Special Needs Initiative

I have been attempting to start a special needs initiative in my community. For a few years now I have been very interested in working with people with special needs. When I got to my placement in Peace Corps, there were no laid-out programs pertaining to people with special needs and I really wanted to change that. As I learned more about my site, I realized that there was a concentrated group of about 8 youth ages 8-26 in a community over with various special needs. Some have problems with site, some need wheelchairs, some are mute, and some are immobile entirely. I thought this was a great opportunity. So, for the last few months I have been trying to plan a week-long summer camp to work with people with special needs. I have visited the center fro therapy in the nearest city several times. I have also visited the homes of people with special needs and taken a census of their needs, date of birth, names, addresses, etc.

Starting this initiative was not as easy as I thought it would be. The main limiting factor was transportation. None of people I wanted to work with could travel by food to a site for a camp and none could travel on a motorcycle; they all need a car for transportation. This became very difficult to find. There are very few cars in my community, as most people cannot afford cars and travel by motorcycle for nearly everything. (For example, my next door neighbor just had a beautiful baby girl and when in labor she was taken to the hospital in a motorcycle. After a C-section birth and staying in the hospital for only a day and a half, she and the baby then traveled home on a motorcycle.) The few people that do own cars in the community were making excuses, saying that they could not do this. Then, finally, I found a man who said we could use his car, and for free. I was so estatic. But… he never showed up. I would call him days before then hours before and he would always say, “yes that sounds great I will be there”. And then, he would never show up. Eventually he stopped answering my calls. Finally I found a man with a truck from the community over. He was able to help me drive the people to the meeting, but when we showed up at their houses everyone who had said they could go and were very excited for the meetings, started making excuses for why they could not go now.

Eventually after many, mamy days of walking two hours in the hot carribean sun to go to these meetings and having it all fall through, one day of the camp worked. We just met with three people, but it was great. I gave a talk about self-identification, excersize, and good nutrition. We colored and did ice breakers and laughed. Although I have been extremely frustrated again and again trying to start something that I could see benefiting my community, the little wins of getting huge smiles out of my students was enough to make up for all of it. I hope that in the future the fight gets easier. Ideally, I would love to start a special needs initiative with peace corps, Dominican Republic. I am now writing a manual and collaborating with other volunteers. Wish me luck as this all pans out.