Stepping Stones Therapy Project
Reflections on Stepping Stones Therapy Visit
Thailand is a beautiful country and rarely more so than when gazing across the river into neighbouring Myanmar.
This is where all our children and families are from, displaced due to the civil war. In recent years, during a period of relative peace and hope, many families returned to their homeland but the escalation in military raids and fighting in 2021 forced many to flee again. The children, as ever, are innocent of the politics underlying their predicament and just want to grow, play, learn and be secure and happy within their family and community.
There has been too big a gap between visits - that's for sure. But, our project has continued despite everything thanks to the commitment and energy of our therapy worker and collaborators - the work after all does not go away - indeed, it just grows. We see many children we've worked with for years, including Sammy here, doing his wall slides to strengthen his legs:
I have also met, assessed and prescribed programmes for many children, new to me. Some with very serious life-limiting conditions, where our aim is to improve quality and comfort and others with enormous potential to improve their mobility and to be able to grow in ability and confidence. The time here reminds me of how grateful I am for the resources and skills of the wider team in Scotland, some of whom I've called on for help to improve eating and drinking for children here - one of the big plusses of instant messaging. Even better when these skills can be shared through training others.
A truly uplifting part of my visit has been to be able to see Mercy Home, the live-in facility that has been set up by Susanna Win, for young people who can no longer attend school and whose circumstances make living within their own communities difficult. All You Need is Love (UK) are proud to help, in small part, to make Susanna's ambitious dreams a reality. For me, it is a joy to see these young people, many of whom I've known and worked with since they were children, continue to grow in confidence and ability while living in such a sociable, positive community.
This is not the normal reality for so many others in this area and we have to remind ourselves that we can only do what we can do, for each child who we encounter whose family or community wants help, then we try to do something for that child. This has always been our ethos - to do what we can that is useful. To bring a little hope and a little comfort is sometimes enough in that moment. This little boy has a degenerative neuromuscular condition that he cannot recover from. For his family, to have to witness their beloved child who had been a happy, carefree toddler losing his movement and communication skills day on day is a torture that they bear with devotion, love and extreme pain. For him, we can only offer gentle movements, positional advice and sensory stories and tac-pac. To see him respond and smile, brings his Mum small comfort, but it is something.
I am spending my last couple of days, a couple of hours north, with a friend who through her local knowledge and medical expertise has enabled our projects throughout the past decade. This visit has been no exception and thanks to her, we have been able to cast a young woman with AFOs to help her remain independent in the years to come.
Bank: Co-operative
Account Name: All You Need is Love (UK)
Sort Code: 089299
Account No: 65571118
To donate from outside of the UK, you will need:
IBAN: GB39 CPBK 0892 9965 5711 18
BIC: CPBK GB22
Back in The Saddle
March 2023
There is something very grounding about returning to a familiar place after a break of a few years.
Mae Sot is a fascinating place, so close to the border of Myanmar - it is a bustling trading, market and industrial town with all the polluting sounds and smells that go with that, but is also surrounded by disarmingly beautiful villages and hamlets nestled between paddy fields and sugarcane plantations in the shadow of the mountains beyond. We see children in all these settings, but also in the delapidated, hidden pockets of land where displaced Burmese migrant families have made their home in the hope of something more permanent becoming possible if they save enough from their long hours working in low paid factory jobs.
Each day starts early with Yin Yin Aye, our therapy support worker arriving at Picturebook guesthouse to relay the days itinerary. She shows no mercy to this aging, soft, unfit Scot (and why should she!) as we head off through the morning rush hour on our motorbikes (that's her 3 bikes in front ...).
It is fitting that we visit Starflower, the special school where the idea for Stepping Stones arose. The inspirational staff go out every day to communities dotted all around the area, to pick up children who otherwise would be receiving no education. At Starflower, they are given the time and support they need to work through the curriculum at their own rate. It was great to arrive, be welcomed and within minutes to be set to work! The children were in the middle of their PE session and so I was able to offer a bit of help.
From there, we went to visit former Starflower student, Aung Thu Phyo. I have to admit to having a real soft spot for this young man, now 18yo but who I've known since he was 8. Though I remember being so surprised as he was so little, I would have guessed, maybe 5 years old. At that time, Aung Thu Phyo was not able to sit unsupported, but he totally trusted me and we worked so hard on his strengthening and stability programme and with his determination he got there. It was while working with him, during that early visit in 2013 that I committed to this incredible place and its people and understood the need to simply get children off the floor.
We cannot underestimate the value of being upright - it may seem obvious, but for too many disabled children in developing countries, the floor (or a hammock) is a safe place and as parents often have to go out to work, that is the caring option. But where we can introduce children into education and into therapy, then the world opens up - starting with getting upright.
Not all this weeks visits have been quite so joyful. Many factors conspire sometimes that lead to poorer outcomes. It may be attempts to return to your home, destined to fail because of continuing civil war or it may be parental illness or unemployment or Covid. Many of these sad realities have impacted Choo Poo, co-inciding with her adolescent growth spurt. When I last saw Choo Poo 4 years ago, her abilities far exceeded what she can do now due to the secondary musculoskeletal complications that can accompany neurological disorders. She now has scoliosis and a (probable) dislocated hip.
But she is a determined character and we are putting a therapy programme in place for her that I am confident that she will work hard at with Yin Yin Aye to regain some of her lost skills.
Back on the bikes and definitely feeling saddle sore! But onwards; this time driving deep into the countryside through pitted dirt tracks, forcing me to pay keen attention to my steering to avoid ending up in muddy ditches. Once we arrived, I honestly have never heard anything like it - a cicada cacophony that was so so loud, it resembled a generator. I'm told this is not unusual for March - so why had I never heard it before? Anyway, my amazement was met by total nonchalance by the family we were visiting. Just normal I was told.
I'll finish today's blog with a photo of a lovely little 5 year old girl, Htet Htet Wai, who was absolutely smitten by a sensory toy that was handmade by one of my physio colleagues back in Aberdeen (shout out to Jacqui!). We are certainly not getting that back!
Wih so much going on in the world, this may not be a great moment to ask, but if you are able to support the work of All You Need is Love (UK) in its mission to improve the lives of displaced Burmese migrant children and families, through therapy and access to education and independent living skills, then you can donate by BACS transfer. Every penny counts and it all goes directly into our projects.
Bank: Co-operative
Account Name: All You Need is Love (UK)
Sort Code: 089299
Account No: 65571118
To donate from outside of the UK, you will need:
IBAN: GB39 CPBK 0892 9965 5711 18
BIC: CPBK GB22
FEB 23
It has been 4 years since any of our All You Need is Love (UK) charity directors/ physiotherapists have been able to actually visit Mae Sot. In that time, our main project, Stepping Stones, has continued to deliver therapy to disabled Burmese children and their families living in and around Mae Sot. This is thanks to the tireless efforts of Yin Yin Aye, our therapy worker supported by our local partners, Shade Tree and Dr Elisabetta and her team. But it's not been easy. The covid pandemic took its toll and this was exacerbated by political upheaval in the border regions with further marginalisation and displacement of thousands of people, forced yet again to flee their homes in Burma because of their ethnicity. So, I am returning with some apprehension as I feel distanced by the 4 year gap from the experiences of 'our' children and families who we have worked closely with in the past, but for whom so much has changed. For 10 years we have been visitors to this corner of Thailand, where we have been made welcome, but have only a little to offer and so much to learn but where we feel compelled to remain, because we believe that Physiotherapy can improve lives. In fact, we know it does - through overcoming some of he obstacles of disability and enabling children to access more opportunities to play and to learn and to participate in their family and community life. We know how small changes can have big impacts. We know that by raising expectations that children can be supported to reach their potential. And we have experienced the joy and celebration that comes through perseverance and hard work.
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