Several months ago two women from a University in Boston came to Belize and found one of the students at Big Falls who could not speak. She is in the preschool class but is six years of age. They did a few speech therapy sessions with her while they were in country. They had a meeting and I was asked if I could facilitate video chat to provide further speech therapy sessions. It took a while to get the materials necessary (web cam and a mic). However, once school finished, this became one of my main projects. For the last fourmonths I have been working with the mother on a crash course on computers. She had never touched a computer, has only a standard 6 education and is very young (early twenties). So over those four months she learned how to operate a computer on her own, how to set up and maintain an email account, and how to activate a video chat on gmail. She would come to school once or twice a week for her lessons.
Yesterday, I made the arrangements with the speech therapist, Ms. Chris, through emailing to coordinate times and dates for therapy. Today, July 1st we had our first session. It was a success and I am looking forward to more sessions. The mother was able to get to gmail and gchat by herself!!! Then the session lasted about 10 minutes before the little girl got scared or overwhelmed and started to cry. We then made arrangements for next Tuesday (including some homework for myself and Kevina…printing things in town, and Kevina making letter cards). Hoping Tuesday goes just as well or better.
Wow, talk about bringing the 21st century to a third world country! You have made a difference in this family's lives, Greg, and I know they will always remember you! Great work! xo
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