Gaborone, the capital of Botswana is just about 10 miles across the border from South Africa. It is about a 6 hour drive from Johannesburg. The purpose of the trip was to evaluate a wheelchair project that had been started there the previous year.
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| In happier times with Flat Stanley (may he rest in pieces) |
The trip to Botswana was really interesting and fun also. Susan and I got the chance to visit with Phillip that whole time and we learned lots about him and his family, as well as about the culture of South Africa. I think that sometime soon we'll do a blog entry just about Phillip. He's a very interesting guy with a lot of responsibility in the Africa Southeast Area. I don't know why our area is called Africa Southeast. There is nothing in the "Southwest that is not in our area. Everything South of Sudan, Chad and Nigeria is in our area. They should really just call it the Africa South Area.
We had a meeting scheduled with the people from the Ministry of Health for Botswana for 2:30. We were also going to meet John and Marcia Dow. They are "Short Term Specialists" for wheelchairs. They are actually serving as missionaries, but are stationed at their home in California. They make several trips each year to Africa (and also Brazil) to implement these wheelchair projects. Between trips they spend a lot of time online with partner organizations (like Ministries of Health) in several countries organizing these projects and evaluating the reports from on-going and previous projects. They really are good people and very well organized. We get copied on a lot of the emails they send back and forth (probably about 20-30 each week).
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| On the right, the blue, white and black Botswana flag |
The Dows were flying to Botswana from previous meetings the day before in Namibia and their plane was about 2 hours late. That was actually a good thing because Phillip got us there about 2 hours late also. Nobody though, seemed to make a big deal about the time (hey, it's Africa).
We met in a conference room at the Health Ministry building. There were 3 ladies from the Ministry as well as us from the Church. Brother Dow started the meeting by saying that the Church is in the process of evaluating "Partner Organizations," choosing just the best ones to be able to continue working with. He noted the problems with ongoing projects (late, and incomplete reports) and asked if they were really interested in continuing with the partnership.
Well, that really put the fear into them, because the Church's donation of 500 or so, $200-$300 wheelchairs is worth a great deal to them. And to a smaller country like Botswana, that really is a huge deal and means all the difference as to whether or not they are able to help their disabled people.
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| A wheelchair recipient's house in Molepolole |
The Botswanans begged forgiveness and promised to get their reports up to date by the end of May. They were told that if that went well and also the field evaluations the next day, the Church would consider another donation of about 500 chairs.
[The current wheelchair program consists of getting a "Memorandum of Understanding" (contract), signed and then ordering the wheelchairs either from China or South Africa. Once the wheelchairs are "in country," the Short Term Specialist couple comes again to the country. This time they bring a team of 2 or 3 trainers with them. These trainers are physical or occupational therapists who are currently working, but use their vacation time to come train the therapists in the countries. The Church pays their expenses, but not any salaries.
These trainers teach usually about 15 therapists who travel to the training site from all over the country. They're taught a very comprehensive training course on how to properly prescribe the chairs. They have to understand the nature of a person's disability, and how and in what environment the chair will be used. There are different types of chairs for indoor use, outdoor use, active (sports) use and even ones that are best for going in the sand or rough terrain. They take measurements of the person to make sure they get the correct size chair. A chair that is incorrectly prescribed can actually do a person more harm than good. We've seen pictures of people, that because of sitting 16 hours a day in an ill-fitting chair, have spines that have become grossly deformed.
The therapist then records lots of information about the patient and chair that was given him, on the Church approved spreadsheet. Each therapist is then responsible to forward this information to the Health Ministry where it is compiled and sent on to brother and sister Dow. The Church insists on knowing the identification of each recipient, because people in the past have abused the system. Some people would go to therapists and get more than 1 chair and then sell them.]
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| Recipient #1 and his visitors |
On the second of our trip, we met again at the Ministry of Health and loaded into a large van. There were us 5 from the church, and 6 from Botswana, including 2 therapists that had been trained the previous year.
We traveled 50 kilometers north to the city of Molepolole. We first stopped at the regional center for disabilities where we picked up their therapist. Our purpose was to meet with random recipients, evaluate them, their chairs and the donation process.
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| This is our whole group with Phillip next to Susan |
The first gentleman we met was about 20 years old and very active. He even played basketball in his chair. The Dows interviewed each person and went over a list of about 30 questions. Among other things, each person was asked if they had to pay anything to get their chair (against Church policy). His chair was 6 months old and the seat and back were already tearing.
The second person was about a 70 year old lady who was missing both legs just below the knees. She actually came walking out of the house on her knees (she wore kneepads). Her chair was almost like new because she seldom used it around the house, preferring to walk on her knees.
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| Recipient #2 with her daughter and grandchildren |
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| Without her chair |
The third gentleman was about 40 years old, had a large yard with a nice garden that he tended. His chair fabric was also tearing. In his yard was an Acasia tree which is one that elephants really love to eat even though it has thorns that are 2 or 3 inches long.
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| These thorns are wicked |
The fourth person was a 17 year old student who we visited at his school. He also had his chair for about 6 months but it was determined that he'd had a chair(s) previously that had not been correctly fitted. His spine was deformed from slumping sideways in a chair that was too big for him and did not properly support him
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| Marcia Dow interviewing, John Dow in shirt and tie |
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| He was very happy to have his picture taken |
After the visits we went back to the Center for Disabilities, had another meeting where they served us a nice lunch, and then rode back to Gaborone.
We stayed another night at our nice hotel there, then drove back to Johannesburg on Friday. It was a very instructional trip and we're so glad we were able to do it. (Wow! What a long entry!)
By the way, the Dows said that the therapist who prescribed these 4 chairs had done an excellent job, both with the fitting, and with her paperwork.
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