Eleanore's Project, Inc.

Our morning began on an unexpected note. We were supposed to be picked up at 7:45 am but the time came and went with no appearance of Rufino. Chris and Edward from Yancana Huasy arrived and told us that Rufino was stuck in traffic. Then, a block or so away, we heard and saw a march coming down our street! The moto-taxi drivers were staging a protest for better wages, and walked or drove down the street with national police leading, following and monitoring the sides. We don’t know but wondered if the heavy police presence was related to last week’s protests by illegal miners in Puerto Maldonado, where three people were killed and 20 injured.

So we got a late start! By the time the marchers passed and Rufino arrived, traffic was snarled in a major way. We arrived at Yancana Huasy more than an hour late and the kids we were to see were waiting. It took time to set up our materials, tools and so on resulting in an even longer wait. Yancana Huasy is based out of Our Lord Of Hope Parish in Canto Grande – an amazing place. In the last year they completed construction of the church, which is surrounded by a medical clinic and classrooms and adjoins Yancana Huasy with its rehabilitation facility, special education classrooms and sheltered workshops. Each year the church is turned into a wheelchair clinic for one week while our team is here but it takes some setting up. At last we began – five clients for the five therapist/student teams and we were on our way! Until 2 PM, when we had to move out of our workspace in the church to make way for preparations for its dedication by the Bishop in the evening. It was a very special event and we were glad to cooperate but it slowed us down a bit.

After completing the wheelchairs for two children, eating lunch and moving into the physical therapy clinic for the afternoon, two more kids arrived and we worked until 7 PM and completed 7 wheelchairs for the day. At about 6:30 the Bishop of the Diocese of Choseca was brought to see our work and meet us, and we had a good conversation about the unique individuality of each wheelchair for each child. We left Yancana Huasy to the sound of the choir singing in the church. It was a long day and I hope that today will go smoother! But as the saying goes, life is what happens while you are planning other things…in more ways than one. Take a look at the beautiful kids below!

Ruth, her supportive parents and her little brother spent the morning with us and she left with her new Kid Chair.

Hayley, one of the St. Kate's OT students, connected with Jose Miguel. Although he appears quite small, Jose Miguel is actually 23 years old.

Sebastian, age three, in a wheelchair that will be easy for him to propel without causing overuse injuries of his shoulders. It had to have a tray by special request of his teacher.

As of yesterday, March 18 everyone arrived safely in Lima. We are waiting for two checked Eleanore’s Project bags that did not make it on to the plane with Rick, but are hopeful that they will be waiting for us here at the guesthouse after work tonight. We met before dinner last night for orientation, after which this full team photo was taken.

Everyone gathered for a photo before dinner - Rick was behind the camera!

Afterward I gave an in-service on postural care to everyone, using the same materials as were used on Saturday with Yancana Huasy staff (only this time in English). Then it was off to rest for our first day of clinics today. We will surely have photos and stories of the kids on the schedule today and plan to post some tonight.

Another day filled with interesting work and people. Edward (a Yancana Huasy therapist) came bright and early at 7:30 a.m. to take Sammie and me to Yancana Huasy by taxi. Our colleagues are very security conscious and do everything possible to ensure our safety. This morning Sammie broke one of the cardinal rules by partially opening her window to take a picture with her (very nice) camera. Edward, sitting in the front seat, called her on it right away and she put the window up (after snapping the photo). We joked that Edward has “ojos” in the back of his head. He showed us that he could see what she was doing in the side view mirror! After all that, the picture was out of focus. This level of concern may sound extreme but we know Peruvians whose cell phones were snatched from their hands through an open taxi window; stories abound regarding thieves who are on bicycles, grab things through open windows and are gone before anyone can register what has happened.

Tamara demonstrated postural care concepts with a volunteer Yancana Huasy therapist

We arrived at Yancana Huasy for a teaching session with their therapists. Dana Corfield of Equip KIDS translated for me. I shared an introductory presentation about 24 hour postural care, particularly night-time postural care. This postural care approach has been pioneered by Liz and John Goldsmith in England for many years now. In January I went to England to study with them for a week, and am thrilled to be bringing their approach to the United States and also to share it in Peru. I believe this approach has the potential to prevent vast amounts of human suffering amongst individuals with movement problems, while being non-invasive, inexpensive and empowering for families. For me, there is everything to recommend it! To read more about this work, visit www.posturalcareskills.com.

Following that session, Chris Ventura (OT) took over to teach a workshop for parents of children who are receiving wheelchairs this year. She covered basic principles of seating, care and maintenance and then adjourned to a practical session outside.

Chris led a workshop for parents about basic wheelchair maintenance and positioning skills. Part of Eleanore's Project's goal is to empower families and kids who need wheelchairs through education.

There parents learned about the different types of wheelchairs and practiced wheelchair mobility/safety skills for caregivers on ramps and steps. At least 70 parents participated, by our count. Some brought their children, who will participate in our clinics next week. Chris and the entire Yancana Huasy therapy team do a wonderful job working with families and this was a great example of their educational role.

Outside, Yancana Huasy parents learned about the different types of wheelchairs. We counted at least 70 parents in attendance.

A mother and son attended the workshop together. Next week, he'll receive his first wheelchair through Eleanore's Project.

All educational sessions completed, we went out to lunch! Papas a la huancaina (boiled potatoes covered in a delicious cheese/chile sauce) and arroz con pollo (green rice with chicken) were accompanied by maracuya (passion fruit) juice. Chris had her favorite, ceviche, and gave me a taste. It was all delicious. The fresh tropical fruits here have spoiled me – I am no longer even interested in the bananas and mangoes available where I live in Montana. They just cannot compare with fresh fruit grown in-country and eaten at its peak.

Our delicious lunch of papas a la huancaina, arroz con pollo and maracuya (passion fruit) juice.

To round out a very full day I visited with Fr. David Farrell, President of Yancana Huasy and the first person with whom I communicated in 2005 when I learned of the place, which has become so dear to me. Afterward he put us in a secure taxi to send us home and here we are – getting ready to welcome 13 people (including my husband Rick) in the wee hours of Sunday morning! Laura Miklautsch arrived last night and Rossy Gilchrist arrives tomorrow afternoon, at which point we will be complete. And the clinic work will begin on Monday morning.

Today began as a relaxed morning with a late breakfast and time to work on the presentation for a teaching session first thing Saturday morning. At mid-morning came a phone call from a colleague at PUCP, Pontifical Universidad Catolica Peru. We have spoken with faculty from Health Technopole CENGETS (the National Center for Clinical Engineering and Health Technology based out of PUCP) over the last four years about manufacturing appropriate pediatric wheelchairs in Peru. We last saw each other at the airport a year ago as we prepared to leave. Our colleagues proposed a working lunch, sent over a taxi and Sammie and I headed off to PUCP to the sound of Beatles and Bee Gees songs from our youth on the radio! Our driver did not speak English and it felt a bit surreal to think of who and where I was when I first heard those songs many years ago – far away from South America.

We arrived in good time for our meeting, which took place in a building of the engineering faculty. There are two points of interest close to the building and they are both in the picture below. In the foreground is a large hammer sculpture, and the story goes that the art students at PUCP created it and gave it to the engineering students! Behind it, ancient Inca ruins can be seen. These are hundreds of years old and run straight through the modern campus. At another part of the campus we saw what appeared to be a current architectural dig. Quite a contrast.

The PUCP campus with the hammer sculpture and Inca ruins.

Our meeting was productive and may lead to interesting opportunities for building specialized wheelchairs that will meet the needs of many Peruvian children – we shall see. Back in our guesthouse tonight, we are gearing up for a busy weekend of education tomorrow and the arrival of our entire team!

Chris (left), Tamara (middle) and Ana (right) put a specialized stroller back together.

I would not have believed we could do it, but by 6:15 p.m. tonight we had completed all wheelchair assignments. In a huge cooperative effort, all the equipment was sorted and Yancana Huasy and Equip KIDS personnel had packed or were packing their chairs and other equipment for shipping. Trucks will carry the equipment across town and across the country to Puerto Maldonado (where we will work in two weeks) and Cusco (where we will not work but Equip KIDS will fit wheelchairs in April).

This morning we arrived to masses of wheelchairs that had been moved by warehouse workers in our absence. It nearly required levitation skills to move around and felt quite overwhelming.

By the end of the day, assigned chairs were boxed or lined up for packaging, the previously full area alloted to us was empty, and we were all ready for the end of our work day!

The team grouped the wheelchairs by their final destination of Yancana Huasy, Cusco or Puerto Maldonado.

The empty space where the wheelchairs lived until we finished sorting and loading them onto trucks.

Sammie and I are looking forward to our “weekend” on Thursday and Friday as we rest, visit with friends, and prepare for the Saturday education sessions and arrival of the rest of our team in the wee hours of Sunday morning. We purchased a bottle of Peruvian wine at a little shop around the corner and will share a toast tonight – to good work and to rest!

After an exhausting day on Tuesday, we are ready to go and do it again. This year there is a new wrinkle that is adding hours to our work of sorting the wheelchairs to be sent to different locations: the large boxes pictured in the last post.

While they might seem like a good way to protect equipment in the shipping container, stack chairs more easily and keep parts together, they add a huge hurdle for us here. The boxes are so large and heavy (with 2-3 wheelchairs in each one) that only the men can manage them, a disadvantage in our largely female group. We must remove the chairs from the boxes to assign them to kids in different locations before repacking them in the boxes for shipping across town or across the country.

I am dreading the final count as they are loaded into trucks, when the warehouse manager stands with his clipboard and counts each item to be sure it matches the packing list. We are a day behind where we should be in this process, and yesterday Sammie developed a cold – wish us luck today!

Sammie and I arrived in Lima right on time before 11 PM Saturday night after a smooth flight from Atlanta. But so did hundreds of other people, as we learned while we waited for more than one hour in the immigration line. After many times going through this process, neither of us had seen anything like these crowds and although the airport staff had a good organizational plan it still took LOTS of time. When we finally exited to the baggage claim area and found our bags waiting for us, we joined a second very long line to go through customs where all our bags were screened. A nice young man was highly interested in the xrays of one bag full of wheelchair head supports and mounting hardware – but very nice once I explained what they are and who they are for.

Rufino shows off the mountain of boxed-up wheelchairs.

By 1 am we stumbled out to meet Miguel, who had patiently waited and immediately drove us to our guesthouse with one stop at a store for cold drinking water. Sister Clara roused herself to let us in with a warm welcome and to our delight, took us to our familiar rooms from years past. It felt like coming home, right down to the party across the street that never shuts down until 4 AM. With Tamara’s ear plugs in place we fell asleep around 2 AM, very glad to be back in Peru.

Yesterday was spent resting and visiting with friends, after making our first trip to Tottus (supermarket and department store combined) to buy some necessities. Our breakfast today included Peruvian treats – perfectly ripe avocados and drinkable porridge. Rufino appeared at 9 AM to transport us to meet with the Yancana Huasy team. The first trip to Yancana Huasy is always special, preparing to see this place and these people who are so remarkable. I often say that Yancana Huasy is one my favorite places in the world and it is true. We had lots to do today, and began by traveling to the Caritas del Peru warehouse, where our shipment of wheelchairs and rehabilitation equipment has been awaiting our arrival for a week or so. We were faced with towers of boxes filled with equipment (see Rufino, above.)

Chris (left) shows off one of the wheelchair trays built in the Yancana Huasy workshop

We did some preliminary sorting until 1 PM when the warehouse closes down for lunch. At that point we traveled back to Canto Grande for lunch at a chicken restaurant near Yancana Huasy. We were eager to see the products manufactured for last year’s contract with Yancana Huasy. These included trays and other positioning components that we will use in our wheelchair clinics in the coming weeks. It was satisfying to see items made from Peruvian materials by Peruvians with design improvements by Peruvians. We will be evaluating this project and assessing the financial feasability of continuing for a second year.

Sammie, Chris and Rufino look at the batch of leg supports from the Yancana Huasy workshop.

Tomorrow a big day at the warehouse is planned, with the assistance of a great group of students from Stone Hill College near Boston. They have aided us during their spring break work trip for several years now, contributing both physical strength and energy and in some cases, translation skills. But for now, Sammie and I are ready for a good rest!

We are pleased to have a great crew signed up for our Peru expedition this year. They hale from several different states, and include 7 occupational therapy graduate students from St. Catherine University – the largest ever student cohort in our 5th year of this collaborative program with St. Kate’s! Here are the folks who will be traveling to Peru to work with us and our Peruvian colleagues this year:

• Tamara Kittelson-Aldred (OT and Eleanore’s mum) – Montana
• Rick Aldred (general volunteer and Eleanore’s dad) – Montana
• Sammie Wakefield (OT) – New Hampshire
• Mary Jo Wagner (OT) – Massachusetts
• Kim Davis (PT) – New Hampshire
• Laura Miklautsch (Special Ed and amazing general volunteer!) – Montana
• Rachael Pastrana, ATP – Montana
• Rosa Gilchrist (Lima only, translation and general volunteer) – Florida
• Carol Tubman (Lima only, RN and general volunteer) – New Hampshire
• Kate Barrett (OT professor) – Minnesota
• Students (All from Minnesota)
• Cassandra Eveans, OTS
• Kristin Fry, OTS
• Theresa Hanley, OTS
• Brittany Hubbard, OTS
• Hayley Pomeroy, OTS
• Leslie Scherer, OTS
• Allison Wenino, OTS