At Families For Children

Hello To Everyone at home!

Our time at Families for Children came and went soo quickly. The team had an amazing time there and we all would have loved to stay longer. We were soo lucky to have been at FFC at the same time as Susan Dutton, the coordinator for the schools, and her son Timmy. Sue showed us around the campus and was very helpful in directing us to areas that needed the most help. She provided us with a great deal of insight into the organization and was also great company!

We were able to see some of the donations from last year's team. The high school/training facility bring built for kids with special needs is under way and should be finished in September. The dividers in the classrooms are being used effectively and provide some increased organization.

While at FFC we all helped in our own way, each using our personal strengths. We were each able to create our own individual routines for how we spent our time. We would like to share a few highlights to give you an idea what we were all up to.

Paige: helped with feeding kids in the extra special care unit every morning, spent a lot of time in the special education classroom singing songs and doing fine motor activities, visited the toddler room often, ended the day taking the kids in the extra special care unit outside for some sunshine.

Aleshia: helped with feeding the kids in the extra special care unit, taught the school kids proper hand hygiene using a catchy song (all of the kids were singing it by the end of the week!), shadowed the nurse while they distributed medications and provided wound care, visited the special education classroom, ended the day taking the kids in the extra special care unit outside for some sunshine.

Michelle: Spent a lot of time in the adult special care unit helping the women there with different activities and crafts, visited the toddler room often, read stories in English for the children at story time in the library.

Ashok: worked out with the boys EVERY morning, spent time in the preschool and primary classrooms daily, helped with feeding in the extra special care unit, taught the school kids proper oral hygiene with Dave, played with the schoolkids in the yard.

David: helped with feeding in the extra special care unit, played singing games with the special care school and preschool, spent time in the primary school classrooms, read stories during library story time, and then played more singing games.

There was so many things to do at FFC with very little time. We wish we had a little longer. We all fell in love with the children, staff and the environment. We kept very busy! We woke up early in order to squeeze as much in as possible. 

These are other highlights of our week at FFC:

- On Sunday, which is a holiday for everyone we spent the day hanging out with the kids. We brought all of the boys to the grounds for some playtime, which was great! In the afternoon Paige, Aleshia and Michelle visited the girls and painted everyone's nails while Dave and Ashok gave the boys temporary tattoos, since they all loved Ashok's real tattoo so much.  

- Spending the afternoon singing and dancing with the adults in the extra special care unit.

- Lunchtime- some of the most delicious meals were eaten in that canteen.

- Dance class! Very tiring and a little embarrassing, but so much fun. A great dance teacher and some very talented kids who taught us a lot.

The team relaxing at the waterfalls

Singing and dancing the afternoon away in the adult special care unit

Joining in with the grade 4/5 dance class

Kevin giving the thumbs up sign at the gounds

After taking the boys to the grounds to play sports on Sunday morning

Painting the girls nails on Sunday afternoon

Circle time in the special education classroom

Morning work out

Playing in the yard before lunch

Dental hygiene and hand hygiene lesson

Preschool kids

Sleeper train to the next destination- Alleppey for some house boating