Today was a unique day at our PTA/PNS clinic. In May I had the opportunity to meet a physical therapist from Texas named Rhonda Nisbett. Rhonda comes down to Haiti a few times a year to volunteer with an organization that specializes in helping physical handicapped children called myLIFEspeaks. I had made contact with them concerning a handicapped toddler in our program and they have been working with her these past few months. Rhonda was there that day to provide the initial evaluation for Cindi. She and I discussed the possibility of her coming to our nutrition clinic during her next trip to see some of the children we know of in Leogane who have mobility issues. Today we made that happen!

Rhonda and an intern named Jenn spent the day at our nutrition clinic and she did evaluations on around nine kids. She was able to offer advice and encouragement to the mothers and she showed them exercises they could do to help their kids progress. With assistance and initiative from the mothers, some of the children have hope of walking one day. Always good news! 

While it was a blessing to meet these special kids and their mothers, it was also heartbreaking to once again realize the realities of Haiti and the limitations this country has for medical care. These children have needs ranging from special chairs, to braces, to operations and procedures. The best we could do for them today was simply offer advice and encouragement. There's really no place to refer them to. We are going to follow up on a couple leads to see if we can find further assistance for some of them, but we weren't able to make any promises to the mothers. 

For now, I hope the mothers take action with the advice and instructions Rhonda shared with them. We will try to keep up with the progress on these kids, which will be easy for some because they are current patients in our nutrition program. One little boy was likely admitted today, which will be great for him to receive our treatment and gain weight and strength to become more active and have a better ability to do the exercises.

Thank you, Rhonda, Jenn, and myLIFEspeaks for the great work you do! And thanks to all of you who support our nutrition clinic and help make it possible for these important days to happen!