On Maria Cristina (Pre-Visit)

So today was mostly an orientation of Projects Abroad, what my placement will be like, and bits of the city that Freddy (the supervisor of the Care portion of Projects Abroad Bolivia) and I walked around to.  Tomorrow I will see Maria Cristina, the orphanage (well, about 98% are orphans, Freddy says) for people with disabilities.  I guess I should ask why they are referred to as niños, because I found out today that the age range is actually from 9 to about 50. I suppose it's because their ages mentally are, according to Freddy, from 0 - 14.  Except wait... some of them I think are just deaf, which means there shouldn't be a cap of 14, unless all the deaf people are under 14... hmm.  Or maybe it's the whole discrimination against those with hearing disabilities and thinking they're much dumber people or something.  But then again, Freddy worked with children with special needs for 12 years before working at Projects Abroad for like 8 years, so he should know quite a bit.

Apparently, Freddy says that my placement is the hardest that they have, and it requires the bravest volunteers.  Freddy told me about how volunteers are all gung-ho about working at Maria Cristina, and then in like 5 minutes they start crying.  I'm not sure if that means they can't handle it and switch placements, or they eventually get through it all.  Interestingly, the blogger I was linking to in my public transportation post also visited an orphanage in Cochabamba, and her experiences are here, specifically,

"One day during the strike, I went to Solomon Klein Orphanage at the suggestion of friends. When I stepped in the door, they asked if I could help and I was put in a room with twenty 3-year-olds and one other adult. One little boy was blind, one had a club foot, one girl was dangerously skinny. All of them were only as clean as a few adults can keep that many filth-loving munchkins.  I only lasted the morning. It was good to be there, as there was clearly a need, but I just kept thinking 'but for the grace of God...' It made me so sad to think that these kids deserve to grow up with as much love as I did, and they won't have that chance. Then it challenged my belief that 'God's love is sufficient,' a belief that should be and is always challenged, but when looking at those kids, was very hard to wrestle out. I feel like a coward for not spending more time with those children. It was something I did not have the strength to do.
This 'volunteering' thing is like using your fingers to stop leaks in a dam. The dam is never gonna be repaired, or even hold, but you can't pull your fingers out once you're personally and physically committed.

The staff apparently do little to no work because they are like out of high school (or less) and have no experience or training.  How they learn to work with the children is purely through working at Maria Cristina.  Initiative apparently needs to be taken on the volunteer's part, which I'm a little apprehensive about... I often feel like creativity is not one of my strong points.

Perhaps creativity isn't needed as much, because the sheer need will be enormous.

The April 2012 newsletter from Projects Abroad has a volunteer writing about her experience in helping with occupational therapy for a month in Maria Cristina.  Here's the tragic account from Tarryn Stott:

"To say the facility is poor is an understatement. When fully staffed they only have four personnel to manage the orphans, one accredited nurse, two nursing students and a social worker. As there is a mixing of genders the staff is often forced to keep the orphans in a single room where they are able to supervise them. The only materials that they have in this room are old, soiled mattresses on the floor, which are where the orphans spend their days sitting or sleeping as they have nothing to stimulate them. Some of the orphans are covered in wounds from fighting with each other, likely I believe for some sort of entertainment. They are unable to provide basic medication for epilepsy so some have fits, and twelve of the orphans are incontinent, however they cannot afford pads for during the day so they often sit in their own defecation. "

There are 57 residents at the orphanage, and the staff (which I forgot to ask how many there are, but I'm guessing like a handful, if that) work from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Then a nurse (or maybe a couple nurses?) generally from the nursing school in Cochabamba comes and watches them throughout the night.  Obviously the nurses are under-equipped as well, being still students likely with little training.

Freddy said that if I want to work both morning and afternoon, I can (which I hope to be able to do), and if I want to stay the night at some point, I can (which I definitely want to do as well).   Tarryn (the volunteer from above) and another volunteer set up an account and have already raised over $8,000 for materials to help entertain and teach the children, which is incredible.  I'm not really interested in raising money... soliciting for things makes me feel quite awkward, as it probably does for many Asians (or well, actually, since the account has been set up already, maybe I can just piggyback onto that).  I do wish I could be as awesome as they are, though.  But maybe I can at least give my time and my love.