Een buitenlandse stage is een avontuur, waar je met je beiden ogen toe, in springt.

Je leert jezelf kennen en je beleeft ervaringen waarvan je voordien niet dacht dat je ze aandurfde.
Zoals les geven in een taal die je enkele maanden voordien, onbekend was.

De kansen liggen voor het grijpen. Je krijgt enorm veel steun van de contactpersonen en de plaatselijke bevolking om je doelen te bereiken.

Daarnaast is er voldoende tijd om te ontspannen en te genieten van het prachtige land en de cultuur.

Maart 2015
Gwennin Demaegd

Studente Verpleegkunde Odisee Brussel

Tijdens het oefenen op de grove motoriek aan de hand van hoelahoeps en ballen, kunnen er al eens gewonden vallen. Wat een chance dat ik de toch enkele skills heb overgekregen van mijn 2 verpleegkundige ouders. Een multifunctionele ergotherapeut in wording.

Wanneer er een kindje jarig is op de school, wordt er een grote piñata gekocht en is het groot feest in de school en iedereen viert mee. Heel leuk om dit gebeuren telkens te mogen meemaken en te mogen smullen van el pastel (cake).
Hier wordt er geoefend op de fijne motoriek van een kindje met autisme door het openen en sluiten van de poortjes die een bepaald slot hebben. Hierbij heb ik wel enkele blauwplekken aan over gehouden. Hij kan niet praten dus waardoor het niet gemakkelijk is om zich uit te drukken. Het leven van ergotherapeut is best hard 😀

Door hard in de week te werken, is er in het weekend tijd voor ontspanning! Hier gingen we naar Somoto cañon. Dit ligt op de grens tussen Honduras en Nicaragua. Hier zijn we van rotsen gesprongen, gezwommen, geklommen,.. een hele work-out die echt de moeite was!

Maart 2015
Kim Adriaens

Studente ergotherapie Odisee Brussel

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¡He vivido una práctica maravillosa, viví una experiencia muy especial! Entrar la escuela mirando a los manitos de los niños y niñas para saludarme (lo que continuo el periodo completo que estaba) me dio piel de gallina. Todos los niños/as y profesores son muy amables y aunque hablar inglés es muy difícil, todos intentaron involucrarme en la escuela. Todos han hecho esfuerzos para que yo me sintiera bien.

La escuela de principitos es una iniciativa muy bonita donde los niños y niñas reciben educación, libros y comida gratis. No era fácil integrarme, pero una vez que descubrí lo que pudo contribuir, todo el proyecto me robo el corazón. ¡Una experiencia que nunca olvidara!

Ik heb de tijd van mijn leven beleefd op deze stage. Alleen het moment al dat je binnenkomt in de school en de kindjes maar blijven handjes geven en zwaaien en dag zeggen (dit blijft trouwens heel de periode dat je er bent doorgaan). De kinderen en leerkrachten zijn enorm vriendelijk en ondanks het gebrek aan Engels doet iedereen zeer hard zijn best om jou te betrekken in het schooltje en te zorgen dat je je er goed voelt.

School of principitos is een zeer goed initiatief waar de kindjes gratis scholing, boeken en eten krijgen. Het is niet gemakkelijk om er je draai te vinden. Maar eens dat lukt wordt dit een deel van je leven en krijgt de school een plaatsje in je hart. Ik ga hier alvast naar terugkijken als een van de belangrijkste momenten in mijn leven!!

I really passed the time of my life on this practice period. You receive so much love from the children. Children and teachers are very kind and despite of the poor English language knowledge , everybody is doing his/her very best to involve you in the activities of the school and give you a good feeling.
The school of Principitos is a good initiative where children receive (special) education, books and meals. It is quite difficult to integrate. But once you have find your way it becomes a part of your life and you keep the school and the children in your hart. In the future I will look at this experience as one of the most important in my life.

Zoë Goos
Occupational Therapy Student Odisee Brussels

From 15th of february till 18th of february 2015 Reninka De koker and luc vercruysse went to Wroclaw poland to visit the 4 students of Odisee Brussels at the Jana Pawla 2- Institute in Jaszkotle.

We braught a lot of sponsored children clothes, toys and medication with us for the children of this project.

Thanks to the efforts of our TAPAS ambassador in Wroclaw, Agnieszka Ptak, we could do some visits to possible TAPAS projects for the future.

May be we can offer more projects in the neighbourhood of Wroclaw to volunteers and students in the near future.

We are very gratefull for the sustainable collaboration with Jana Pawla 2-institute since 2006 already.

After finishing our course in Esteli Nicaragua at UPOLI university (end of 2014) we can announce a lot af activity already again at the start of 2015 .

On this moment we have  2 OT students of Odisee doing practice at “Klein Kasteeltje” Brussels.

4 OT students of Odisee  are doing practice in Jaszkotle Poland.

2 other Odisee students (1 OT and 1 nurse) are doing practice in Esteli Nicaragua: one in Hopital San Juan de Dios hospital and one at Escuela Cristal.

Elisa Aldamo is going to join the Odisee OT student at Escuela Cristal for some weeks. She is an ex-student of San Jorge University of Zaragoza and Physiotherapist will continue this volunteer work at “Corazon contente” in Granada Nicaragua.

“Corazon Contente” is a brand new project for TAPAS volunteers and students  . We are happy to  announce this new cooperation. Iniciativo Corazon Contente is a daycare center in Granada Nicaragua who organises daily activities for handicapped youngsters.

Two other students are doing practice in our project in Calcutta-India a joint initiative of TAPAS with  “Lights of Hope”.

As you can see we are going hard. Whenever you want to join us, feel free to contact us.

Greetings from the board.

Luc  Vercruysse

International coordinator TAPAS

Official collaboration of TAPAS and “Corazon Contente” :Granada Nicaragua

Children at the project in Calcutta – India.

On sunday 7th of december 2014, Mieke Lembrechts and Luc Vercruysse from TAPAS association presented the TAPAS-Poland project to the Polish community in Belgium during their Christmas concert in Heverlee.

We thank them for the financial support.

End of november we finished the last of the 4 modules we were giving at UPOLI university Esteli Nicaragua. Last module was about “OT and mental health”.

During the four modules of the course we engaged 8 TAPAS members to introduce OT for students of nursery, psychologists, GP’s, physiotherapists.

Teachers  for TAPAS:

Evelien Dewachter, Cristina De Diego, Patriciia Jovelar, Reninka Dekoker, Veerle Devocht, Jeroen Vos and Luc Vercruysse.

Organising coordinator at UPOPLI: Ivania Mercedes.

Now we are negociating with UPOLI to repeat this course may be also in Managua .

Evaluation Report (6.10-13.11.’14)
Volunteering at ZOL-Jaszkotle, Poland

Therapy TAPAS association

The contact, before the stay, with the members of TAPAS (Luc and Agnieszka) went very well. The communication was positive and constructive. I had enough information to plan my travel and to prepare myself for the work in the rehabilitation center.

Stay at Jaszkotle

The stay in the center was very comfortable. The room was nice, the bathroom and dining room had everything I needed. In case of the food I felt I was getting spoiled! The meals were well prepared and satisfying. The portions were definately big enough! I also got extra’s every week like yoghurt, different kinds of meat/cheese, biscuits, cake,… The kitchen staff was very sweet and friendly.
Another positive point is the public transport: there are regular busses tot Wroclaw and back.
The only thing I would have liked is the ability to use a laundry machine.

Work at Jaszkotle

Working with the children
Iam so gratefull that I got the opportunity to gain experience in this setting. I hadn’t worked a lot with children with developmental problems before. After working here, I feel stronger as an OT within this goalgroup. I got the chance and space to build and execute my ideas.

Working together with other disciplines
Due to the language barrier the collaboration with other disciplines didn’t go as fluent, but everybody tried to make themselves understandable. This made me feel appreciated and welcome. After the the six weeks, I felt that my band with the caregivers and therapist had grown stronger.

Working with the students
Working together with the Belgian and Polish students was very interesting and informative. I could reflect with them upon their functioning, my own functioning and the possibilities of occupational therapy within the center.

Difficulties and opportunities for occupational therapy
In my opinion there are a lot of possibilities for OT within the center. We would be able to intervene in all occupational performance area’s: school/learn, leisure, ADL. Every child is different and therefore it is so important to work client centered. Setting up personal goals in collaboration with the child and other disciplines.
As OT’s we can make the difference by not only achieving these goals in a therapy session, but by implementing them in the daily lives of the children.
I think that the caregivers/therapists have little knowledge of occupational therapy. This will have to grow. The fact that there is no actual interdisciplinary teamwork in the center will make this very difficult. On short term I think the work with the students/volunteers is very useful for the development of occupational therapy within the center. On longer term I think it would be necessary to have an OT work permanently, because the students only come for a short period and that makes it very hard/challenging to change something.

Conclusion

I have had a wonderful time at Jaszkotle. I have learned a lot and got many opportunities to develop my skills as an OT but also to develop on personal area. In these weeks I have felt so welcome and I am so glad to have get to know more of the Polish culture. I hope that my work has been valuable and that I can come back in the future!
I feel the TAPAS-love! Thank you!

Merel Thijs.

On this moment two OT students of Odisee Brussels, Natthaya Cornelis and Yana Pollet, are doing fieldwork in Jana Pawla 2 institute i, Jaszkotle Poland. They are working in team with another Tapas volunteer from Belgium: Merel Thijs , graduated OT at PXL Hasselt.

From 12 november till 29november Luc Vercruysse and Jeroen Vos are going to Esteli – Nicaragua for one week teaching in UPOLI university Esteli. This will be the 4rth module of the course “Introduction to Occupational Therapy”. This module  is called ” Introduccion en terapia ocupacional: psiciatria y salud mental”. They also plan to visit different projects in Terrabonna, escuela Cristal, iniciativo colibri, corazon contente,..

All partner organisations with a similar mission.