Humanitarian Care and Education (more photos coming soon)
Life Rehabilitation International, Inc. (LRII) is proud to plan and lead humanitarian trips to areas of the world where, as global neighbors, we can offer our assistance. Planning specialized medical care in the treatment of Lymphedema, Podoconiosis (Mossy Foot disease), and Lymphatic Filariasis (elephantiasis) takes our teams to tropical areas of the world. Offering education as guest instructors at universities and bringing Pediatric Therapies to children affected with Cerebral Palsy and other debilitating diseases, both in orphanages and in home care, is the second place we are currently focusing our efforts. As Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy practitioners we bring our skills and our care to work with our counterparts around the world. One difference that I feel sets LRII apart, is our protocol to not only visit a country to treat patients, we hope to bring cutting edge techniques to local medical practitioners who may not have had the opportunity to learn the techniques and to caregivers, allowing them to continue care after our teams have returned home. It's the old adage of teaching a man to fish rather than just bringing a boatload of fish and then flying off two weeks later. LRII has teamed up in the past with other humanitarian groups and continues a close association with Daily Bread, Inc and Grace International to bring food and other needed resources along with us on our medical trips to Haiti. Each volunteer brings down a small personal duffel bag with their personal duds (that fits under the airplane seat) and we each take 1 carry-on of medical supplies and check 2 large suitcases full of more supplies. This assures that we have the resources we need when we arrive. For the back story on why we do that, click on the Haiti link below.
I hope you enjoy the photos and stories from some of our trips below and on the link pages where you will find more detailed coverage of our trips. If you would like to become part of our efforts through traveling with us or via donations of products or funds to purchase items we use for treatment, please fill out the contact form below and request further info. As a 501(c)3 non-profit, anything you donate, large or small, will be tax deductible. We are always in the need for new/used Adjustable Velcro Wraps, new/used short stretch bandages, wound care dressings and supplies (even if expired) or anything else that is laying around your clinic gathering dust that you think we could use. Just contact us and we can work it all out. Know that anything you donate will be used to treat patients as all volunteers either pay their own way or they raise funds on their own. Your donations of funds will be used to purchase perishables in-country such as wound wash, injectable lidocaine for wound debridement and other items that are either available in-country or whose size makes bringing them from home, unfeasible.
But really, we would really love to see you join us for a trip of a lifetime (or your first trip beginning your lifetime of humanitarian work). Although we need trained medical professionals on our trips we also take civilians as well to assist with patient intake as well as hands-on assistance to the medical teams. You may not be a medical practitioner when you leave home but you will come back feeling like one once you have worked with us on a trip. We need all the hands we can get (in fact, see the smiling fellow in the photo below, that is Matt, the administrator of a large major Skilled Nursing Facility. He started out on the first day as our "scut boy" but became excellent at performing MLD by the time he left.)
I hope you enjoy the photos and stories from some of our trips below and on the link pages where you will find more detailed coverage of our trips. If you would like to become part of our efforts through traveling with us or via donations of products or funds to purchase items we use for treatment, please fill out the contact form below and request further info. As a 501(c)3 non-profit, anything you donate, large or small, will be tax deductible. We are always in the need for new/used Adjustable Velcro Wraps, new/used short stretch bandages, wound care dressings and supplies (even if expired) or anything else that is laying around your clinic gathering dust that you think we could use. Just contact us and we can work it all out. Know that anything you donate will be used to treat patients as all volunteers either pay their own way or they raise funds on their own. Your donations of funds will be used to purchase perishables in-country such as wound wash, injectable lidocaine for wound debridement and other items that are either available in-country or whose size makes bringing them from home, unfeasible.
But really, we would really love to see you join us for a trip of a lifetime (or your first trip beginning your lifetime of humanitarian work). Although we need trained medical professionals on our trips we also take civilians as well to assist with patient intake as well as hands-on assistance to the medical teams. You may not be a medical practitioner when you leave home but you will come back feeling like one once you have worked with us on a trip. We need all the hands we can get (in fact, see the smiling fellow in the photo below, that is Matt, the administrator of a large major Skilled Nursing Facility. He started out on the first day as our "scut boy" but became excellent at performing MLD by the time he left.)
We especially invite those younger people that want to get a feel for humanitarian volunteering (you must be at least 18 to volunteer - youth 16-17 may come with a parent but only one youth per parent allowed). Volunteers pay all of their own expenses including airfare, food, lodging and any extra activities they want to attend. (Our trip to Haiti January 2019 included a day swimming and hiking in the beautiful Jacmel. Check out our Haiti page link below for pix.) Many times we have a new volunteer that joins us; they may be in their 40s or 50s and the one comment we get from all of them is "I wish I would have done this sooner. I missed out on all of those years of doing this. I never realized just how great it would be". It effects your life in ways you could never imagine. In fact, it is so true that it is the motto of LRII; "The Life You Change Might Be Your Own".
I always remember the first trip I took to Ukraine to work with children in orphanages that had CP and other developmental diagnoses. The day we arrived, our in-country liaison, Vira, prepped us for the day telling us the do's and dont's of our time there. But what stuck with me most out of everything she said was a promise she made to each of us as we were voicing our eagerness and anxiousness. She told us not to worry that when it was all over we would be "As Tired as a Dog and as Happy as a Puppy." And guess what? We were.
I always remember the first trip I took to Ukraine to work with children in orphanages that had CP and other developmental diagnoses. The day we arrived, our in-country liaison, Vira, prepped us for the day telling us the do's and dont's of our time there. But what stuck with me most out of everything she said was a promise she made to each of us as we were voicing our eagerness and anxiousness. She told us not to worry that when it was all over we would be "As Tired as a Dog and as Happy as a Puppy." And guess what? We were.
-----------------------The Life You Change Might Be your Own------------------------
Chernivtski, Ukraine
One of the things you learn in humanitarian care is that whatever you are planning on focusing on and the schedule to do it in, all will morph and change as more needs are identified. But, that is the essence of Occupational Therapy, the ability to adjust and adapt at a moments notice, and that we did. While in Chernivtski we offered therapy and medical care to children at a orphanage on several of the days, visited a maternity hospital to offer assistance, visited several long term care facilities to treat patients and train staff, taught in the Occupational Therapy program at the University of Chernivtski (called Practical Therapy there) and after the work day was over we did home health visits to home-bound children and adults. And every bit of it was worth the 2 days of planes, trains, buses and trolleys to get there.
Kyiv, Ukraine
The three weeks we were in Ukraine in 2011 were just as the demonstrations had started to take a turn for the worse. A problem in Lyiv (not far from us) happening one weekend while we were there during the Victory Day celebrations honoring the end of The Great Patriotic War (WWII), set up the country for the demonstrations and civil unrest that were to come in the next year. We were there as the fire of change was kindled. It was one of those adventures that afterwards you look back and say "We should have been much more afraid than we were."
Read about our adventure and see photos of the area by clicking the Ukraine button below.
Read about our adventure and see photos of the area by clicking the Ukraine button below.
Leogane, Haiti
Patient "J" Monday morning at clinic after treatment Wednesday afternoon
Carrefour, Haiti - Wound Clinic
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
