Changing from Within By Isabel Quintero |
A year ago, I would never have imagined the experiences that were awaiting me.
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| Photography by Ilille Sawady |
In preparation, I must have spent hours upon hours searching the web for volunteer opportunities. There are so many NGOs around, but whether it was for religious, political or economical reasons (some organizations actually charge hundreds of dollar fees for your volunteer work), something always held me back. Apparently volunteering has turned into the new fashion among adventure travelers. Patiently I weeded out the less convincing organizations until I came across DGH. Finally, I found an organization willing to take on a physical therapist.
So, from my first contact with DGH, I eventually was introduced to Denise Zwahlen. It didn't take long for her to convince me that Santa Marta was the place that best suited my skills. That's how I flew into San Salvador's international airport on the fourth of February 2004, not to return home to Spain for another five months.
I worked as a physical therapist (PT) in the Rehabilitation Center in Santa Marta, alongside two health promoters: René and Luc’a. The first day I walked into the Rehabilitation Center accompanied by American therapist Brenda Hubbard they both looked at me, their eyes full of expectation. There had not been a PT volunteer in years and here I was, finally someone had answered their plea... all the way from Spain.
Feeling an enormous weight of responsibility on my shoulders, in times of trouble and throughout my stay, I focused on the point of my being here: to create a lasting impression on René and Luc’a; to empower them with knowledge and give them the skills that will improve the quality of their work. Finally, in order to ensure success, we needed to promote the Rehabilitation Center among the community.
The Rehabilitation Center itself has an impressive history. Brenda and René worked together doing house visits since the early 1990's. The war was still on and Santa Marta's refugees had recently come back home to devastation. In 1992 the first Rehabilitation Center opened its doors to the community. It was a very basic mud house with a dirt floor and a tin roof. In 1995 the present cement structure was built with a grant from the European Union. However, work flowed and ebbed as there was no consistent funding to support the project. In 1999 DGH started providing funds to support René, the health promoter. At the same time DGH donated a much-needed nebulizer. Needless to say, attendance for that year shot up. Now the Rehabilitation Center has Lucía as well, but for the past year work had been sluggish and motivation seemed to be waning.
There was a lot of work to be done. For the first month or two, René enthusiastically searched around the community for prospective patients, bringing them in for me to treat on a daily basis. Right from the start we doubled our time schedule. We were lucky to have another DGH volunteer, medical student Sara Doorley, at the health clinic next door. We worked side by side on expanding the treatment options provided to the community. After a while, we got so busy it was no longer necessary to actively search for patients. More and more people started coming of their own accord.
Lucía's "Women's Space" program of massage for women finally began to expand, with women of all ages benefiting from her massages. In between patients we would get out the anatomy charts and learn about muscles, therapeutic exercise and neurology. Together we promoted the Rehabilitation Center in the community by creating weekly workshops on massage, early stimulation for babies and exercise.
I managed to travel to Chalatenango and visit the community-based rehabilitation project that ALGES (El Salvadoran Association for War Victims) was working on. It was wonderful to see a whole team of physical therapists distributing their skills to many different communities by training a group of health promoters. I managed to establish connections, which will hopefully lead to Lucía and René receiving some of the classes.
This is how, at some point, my books lay unread, hammock untouched and tropical fruits at bay as I became deeper and deeper involved in the work. There were house visits to do, workshops to present, meetings to attend, reproductive health classes for the women to teach alongside Sara, and dance classes to lead at the local school.
What an experience this has been! Most of all, I have learnt about community empowerment. It is wonderful to see how a little bit can go so far. Lucía spontaneously talks about the shoulder blade, and René mentions such and such tense muscle. I see them evaluating patients, then incorporating the techniques I have shown them into their treatment plan. Once-only patients start becoming regulars, the word spreads and attendance increases. I now see a glint of satisfaction (or is it amazement?) in René's and Lucía's eyes when they monitor a patient's progress from one session to the next. Our workshops become well known—we even run out of chairs and need to buy more—and they will be continued after my departure.
All I can say is that I wish more and more NGOs out there would contemplate including physical therapy into their projects. With a strong emphasis on prevention, the use of manual and physical agents can be a very cost-effective treatment strategy, especially in places where resources are scarce, and the right medicine is hard to come by.
I shall never forget this life-changing experience. I am eternally grateful to the community here and to DGH for granting me this opportunity. May El Salvador progress towards a better future.
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