A Wonderful Workshop

Today started off being a hectic day with finalizing everything for the workshop. We managed sorting out a beautiful tent and an lcd screen for the powerpoint presentation.

At 10am parents started walking in, and because many were stuck in traffic, we waited until 11 then started the talk. Emily did great, as I knew she would! The questions were asked during the presentation which led it into many discussions during the talk. The parents got some great information and spent plenty of time after the workshop just talking to each other and sharing experiences. We provided lunch then moved on to the workshop for the teachers and professionals after... this went even better I'd say. There was plenty of information that was given out and lots of ideas for the classrooms. Emily did great with this too.

Unfortunately we had a huge thunderstorm on way towards the end of the talk, and tried to rush through in the end, but still got through everything. After the talk, the teachers and professionals got to meet with each other as well, and I had so many of them approach me to say that they loved it and really wish that we'd have more of these. They were very impressed with the work Kaizora is doing and with the Global Autism Project.

We had given out evaluations for everyone to fill out, and majority said that they definitely want more of this. Some said that just discovering Kaizora has been a huge relief for them.

Basically, things went great and everyone was happy. I will try and put effort into having more workshops at Kaizora and spreading the word more. Now that Emily has been in here and we plan on finalizing all the children's programs, I will be able to take out more time into such events. We're all really sad that Emily has to leave us, but we're all holding our breath for her to make her way back very very soon!!...


Pooja Panesar
www.kaizora.com

In-Home Services!

Today began with a trip to a different part of Nairobi for Kaizora's first in-home session ever!!!  Addressing this need has been a challenge in the past, as staffing and transportation have not made this possible.  However, it is clear that there are more and more families asking for such services, so this is a gap Kaizora would love to fill.  This particular case is a 4 year old kiddo from the Phillipines who just moved here with his family.  Given his location relative to Kaizora, the family was unable to come daily, despite their desire for him to receive daily ABA.  As a sort of pilot opportunity, Kaizora has agreed to provide in-home services 2x/week.

When taking into account the advantages, this could be a good opportunity for generalization of skills taught in the center, an opportunity to include self-help and toilet training programs, and provide the father, who cares for the boy at home during the day, with some modeling and coaching, as this is an area he felt as if he wasn't as skilled in.  This session consisted primarily of observing him in the home, getting a feel for his routine, and getting him comfortable with trainers being in his environment.  Things went really well, and what is clear is that the boy seems eager to learn, and the father is very receptive to feedback.  I became inspired that things could work well when the boy grabbed his father's hand and led him into the kitchen towards the fridge, we prompted the father to ask the boy to say "open please", which he did, and when the father did so, the boy grabbed a bottle of coke and handed it to his father.  The father said "no coke" and closed the door.  The boy instantly tantrummed, throwing himself on the floor screaming and crying.  The father tried to redirect the behavior by looking at the boy and saying "it's ok, come on, let's leave, it's ok, it's ok, it's ok".  I asked the father "what would happen if he just walked out of the kitchen?", and the father said he had never tried it before.  I said "let's try and see?".  He walked out of the kitchen, and approximately 1 minute later the boy came out of the kitchen, plopped on the floor, looked around, walked to a roll of paper towels, ripped one off, wiped his own tears, threw the paper towel in the trash, and climbed on the chair and got his cup of water and had a few sips.  We of course gave the father lots of praise and he seemed content.  The father is apprehensive about his English skills, especially given we have talked to the family about only using one language to facilitate language acquisition.  Nonetheless, the father seemed content with the day's session, and after leaving the team from Kaizora was thrilled about the prospects of subsequent sessions.

Upon returning to Kaizora, we met with a family from Zimbabwe who has a 6 year old son with Cerebral Palsy with severe physical limitations on the left side of his body.  His leg has virtually no muscle structure, and his mother is taking him to South Africa in a month to receive a botox injection in his leg.  There was a lot of clinical problem solving around how to increase functioning on the left side of his body, including me contacting a Doctorate-level Physical Therapist in the United States with extensive background in working with children.  She offered many helpful suggestions based on the most current research in Physical Therapy with regard to complete vs. incomplete hemiplegia, motor planning abilities and spastic vs. flaccid CP.  She informed us of a growing body of evidence in support of "constraint-induced therapy", which basically entails putting the unaffected side of the body into a position to essentially make it non-functional, and incorporating fun activities into tasks such as pulling a rope, pouring water back and forth between cups, riding a bike with straps to keep his foot on the pedal, stacking blocks and pushing magnets all over a wall.  Hopefully as the kiddo is able to make more use out of the left side of his body, he will be able to participate in more activities with his peers, and subsequently gain more self confidence.  A program will be put in place incorporating ABA tasks and programs and prompting more use out of the left side of his body.  Ultimately, of course, the parents would like to see him go to a mainstream school with the rest of his peers, while still being able to receive the most out of his schooling environment.  We also agreed to meet with the school teachers and his aya (aide) in order to replicate tasks like those at school in the center so the goal can continue to be mainstream placement.  We were able to run many sessions with this kiddo later as a team, and what was also evident is the desire for him to compensate the best he can given restrictions on his left side.  We ran Precision Teaching sessions, and prompted lots of motor imitation in the context of his preferred activities, such as peek-a-boo, high fives, raising arms above the head and cheering and manipulating objects with his hands.  His left side upper body is much more functional than his left leg, and his mother indicated that when he had botox previously on his leg, his stance and walk was much better.  The team is excited to see how this round of botox affects his muscles in his legs.

Overall the day was very good, and there was lots of opportunities for in situ clinical problem solving and development.  We had the chance to record some sessions so we can review later and provide feedback later and review with Molly back in New York on Skype.  Pooja was hard at work trying to ascertain a large selection of reinforcers for the kiddos, and pairing these reinforcers with pictures she made on cards so they can have some meaning as we implement "First, Then" boards.  Way to go team!!
- Emily

Expanding Services

Today I met with a family from Somalia who came to seek my advice on how to support their 4 year old son in school.  The principal of the school feels that the child has "borderline autism" and the school may not be able to provide the support the boy needs.  After probing quite a bit and getting some background information, it sounds like there are many variables that could account for some of his delays academically and with his speech.  They said they had him screened for autism almost a year ago, and no diagnosis was given.  The principal would like to see the family get a second opinion, and I advised the family that it couldn't hurt to either rule it out or rule it in, for their own knowledge, but they should be very careful with how they disseminate that information, as it could cause him to be viewed and judged based on his label, not on his skill repertoire and abilities: it should not matter whether he has autism, what matters is how he is functioning relative to his peers, and his success in the classroom.  They asked what they could do in the meantime, and I suggested they have consistent contact with the school teacher, and the principal so she does not feel as if she is being left out, and target areas as needed and proactively as possible.  The break time between terms would be an ideal time to help him in areas he may be lacking.
What was positive was that the family was not plagued and concerned with the possibility of being diagnosed with autism, but instead want to use this knowledge to provide support where it is needed.  This meeting sparked an already determined interest in understanding diagnostic criteria, and how this information is then used to guide families towards resources they may need.  Perhaps if there is more awareness surrounding appropriate and accurate diagnosis while taking into account cultural differences and practices, maladaptive behaviors and developmental milestones can be targeted earlier, increasing likelihood for success throughout life.  Pooja and I also had the chance to take a closer look at specific clinical practices for specific clients, specifically shaping skill acquisition for a child with cerebral palsy.
We developed "First, Then" visual aides, and worked with staff on how to make access to powerful reinforcers contingent on appropriate responses.  Upon speaking in depth with the trainers at Kaizora, a targeted clinical training need during this trip will be the principles of reinforcement, planned ignoring and extinction.  Subsequent to this, in an effort to provide staff with more tools in order to make data based decisions, further training will be done in how to conduct preference and reinforcer assessments, and how to use this data to support skill acquisition.
This has further implications to create for Global Autism Project a structural training module and protocol for use at each site, based on the BACB's BCBA task list as well as personalized systems of instruction and inter rater reliability.  Another area of need appears to be logistics in terms of being able to provide services to everyone who needs them in all areas of Nairobi.  There are many families that have come for assistance, however logistics in terms of distance, transportation, etc, prevent them from being able to receive services consistently.

- Emily

Everyone's Learning!

Today has been a great day. We're all working together really well, the atmosphere is charged with positive energy and everyone is learning :)
Emily had a great consultation with a family this morning and gave plenty of great advice as always. I started sessions with a 4 year old boy today. We came up with ideas on what to run trials for and I feel quite confident with him. We're putting a first-then chart for some of the children and I'm quite excited to see how that goes. I think it'll definitely iron out some behaviours with harry.
I then had another consultation, which brought into limelight one of the main obstacles for parents getting therapy at kaizora... Transportation and traffic logistics. So many parents can't bring their children from across town for a couple of hours of ABA therapy and take them back. I hope that kaizora can one day provide full-day services and transportation as well. There are many we still have to reach out to.
After sessions, Emily worked on the workshop and we did some brainstorming together... And I went on to make some materials for the children.
I really enjoy working with Emily... We seem to be in tune when talking to parents or brainstorming about ideas... I really appreciate all she is has come to offer to us and am eager to soak it all up!!!
Tomorrow we're going to start our first ever home-based therapy and I'm looking forward to this new chapter for Kaizora.
:)

Pooja

A Day of Clinical Developments

Today I had the opportunity to get into some sessions and observe fluency based precision teaching as well as some discrete trial training. It's so amazing to see the skype training we have been doing for the previous month prior to coming being put into action-- I never thought I'd see the day when I would be seeing therapists in Kenya taking data on standard celeration charts!! I also was able to see a client doing vocal imitation sessions with the use of a vocal stimulation machine, a piece of equipment I have never come across in the United States. Apparently the client's grandmother suffered a stroke which impacted her speech, and when she began seeing a Physiotherapist (Kenyan lingo for Physical Therapist), she began using the machine. When use of the machine resulted in rehabilitation of her speech, the client's mother wished for her son to use the same machine. Since using the machine, Pooja and the parent report increases in vocal production and sounds, however variables have not been systematically manipulated to determine which intervention, or combination thereof, account for the increase in speech. I suggested perhaps we do an experimental analysis of behavior and embark on an alternating treatments research design and a component analysis in order to determine which variable(s) are responsible for the increase in speech. Given the machine is more of a speech language/physical therapy intervention, it would be interesting to see if data would justify continued "rent" payment for use of the machine. Moreover, the mother has been very pleased with results as of late and attributes them in part to use of the machine, so it would be poor practice at this time to simply stop using the machine if data may indicate it has been helpful.  Nevermind that the Global Autism Project never seeks to enter into a partnership and come into a country and immediately disrupt what the culture has viewed as successful if there is no data to substantiate our decisions. I'm excited to see what data will tell us!!


We also had the opportunity to meet with the mother of a 12 year old girl, and her "aya" (Swahili word for maid) to discuss targets for program development and skill acquisition. She is not in school, and has not been in school for sometime. The education system in Kenya does not seem to strictly oversee and mandate children being in school, which from what I've observed, and based on interviews with multiple families, teachers and professionals, this may not necessarily be all bad for special needs children if they are not getting the support they need by teachers who have an understanding and skillset fundamental to growth and progression. (This also happens to be a possible exciting venture for me in the future and on subsequent trips: a comparative analysis of how education and special education in Kenya compares to IDEA in the United States)  Her mother pulled her out of school due to lack of progression, and has increased her sessions at Kaizora with Pooja, since that is where she has seen the most growth and development.  I suggested perhaps we target some functional life skills training, such as cooking, cleaning, shopping, money management, etc.  The mother was thrilled, and would like to see her daughter develop some skills in these areas, especially since her aya can oversee many of these tasks.


I will be training Pooja and the Kaizora staff how to implement the Functional Independent Skills Assessment and work with Pooja to design programs to target areas of need based on lifestyle, traditions, and ways of life for her family and the culture of Kenyan people.  This is a task I am REALLY excited about, given that results may be seen not just in academic domains, but in self help and activities of daily living as well.  By continuously gauging and assessing not only progress based on follow-up assessments, but on parent satisfaction at home, we can ensure we are targeting skills that are proving to be most useful and beneficial.  So many exciting clinical developments today!!!


- Emily

Making Progress!

Another day started bright and early!

Today we have been at the centre for the whole day and managed brainstorming about the children and their programs and the direction we’d like to see things going which has been amazing. Emily has brought up some amazing points and provided lots of guidance on what direction we can take things next.

We met with Mary’s mum today who was has always been incredibly pleased with everything Melissa has accomplished to date that she never expected her to… but now even more thrilled knowing that there’s still so much more to come. In fact she was saying that she’d love to be a candidate for any research and participate in any possible way!

We also went through Max’s programs in detail, who is a fairly new student and broke down each program and the procedure we’re going to teach every single thing in. We did all this with Molly, Emily and myself over skype. It’s been really amazing as well how the 3 of us are talking even twice a day over skype and keeping updated on everything.

It’s been a really exciting day and I’m feeling more and more confident with everything we’re running here as the days are going by, and we’re only on day 3 so far yayyyy!! 

- Pooja

School Visit on Day 2!

Today we had a bright and early start and as Emily says, “we hit the floor running”!
We put up the poster which looks soooo amazing!! Then we planned on the 2 consultations with Johnny’s and Sammy’s parents/aids. We then went and visited a school for children with disabilities. School H is doing amazing things for the children with the resources they have. They are in a low SES area but still do so much, which is something I find very inspiring.

We then went to School S where some of the children who come to Kaizora also go. School S is a mainstream education school in a higher SES area. There we had a wonderful and productive consultation with Johnny’s teacher, teacher-to-be, mum, and the head teacher. We managed coming up with some great ideas and goals, and also provided various strategies they can implement in the school setting to promote social skills among others. We talked about what Johnny should be doing in his next school year and how we can use the holidays to get him at par with everything.

Back at Kaizora we then meet with Sammy’s aid and mum and talked over behaviour modification in the classroom. This also went great and mum sent a text saying “Hi, thank so much. The aid says it was really helpful. She has been on a 1 week training in 2005 & no one has ever come to school to talk to the assistants like you have today”! We will be providing data sheets to help identify the ABC in Sammy’s behaviours in school, and hopefully having such a system in place will shed light on plenty more.
The consultation after that with Johnny’s mum went fabulous as well and we identified lots of goals and went over his progress so far. She was very happy with all the information, and some of the things we plan on doing while Emily is here is weaning him off his GFCF diet!

Overall, the day has been absolutely amazing, and I’m so excited for the next 2 weeks as well… everyday is a new learning experience! 
-Pooja

Karibu! (Welcome!)

Today I was able to receive a tour of Kaizora, staff, materials and a brief overview of programs and client backgrounds.  I also had the opportunity to meet some of the clients, run around and play tag, and begin to establish some rapport with parents and children.  On first impression, it was so exciting to see the wonderful center that Pooja has worked so hard to create, not just in terms of aesthetic appeal, but also environmental arrangement being conducive to an array of service delivery.  There are 3 classrooms with teaching tables, and each table in each room was of a different size to account for different heights of the children.  Each child had their own shelf with task materials, data sheets and folders, making for easy access to materials for each session.  There is a large reception area where parents and care providers are able to meet independent from the classrooms.  There is also a kitchen and of course a bathroom, making access to self help and vocational skills easy and reliable.  There is also a large outdoor play area with a sandbox, and a large play structure soon to come.  From an immediate outsiders perspective who seeks to target clinical development and support for a series of different programs, there appears to be resources and an ideal spatial arrangement fundamental to a broad range of service delivery. It is definitely a big help that we are able to Skype with Molly daily back in New York! This is a great observation and starting point on day 1!!

- Emily

Day 2!

Today was a very humbling day, as I had the opportunity to see two very different special needs schools serving very different populations and demographics.  The first very small school was located in one of the lowest socioeconomic areas of Nairobi, where many students had physical and mental disabilities that were the result of malaria, HIV/AIDS, cholera and malnutrition.  School fees equate to US$2/month, and children are provided with environmental arrangements based on principles of behavioral prompting and cueing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, medical assistance including HIV testing and proper nutrition.  Upon speaking with one of the teachers at great length about service delivery and needs, she indicated that one of the biggest barriers was overall awareness of disabilities, and alleviating the stigma associated with having a child with a disability.  Slowly as awareness increases, more mothers are coming out of the woodwork to seek assistance with their children.  This has implications for targeting awareness across the country in general in order to encourage those that having a child with a disability is a reality that cannot be avoided or always hidden, but there are ways to support families and creating measurable, observable behavioral change to increase overall functioning in everyday life.  On the other side of the spectrum, we visited a mainstream Pre-K and K school where school fees were approximately US$1000/4 months.  In this case, awareness of disabilities were more openly embraced and provided for accordingly.  Parents were able to see successes overtime with their special needs children, and were satisfied with results.  Collaboration with Kaizora Center also facilitated consistent skill acquisition both at school and at home, resulting in parents acknowledging the extra behavioral support needed at times.  Both parents and school staff were able to attest to the gains children had made when combining school-based learning with ABA therapy provided at Kaizora Center.  At the end of the day, after familiarizing myself with two different settings serving children in Nairobi, what seems clear is that when awareness of special needs children is embraced by families and care providers, appropriate interventions and assistance is sought.  And when those reach out for assistance, and are provided with ABA therapy and methodologies spanning a variety of contexts, families are extremely satisfied with overall independent levels of functioning both at home and at school, as well as functioning amongst the dynamics of the family unit.  This in and of itself may indicate that demonstrating measurable, behavioral change may increase the likelihood that services can be provided to more individuals in more places.  This seems like an ideal starting point and initiative for Global Autism Project and Kaizora Center.    

- Emily

Emily arrived!

Emilyy got here today yayy :)
We got to show her the centre briefly and talk over lots of stuff… and then the day ended too soon! It’s really exciting though, we’re super thrilled that she’s here! Most of all, through all our conversations, it’s extremely reassuring to hear her response on various issues and know that we’re on the right path! 

- Pooja

Not goodbye...See you later!

Our last day at SOREM the teachers had a party for us at tea time.  We ate sweets and they presented us with a pouch and book marks the students stitched and painted during vocational training.   They are beautiful and we love them!   We have a dance party (Bhangra, which is Punjabi dancing) and are reminded how this school empowers each and every student.  If only we could post the videos!  We leave here with new friends, new knowledge, and a common interest to commit our time to these special individuals. This is our personal first visit to SOREM, but it will not be our last!

Working the night shift

Most days we hold private consultations in the afternoon/evening for an hour and a half. Parents from around the area (and one from 4 hours away!) come and bring their children for some advice or information.  It’s wonderful to meet with families outside of SOREM who are so interested in learning more about what they can do for their son/daughter. Many of the families are already doing so much for their children—by teaching them at home, taking them to different therapies, or experimenting with different teaching methods. This collaborative approach with parents exemplifies our thoughts and practices on empowering the individuals we work with. More over, each family we work with offers another opportunity for us to engage in our own critical reflection about our work and the best practices for future partnerships. 

Everyday, something new!

 We look forward to working in the classrooms everyday.  When we enter the classroom, the students stand and say “Namaste Ma’am/Sir!”  Some of the students call Jayshree “Didi” (which means older sister).  Some come and shake our hands and it excites us to be with them for the day.  We learn everyday that this work is not about “helping” other people.  This work is selfless, in that it is about building a bond with people—their lives, their kids, their families.  We work together with teachers and students everyday, take ideas from one another, and brainstorm as a team. We see that they accept and love their students, and raise the expectations for them everyday.  We feel the ease of the students at SOREM—it is a place where they are expected to work hard, but are treated with equality and respect.   We also learn that we both struggle with autism/special needs awareness, and think about a place in society for the adults with special needs.  So many commonalities exist among so many cultural differences, and across so many miles. 

Look both ways...

A picnic in the park!

Friday we went to the Park and had a celebratory picnic to celebrate all of the awesome experiences we’ve had together over the past two weeks; it was so much fun! The students were so impressive. To say that crossing the street here in India is a challenge would be a vast understatement – New York City streets have nothing on this place!

Basically, you stand at the side of the street – look right first (because, you know, cars are driving on the opposite side of the road here!)  then look left. If there are no cars, rickshaws, horses, dogs, motorcycles, buses, scooters or bicycles coming at you full force, you make a run for it! Mostly, you hope for the best and so far, it’s worked out just fine. I mention this so that you can easily imagine what I mean when I say that 90 students (children and adults alike) all crossed the street on the way to the Park. One of the older students stepped out into the street and into the role of crossing guard and managed to stop cars, buses, bikes, dogs, scooters, and more so that all of the students and teachers could safely cross the street.

At the park, there was music, games and of course great food. It really was quite impressive to see close to 90 students with varying levels of physical and mental abilities sitting in a big circle all together playing games, singing and dancing together! We played a game similar to duck, duck, goose, ran races with the teachers and just had an amazingly fun time and delicious food. Until now our days have been filled with work, work and more work – it was nice to play!

Speaking of playing, everyone’s been asking what we do in our free time around here. Mostly, when we hear that question – we just laugh. We’ve literally been working 6 days/ week in SOREM and spending all of our free time preparing for the next day’s activities and 6-hour weekend workshops. We’ve been busy, but as savvy travelers have managed to learn our way around a bit and find some time to play. A favorite hangout has been the coffeeshops walking distance from the center where we all take turns using the one available outlet and the one computer that works with the wireless internet card. We’ve also managed to find a few good places for some after work relaxation and of course we’re all enjoying bargaining with the local street merchants for some beautiful handmade gifts for friends and family back home. We’re so thankful for Jayshree’s ever-growing Hindi vocabulary.  

We’re also so incredibly thankful to all of you who have made our visit here possible and the wonderful staff and families of SOREM who have made it an absolute pleasure to visit India once again! 

Connections

After reviewing printed versions of slides of previous workshops held at SOREM and comparing the information presented to the knowledge level of the staff with whom we were interacting, we decided to take a very practical approach to the workshop, heavy on examples.

The survey results are in and we’re excited to report that everyone loved it! One of the main concerns for people that we were able to address is the concern that we all have when presented with a formidable challenge: where do I even start? Behavior modification can be a challenging task that tests every fiber of your being. Modifying your own behavior is difficult enough, modifying someone else’s--obviously a much larger task. In order to help people learn where to start we broke everything down.  We presented examples in video, in situ, through case studies. Topics were checked for understanding before moving on and then reviewed again in a different way with a new case study, a new example, etc.

This visit to Chandigarh marks our third this year; this workshop was our first. Having attended and conducted workshops in the past, we knew that we needed to prime the teachers to help us present the material in order to get everyone on board for what can be a  very challenging task of behavior modification; this past week was spent doing just that. In daily three hour in-classroom training sessions and 1.5 hour teacher education workshops, we’ve been able to present and review a tremendous amount of skills for the teachers’ toolboxes!

The Saturday workshop was an amazing success and the workshops have been as well. That being said – we know the proof is in the pudding and to us the ‘pudding’ is the follow-up and data. As a professional organization devoted to this work full-time, we’re fortunate to have the resources to stay in touch with our colleagues here in India and be able to answer any questions as they arise during our weekly meetings. Things change fast when teaching students and in order to stay a step or two ahead of the student, you must be able to change quickly as well.

We’re very curious about how International work happened without the internet, or even phones-- we couldn’t do this work without Skype! We had a trial Skype call to make sure that everyone is able to sign on and talk without difficulty. Casey was on the call from the U.S.!  This was immediately following our call with our colleague in Kenya. That call included Casey in San Diego, Molly in  India and Pooja in Kenya – connecting across three continents and three different time zones was an incredible experience! 

Incredible India...

When you arrive in India, there’s propaganda everywhere, partially as a result of the Commonwealth games and partially on account of the amazing amount of nationalism here. You see it everywhere: “Incredible India” and India is Incredible! From the food to the clothes to the people to the sites, everything about it is incredible, in so many ways, as you’ve already read in our earlier post.

However, to call the facilities and teachers at SOREM incredible seems to be an understatement – they are truly exceptional. When I was here last January, I was so impressed with everything, and this time SOREM seems to have outdone themselves once again. The Honorary Secretary (and Founder) Ms.Promila Chandra Mohan has been able to start to focus her energies on some of the educational services offered. For the past two years, she’s been extremely busy with creating a state of the art center and building up both the recreation and vocational training services offered. It’s great timing for our partnership to be gaining so much momentum! Additionally, it’s exciting to see our presence here taking hold as the country is starting to focus on learners with autism. It’s exciting to think about where this center and the country will be in five years when it comes to providing services for children with autism. We’re honored to be a part of such a huge movement.

SOREM serves over 50 individuals with varying degrees of physical and mental challenges. Recently, they’ve increased their enrollment of students with autism. Two of the classrooms contain only students with autism, and many of the other classrooms have students with autism as well. We’ll be working to train all of the teachers in evidence-based teaching methodologies. Additionally, we’re providing private consultations to families with children with autism and holding Saturday workshops to provide training to the general population.

Last Saturday was our first workshop and it went amazingly well! Brad and Jayshree worked really hard to examine the notes from workshops that had been conducted previously here at SOREM as well as build a workshop that specifically fit the teacher’s needs. The success of the workshop was measured by the level of interaction and insightful comments and suggestions! We’ll be writing a full post about the workshop tomorrow evening, once we’ve compiled the surveys and can let you know the results. Crackers exploding in the night sky and loud music being piped in…another night in India!

We're in INDIA!

After hours of travel, the team finally meets up! Brad and Molly left from L.A. and flew into Delhi, and took a bus to Chandigarh to meet up with Jayshree, who came in from Ahmedabad where her family lives. After only one day of rest (that was filled with the requisite tourist visit to the local market), we headed to SOREM for the first day of observation and collaboration. The school is gorgeous with large pictures of the students covering the hallway, multiple classrooms including speech, PT, and vocational activities, a garden, a dance studio, a playground, and large basketball court. The staff are unequivocally gracious, and welcomed us into their classrooms to meet their students, young to old, who all greeted us by saying "Namaste!" We met with the Honorary Secretary and founder, Ms. Promila Chandra Mohan, to discuss details about our 3 week stay. Most of the day was spent observing the teachers and students in the classroom, and making plans. Leaving SOREM after the first day, we are all equally excited for the work we are doing here.

The food is amazing, the shopping (and bargaining) quite an experience. Jayshree speaks Gujarati (where her family is from), and has been helping the crew get around via Rickshaw with her limited Hindi. Also, we can't forget to mention our honorary team member and in-country ambassador Avikal Malik who has been a considerate and invaluable friend to the project.

.....Back at the guest house, the crackers are so loud we can barely hear each other. Apparently it's festival season--starting with Diwali in early November and moving into weddings back to back through January. The music is ongoing with singing into loudspeakers (of course). It's a party out there!  In go the ear plugs.......have to get up early for a full day of work tomorrow!

Autism Society of West Africa!

We've been hard at work over the past few months, working on building West Africa's first ever regional autism conference. This conference will serve as the catalyst for the creation of the Autism Society of West Africa. Delegates from Nigeria, Senegal, Ghana, and Benin are all planning to attend. We're looking forward to an amazing conference and would love to see you there! Details will be posted on our website in the next few weeks, so stay tuned!

In the meantime - save the dates!

April 8-11, 2010 in Accra Ghana!

Hope to see you there...

Pictures Autism Awareness Month events in Ghana...

Artwork, done on Thursday's at AACT, being sold at the parents meeting



Concert in Osu by Joyful Way Incorporated




AACT field trip to the Legon Botanical Gardens



Thank you Milo for your sponsorship!



Auntie Serwah up at the podem during the seminar at the British Council



Excited caregivers during our community awareness walk



The awareness walk, escorted by the local police




This picture speaks for itself!



Dear readers,

April was sure busy, wow! It is amazing to think of all the events that were organized, the people who connected and the awareness that was inspired by the 2010 Autism Awareness Month in Ghana. Starting from the huge benefit concert at the National Conference Center, to the community walk and field trip, to the radio shows and press conference, all in all... it was a success.

My personal favorite was the field trip to the Legon Botanical Gardens with all of the students and caregivers. Metro Mass Transit very kindly gave AACT a bus at a discounted price for the day and so we all could ride together. The bus ride to the gardens was filled with singing, dancing, and drumming (This seems to be a theme here in Ghana. No matter what you are doing, there will always be drumming and dancing. Amazing!). Once there, we played all morning on the playground, drank cups of cold Milo thanks to a donation from Nestle, ate mounds of Jolof rice thanks to a parent donation, took a walk around the lake and then had another bus ride filled with singing. Needless to say, everyone was exhausted at the end of the day.

The second best event of this past month, I think, was the last event: the parents' meeting. Upon arrival, I was skeptical about the turn out. But as the time passed about 10 parents showed up, a few caregivers and then the administration from both AACT and Awaawaa2. The agenda for the meeting was to recap all of the Awareness events, thank those involved, and discuss the future of the students who are now starting to out grow the center. Unbelievably, a parent of one of the older boys arrived to the meeting prepared to start a parents organization. This organization will be responsible for creating an assisted living & vocational training center for young adults with autism. This one parent facilitated the meeting, took down names of dedicated parents, and even planned the date and time for the next meeting! Motivation and initiation, its about time. As Auntie Serwah herself even said, “A new facility for the older children should have been done yesterday.”



As the month of April comes to an end, sadly so does my time here in Ghana. In three weeks, I will be returning to the US. Its hard to believe. This will not be the end of my work with the Global Autism Project though, I am excited to say that I will be co-hosting the Paddle for Autism Awareness this summer with Molly! What a better way to recap my work here than to talk about it cities all over the USA.

I am thankful to have been a part of Autism Awareness Month in Ghana this year and hope that it was just as successful in all other parts of the world. Only 11 more months until Autism Awareness Month 2011... lets start planning to make it even more powerful! Together we can make a difference.

Casey

HAPPY AUTISM AWARENESS MONTH!

Dear Readers,

As some of you may know, April 2nd was World Autism Awareness Day! Hundreds of countries around the world held events on Friday and will continue to throughout the month to raise public awareness about autism.

The events in Ghana started a couple weeks ago with an awareness campaign at the Accra Mall. For three days, AACT administrative staff along with the members of the Chosen Vessel Choir were going to promote a benefit concert being held the following Sunday. Unfortunately, after the first day they were told to leave. I guess the marketing team at the mall had a particular sensitivity to singing.

On Sunday, March 28th, the Chosen Vessels Choir made of all University of Ghana students, put on a spectacular benefit concert. It was held at the International Convention Center and lasted 6 hours!! Performances ranged from skits, solos, preaching, singing, dancing, lots of clapping and a video documentary about AACT. In the end, there were over 1,000 in attendance, each paying 7 cedis for a ticket. After expenses are paid to the performers and staff, it has been said that AACT will receive the rest of the proceeds. Either way, it certainly raised awareness on a huge scale!!



Last week, Auntie Serwah and Nana Akua (Founder and Director of Awaawaa2 - pediatric speech therapy services), were interviewed on various radio stations. On Tuesday morning, when they were on Joy FM, we turned the radio on through the stereo speakers at AACT so everyone could all listen! I suggested that next year we should get a truck with megaphones and drive around town amplifying such radio programs so the entire community is able to hear it. Hey, everyone else in Ghana is doing it.



At the end of the week, I had a meeting with Salma the director of the West African Consultant Network. This is an company that has offered to partnership in the organization of a fundraiser scheduled for the 22nd of April. Essentially it would be a networking event for their staff and clients, while also raising funds for a local cause. I have attended an event like this in the past and it was quite successful. Hopefully we have the same results.









As far as caregiver trainings go... on Friday March 19th I did a training focusing on Howard Gardiner's Multiple Intelligences. To teach this I started with a game that was actually inspired by my mother(thanks mom!). The idea behind the game is memory retention. The caregivers first numbered their papers 1 - 30. For the first ten: they had to listen to 10 words and then write down as many of the words as they could remember. For the second ten: I wrote 10 words down on paper, they were allowed to look at the word for 20 seconds, then once the paper was covered, they were to write down as many as they could remember. Finally for the third ten: I unveiled a tray of 10 items, they were allowed to look and touch the items for 20 seconds, then once the items were covered, they were to write down as many as they could remember. The idea behind this game was to show them that some people work better with auditory memory while others excelled in visual or tactile memory. Obviously all relating back to the different approaches to lesson planning and teaching students with autism. Similar to past weeks, we also played a few team building games such as the human knot.




Overall, I felt like the training was successful. The caregivers seemed engaged. They asked questions, took notes, and requesting for more. All in all, I felt pretty good about it until, a certain administrative staff asked "Why are you even doing these trainings? You know that the caregivers just nod their heads but really do not understand you." Well... I had a hard time with this comment. It wasn't until last night that I found a quote that descibes how I felt about the situation:

"I do not want my house to be walled in on all sides and my windows to be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as freely as possible. But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any of them."
-Mahatma Gandhi


In honor of children with autism around the world and as a member of the Global Autism Project, I will always try my hardest to provide sustainable education to communities affected by autism worldwide. In life there will always be mountains temporarily blocking your path. But this doesn't mean that the other side doesn't exist. Together we can help to change the lives of children with autism. Only together can we get over this mountains, supporting each others positive efforts.




Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Casey