he was going. Red Hills is an interesting place – we haven’t spent much time in the residential areas of India, so it was neat to see how the people live. The streets were very narrow (I had my doubts that our taxi would fit down them) and there were cows, goats and chickens roaming everywhere.
The taxi dropped us off at the Red Hills Primary Health Care Center, a government run hospital mostly for people living below the poverty line. We wandered around aimlessly for a few minute outside, before being approached by a woman. The woman, as it turned out, was Joy Crystal, one of the volunteers in the CBR center that is located at the PHC. She took us around the side of the hospital to the CBR area. The CBR building is a small round hut type building, with a tin roof (I only noticed this because it was raining and it made an interesting noise). There didn’t seem to be any lighting inside, but there must have been electricity, since there were fans hanging from the ceiling. The building was pretty basic – a few mats for physio sessions in the center of the room, some toys, some adaptive equipment. The had a small sensory integration area built into the back of the room, and a bit of “office space” for the PTs (mostly just a table and chairs). We waited here for Babu, the PT that was supposed to show us around for the day.
After a few minutes of waiting we were told to take the SPASTN Jeep to another school, where Babu was waiting for us. So away we went! The Jeep driver was super nice, and we had a nice chat en route, despite his broken English. It was a short trip to the school where Babu was waiting. Babu, turned out to be a slight, friendly man, who actually went to school with Priya, our PT friend at the SPASTN compound.
The school was actually a normal school where the government had set up a ‘day care center”, so that kids with disabilities could be integrated (in a way) into the normal school system. Basically, there is a PT there two to three times per week, that instructs volunteers (often Mothers of children in the school) on how to carry out exercises/splinting etc for the students. This way the students can attend the normal school and still receive all of the therapies that they need to thrive.
We spent a few minutes here, chatting with Babu and the other PT that was there, and then went back into the jeep with Babu to head back to the CBR. On the way, we stopped at the Chennai water reservoir, a giant lake where all of Chennai’s drinking water is stored for treatment. This year has apparently been a very dry year (although you wouldn’t know it by the way it was raining today), so their water supplies are a bit low. Right now there are no restrictions on how much water can be used, but when they start to run out, restrictions on who can use water when will be imposed.
Back at the CBR, Babu explained a little bit about this part of SPASTN and how everything is organized. CBR was basically born out of a need for parents of kids with disabilities living in more rural areas. Before CBR these parents were bringing their kids all the way to the compound that we are usually at – a very long bus ride – just for their therapy. As I understood it, the CBR basically has three umbrellas – the CBR itself, the government run program (which does the day care centers in the schools) and another branch which focuses mostly on vocational training and income generation. The thing that I found the most fascinating and inspiring about CBR is that they really go a long way to empower their patients/parents. They provide all kinds of information regarding the different funding that is available in India for people with disabilities, and they have started up a number of ‘self help vocational groups’ that can then generate income for the people taking part in them. It seems like a really admirable organization!
After our talk on the organization of CBR, we had some newborns come in for screening. Normally the newborn screening takes place in the hospital itself, but visitors aren’t allowed in there (at least not non-family), so they had to bring the babies into the CBR building. The first baby we saw was not even 12 hours old! I’ve never seen such a tiny baby before! Babu showed us the full developmental screen they go through for each infant, including head measurements and checking of vision, hearing and reflexes. It was really cool, because we were able to see things that we normally only hear about in class. We did have one lab in school on young babies, but none that young! We had two more babies come in – each a little bit older than the first one. Babu was actually going to let us do the last screening, but then the baby had a funny skin infection, so we elected to let him do it instead. Babu is a really great teacher – I feel like I learned more in one morning than I did the whole previous 4.5 weeks!
After the new-born screening we met up with the program manager of the CBR (can’t remember her name, but she was extremely nice), and the four of us went for lunch at hotel nearby. Although we weren’t expecting it, they ended up treating us to lunch, which was really nice! (And tasty too!)
Our last stop of the day was a different CBR (in a different district basically), which has been set up in a Buddist monestery run school. It was a really neat place – the therapy room itself was much like the others we’d seen that day (pretty basic), but the grounds of the school were incredibly beautiful, lush and green. The play ground there was really cool too – it was designed by a past PT for use with therapy, and its incredibly creative. They use tires to encourage balance and alternate stepping, they have a set of parallel bars, some ramps, and even standers built into the ground. Basically every item in the play ground can be used as a therapy tool! They have a similar playground at the other CBR that we visited, but this one was definitely nicer.
We also got to visit the inside of the monastery and meet the head Monk. The monastery was very beautiful, with a white marble meditation room inside. Generally a very calming place, as I’m sure it is meant to be. The Monk was incredibly nice – he asked us a lot of questions about Canada and how we’re enjoying our trip. He is originally from Burma, but moved to Chennai in the early 90’s. He was really intrigued by Priyanka because she looks so Indian (well…she is Indian) but identifies as Canadian J He talked with us a little bit about Buddhism, and invited us to sit with him in the meditation room and showed us some photos of events that have happened at the monastery.
Before long, our taxi showed up again to take us back to our hostel. We were sad to leave because it had been such a fun, inspiring and enlightening day, and we’d learned so much! It took us about an hour and a half to get home (traffic was pretty heavy, and in the mean time it started raining again).
We were originally hoping to get out to Mylapore today, but it was raining so hard by the time we got home that we decided just to stay in for the evening. We’re definitely going on Thursday, rain or shine. I’m all caught up on emails for the day, so I think I’ll spend the rest of the evening working on my final evals, and my journal article for this week’s journal club, which I’m leading (and which has now become part of the workshop itinerary! Scary!)
Hope everyone out there is doing well, staying warm, and getting into the Christmas spirit!
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