A few really wonderful things have happened this week. I know what you are thinking - only a few. Well, I guess that is sort of a lie - there were a lot more; and, I am not going to pretend I have the time to scribe them all. Rather, I am going to tell you a couple of wonderful stories that are all generated from our fantastic volunteers. The stories will not be presented in chronological order - my apologies.
One day this week we went to the community of Mariano Melgar. You may remember Mariano Melgar from a previous Blog post (See: http://hbint.blogspot.com/2010/01/elohim-god-is-alive.html). This is a really interesting story all on its own. The work of a few very dedicated people, a Peruvian woman by the name of Rosa and a Australian woman by the name of Susi, have created an oasis of education in one of the poorest "barrios" in Latin American. This week we took a team to Mariano Melgar to complete well child examinations and evaluations (height, weight, BMI graphing with the WHO tables on every child) on all of the children in the school.
Well, this week during our outreach clinic, we had the luxury of having a psychiatric nurse practitioner on our team. Dr. Lisa Thompson and I know one another from our work in the United States with homeless populations. She is an amazing person. She is so compassionate and so intelligent that you can't help but feel a bit jealous when you are around her. Well, we decided to use Lisa to help determine the psychological need in the Elohim school.
We asked Lisa to meet with the director of the school to discuss her concerns and impressions of the needs of the children. We then had Lisa meet with a couple of the teachers and finally a couple of the students. Now you should know that Elohim is a primary school - this means that classes end at the 5th grade. My point is this - we were working with very young children.
Lisa met with Rosa the director first. The stories she heard were very impacting to her. She told me that during her visit with Rosa, there was a time when Rosa started to cry talking about the problems of her students. She told me that the compassion that Rosa has for her students is amazing.
Then . . . everything changed. As Lisa would later tell me, it was a life changing experience. She told me that meeting with the students was incomprehensible. She told me of student after student who was living with extreme abuse. Students whose lives were punctuated by absent parents and alcoholic relatives. She said that the stories were overwhelming. She said that at one point she realized that there was nothing she could do. She said that she realized at one point that all she could offer was a listening ear and a caring, concerned smile.
The director of the school told Lisa that she estimated that the prevalence of abuse within the student population is about 70%. She told Lisa story after story of abuse and traumatization in the school age children. She told Lisa that they desperately needed a psychologist or social worker to help with the school and meet with the teachers and children. She wondered if there was any way that the children would ever get the help they needed.
I spoke with Lisa last night. She was obviously shaken by the experience. We talked for a few minutes. There was nothing I could say that would lessen the blow of her experience. I did not try. I told her that I understood her pain and was there to be a listening ear should she need one. And, I told her that I had realized - in 16-years of work in Peru and Latin America - that all I really have to offer is my compassion.
Dr. Lisa is an amazing person. I am thoroughly convinced that she will come back to Peru . . . and I know she will make a huge difference in the lives of the children of Mariano Melgar - just by being her caring, compassionate self.
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