Physiotherapy for kids in Vietnam.: Can you really make a difference as a volunteer? YES!

I'm so excited about yesterday it's all I can think about.
Yesterday, it struck me, that on this day, at this time, I could be 100% sure that through my efforts, I had truly achieved something worthwhile for my Vietnamese friends. After months of preparation at home, writing resources just for them, bringing whatever I could fit in my bag and then this past 1.5 weeks of slowly, slowly- today just took off at an amazing pace. Initially it looked like our POD model was almost impossible to tie down to a place and time. It seemed impossible to find staff, or to find an area we could start in and very little had happened here in terms of planning the multitude of steps necessary to get it going. We were going to a rural area, then we were staying in Hoi An. It seemed impossible for Benita and I to get them to a point where they could proceed confidently when we left.
On Monday (a holiday) we sat down and worked hard for a few hours ready to march in on Tuesday and start working through every aspect of the POD systematically. The biggest change I could see needing to take place was that 2 months had been estimated as the length of time needed for training the carer of the children. Benita and I wrote a schedule that brought this right down to 2 weeks.
Not an auspicious start when the coffee shop was closed, however Phuong and Quan were ready for us on Tuesday and we jumped straight in to work. Quan (or Peter Pan as I like to call him) had been to the fireworks in Da Nang the night before and had almost lost his voice. Hysterically funny to listen to him trying to talk with his voice cracking like a teenagers! When we raised the issue of the shortened training (and then the possibility of really bringing closer the start date of the POD), Phuong, who thinks of things carefully began with "but..." and after this, I kept telling her to get rid of that word. We need to think of the best things happening, not the worst! After consideration, you can't imagine how fast things started to happen. We suggested that the next step was a parent meeting to get a firm commitment from them that they support the POD, and want their child involved. Phuong and Quan sprang into action, phoning, and even jumping on their motor bikes to go and rustle up the parents for a 2pm meeting. AMAZING. In Australia, we would have given the parent 1 month notice of the meeting and five dates to choose from, but here, the meeting is today, get there!! Bless them!
We flew to the computer and wrote the agenda and wording of everything we thought the parents needed to know about the POD and got together all the resources Phuong could show the parents to demonstrate what the kids would be doing during the day: movement and positioning opportunities, communication and language, signing, rest, fun activities and free play, water play, music, hand skills etc. We used Benita's schedule and wrote up a day's worth of activities to explain to the parents. Finally, we got out the iPads Benita is donating and thank goodness we left it till then! Peter Pan couldn't keep his hands off them!
Phuong initially asked if Benita and I could help her give the talk, but we said we would sit back and help only if needed, as it is their initiative and we didn't want it to be seen as something devised and run by 'Westerners'
I WISH YOU COULD HAVE BEEN THERE. Like I said, it was the single best experience I've had as a volunteer. The parents were interested and asked questions and listened carefully to Phuong and Quan. What an amazing bunch of loving and motivated parents. If we had had a list of all the things we wanted our pilot programs' parents to be, they ticked every box. Problems we have been working on to solve, they solved in an instant (like how to have enough hands to help at lunch, and where would the food come from). I could scream at the frustration of not being able to chat with them and get to know them. In one instant, I looked across at Benita, and I bet I was smiling like a mad thing at the speed with which we had moved today, and what had been achieved. The best bit was the parents all chatting together, and they didn't want to leave at the end, as they kept talking amongst themselves. We had unwittingly just started our first support group!
I think Phuong and Quan should be enormously proud of what they achieved today, and within a day or two, we will hear back finally (one parent is very interested, but she already does 1 hour of physio daily herself on her child, and worries the POD won't do as much as her) and will decide about a carer.

Debriefing on the balcony with local vodka and Pringles, fantastic dinner of noodles and curry at Pho Real, which is next door to the Green Field Hotel on Cua Dai. It is a small place, but you'd regret it if you missed their chicken curry (they are also my morning coffee shop). Late start tomorrow as CHIA have meetings and English lessons, but Benita and I plan to work from the hotel.