Newsletter

Yellow House Newsletter

Spring Updates 2014

From Rachael:

The start of 2014 literally took all of us at Yellow House by surprise. We found ourselves responding to a flurry of emails and interest in our programs. There was an increase in the amount of visitor inquiries, and people started committing to their travel dates.

Due to new links with the University of Toronto, we will be hosting two students who will come to Western Kenya as a part of their final year clinical placement. These students will join us mid-May for 10 weeks in Vihiga, Kakamega and Kisumu under the supervision of Rachael Gibson and David Rochus.

Further, Rachael is in the process of organising a programme for 10 students from the University of Hong Kong to come in June for 3 weeks. Half of them are training to be SLTs, the other half are training to be secondary school teachers. A partnership has been created with Bishop Abiero Shaurimoyo Secondary school in Kisumu where the students will be based, observing teachers, taking lessons and running workshops in areas that aren’t traditionally taught here like art, stress relief for students taking exams and drama. The SLT students will be spending time with David and Rachael, observing work being done and supporting them within the programmes being carried out. If these partnerships are successful this year then we hope this will be a ‘forever’ link, helping us push forward in developing our service.

Since mid-February, Rachel Bell, a qualified SLT from Ireland, has been with us. She has been such an asset to the team, helping Rachael to set up a play/early language development group at the hospital, providing therapy to the children of the mum’s group Florence and Rachael set up in Kisumu, and spending time in schools and EARCs. Rachel has generously spent some of her own money to provide 2 workshops (alongside David) in Navakholo at Siyombe School on dysfluency after running an outreach programme there and discovering lots of children with stammering difficulties.

A generous donation from Becca Martin (UK) allowed us to purchase 2 occupational therapy mats for our clinic at the hospital in Vihiga. Rachael and Florence have been using these mats during the early interaction development group running on Mondays. So far we’ve had 4 children attend, and we’re hoping the group will continue to develop over time.

Through the generosity of Isis Cooper (a Yellow House visitor in the summer of 2011), Purbeck View School (residential school in the UK that Rachael’s sister Claire works at) and Crawley Methodist Church (Rachael’s Aunty Sheila Jones attends) Yellow House’s programming costs from March to the end of July have been covered. This money enables Rachael, David, Selinah and Florence to travel to their different places of work and make clinical resources each month. Such a weight off our shoulders as we continue to look for funding to support our programmes.

From David:

We are fortunate to have the continuing services of SLT David Rochus, who sees patients in Kakamega, Vihiga, and Kisumu, in hospitals, Educational Assessment and Resource Centres (EARCs), and at their schools. Where possible, he conducts follow-up home visits so family members can become more directly involved in helping plan and implement their child's communication therapy.

In Kakamega, David travels to schools to work with students and their teachers, and assesses children at the EARC as well. Gladys, the EARC coordinator, is passionate about providing for the needs of the students in her district, and has transferred that passion and sense of duty to the teachers she supervises. Kakamega, for example, is one of the few districts where teachers accompany parents and their children to the initial assessment. Kakamega is also the only district where teachers last year contributed a portion of the cost of the Yellow House trainings on Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) run by Joanne Fry.

David assesses children at the Vihiga EARC, as well as at the district hospital in Mbale.  He has been coordinating the establishment of a weekly ‘play group,’ and is looking forward to being joined by an Occupational Therapist.

In Kisumu, David works with individual students at their schools. He also helps support teachers as they try to meet a child's literacy needs.

David reports that, in most of these areas, the number of new patients far exceeds the number of returning patients. A number of factors are to blame:

 - Travel distance - some families must travel great distances by bus, matatu, motorbike and/or bicycle to bring their child to the hospital or EARC. The cost of a second visit can be prohibitive, and the significant amount of time involved impacts negatively on the limited funds and time they have to divide between home (including other children), work and shamba (farm) duties.

 - Differing expectations - many parents (and teachers) hope for and have come to expect a "quick fix." Suggestions for the use of AAC materials or visual supports are often ignored or rejected by parents, teachers, and related health professionals.

In his time with Yellow House, David has learned that the role of the speech-language pathologist in Kenya requires many skills, including "the resilience of a social worker," "professional friendship” as opposed to ‘'professional rigidity," and the willingness to "stand up for the right to communicate and obtain access to the most basic of health services."

"The work here," he says, "is exciting, challenging, and easy, all at the same time – definitely not for the faint-hearted!"

Meeting Florence:

Florence is Yellow House’s new parent liaison coordinator. Florence has a daughter with disabilities and became acquainted with Yellow House and our work in the role of a parent. Florence is currently responsible for implementing parent support groups in the districts where we work.

I met Yellow House speech language pathologist Rachael Gibson at Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu when my daughter was receiving speech therapy. After working together for a few months we discussed the benefits of forming a group for mothers who have children with disabilities, especially with communication difficulties.

Initially there was a group of 5 of us who met in my home, but we decided that this was important work and could expand to include others. I spent the week walking around the village and our group swelled to 10 members. Though we are in the early days of we have discussed our visions for the way forward, which include registration as a community based organization so we can receive local support. We believe that in unity comes strength and that through this group our goals and vision of a better life for our children will be achieved.