Bringing Joy to the World

On Saturday, April 10th, joy was felt all around the New Life Children's Home campus. This is a very special place in Haiti. The 10 foot walls and armed guards at the gates protect everyone inside the walls from the outside world of disaster and devastation. Ms Loo Loo and Ms Mary brought colorful toys and paints to the campus to aid in bringing out the inner joy in love in the children... and me! It was a wonderful experience where the children had a wonderful time being creative, and the inner therapist in me, used their mediums to work on the children's physical therapy goals. It was a blast!!

Playing with Joey the monkey...

Doing face painting for the first time in the children's lives...

Playing with Play-Doh...

And at the orphanage, there was joy! Learning everyone's name using instruments...

Playing with colored scarves...

Playing with bubbles...

Listening how to use paint brushes correctly with paint...

Painting the background for a community canvas...

This is one of my children in the clinic. When I first met him he was unable to transition from laying on his back (supine) to sitting on the edge of the bed. Additionally, he was unable to walk more than 10 feet with a rolling walker. A week later, he was independent will all bed mobility, able to sit to stand without loss of balance, and could walk over 1000 feet without a walker! It was an amazing transformation. He was discharged and was released to his family. Unfortunately, they lost their house in the earthquake, so they had nothing. The facility gave them a tent, supplies, and food to help aid their transition into a tent city.