GHE Philippine Team
We have officially finished our first full week in the Philippines! Each team had a great time at their respective clinic sites and are both sad and excited to move on.
Team Morgan (Junior, Jonah, Isela) spent the first rotation at the rural health clinic (RHC), three hours outside of Manilain Abucay, Bataan. RHC is a community-based organization that focuses on physical therapy, speech and language pathology, and occupational therapy for all age ranges. Patients are charged less than $1 for an hour of therapy and rehabilitation. The health center is overseen by a small staff of professionals, but all therapies are administered by UST (University of Santo Tomas) interns. Our students were paired up with the UST interns in their area of interest and were given the opportunity to practice some of the rehabilitation activities. Team Morgan also got to attend a bio mechanical taping practicum with the UST interns on Friday morning.
The Friesen Four (Emily, Erica, Ashley) have been at a community-based rehab clinic for children with disabilities in Mandaluyong, a poor city just outside of Manila. TEACH (therapy, education, and assimilation of children with handicap) is multidisciplinary center and we have been able to observe and help with physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech and language pathologists, and special education. It has been a joy to see these children being loved and cared for well, yet also heart breaking to hear about the unmet need in the area. The week was rich with unique experiences-working in special education with children who had developmental delays, visiting the homes of patients for home health care, engaging with interns (PT, OT, and SLP) and staff at the center, and hearing the stories of the mama’s who’s lives have been touched and enriched by the center. Our team has embraced the experience and are working through what it looks like to share Christ in professional settings.
The Miller Mob (Jenna, Kaycee, Laney) took the first rotation at the Philippine Heart Center. We got to see all forms of hospital-based rehab (in-patient and out-patient physical therapy, cardiac and neural physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, cardiac stress testing, exercise prescription, wellness exercise programs, health education, and pulmonary rehabilitation), meet wonderful staff and interns, try new foods, and even help with some exercises! We got to ask a ton of questions and see the similarities and differences between the Filipino and U.S. Health care systems.
The Philippine Team