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Action Solidaire aux Philippines : acte 4 / Virlanie / Aout-Septembre 2019
Présentation de Virlanie
La fondation Virlanie est une organisation philippine à but non lucratif, privée, non-gouvernemenatale et non-confessionnelle qui prend soin des enfants les plus vulnérables. Pourquoi ces enfants sont dans une telle situation ?
Abandonnés, Abusés, Exploités, Orphelins, Négligés et les plus pauvres parmi les plus pauvres. Créée par Dominique Lemay en 1992. Slogan : « Giving back the smile to street children » Associés à ces différents centres, on retrouve des programmes médicaux, psychologiques, d’apprentissage, artistiques, etc.
L'action par Hands Of Solidarity - récit de nos bénévoles -
Date de l'action : 14 Aout 2019 – 14 Septembre 2019 Bénévoles ostéopathes : Nathalie et Luis Objectif : Prendre en charge ostéopathique de tous les enfants de Virlanie ainsi que du staff. Nous avons fait le choix de laisser nos bénévoles donner leurs ressentis.
Voici leurs retours : Nathalie, 2ème action HOS après le Laos (compte-rendu)
" Je me croyais aguerrie pour avoir déjà effectuée une mission au Laos. Toutefois, les doutes se présentent une nouvelle fois à moi...le stress avant le départ! Départ pour Manille! Après un voyage plutôt agréable, je suis attendue par Océane, responsable des volontaires de Virlanie. Présentation de l'association, de notre maison (la Grande Maison des Volontaire), de Virlanie et de son fonctionnement, des autres volontaires (Océane, Camille, Hélène, Marine, Oriane, Delphine, Anouk) et de mon partenaire de travail (Luis). Cela fait beaucoup et on se sent un peu perdu..Luis et moi commençons notre mission et ce pourquoi nous sommes là. Cela démarre plutôt en douceur. Sans parler à la place de Luis, cette mission a été un véritable choc! Et Luis sera certainement d'accord avec moi. Autant que possible, nous avons donné du temps et des soins à des enfants (2 ans à 18 ans ou plus) et à des adultes plus qu'abimés par la vie... Nous sommes tout de suite adoptés par les Philippins. Nous naviguons entre les différents foyers, 8 au total. Notre maison de coeur reste Aime House. Les enfants, qui parfois ne sont plus des enfants, y sont tous handicapés. Il nous est parfois difficile de partir à la fin de la journée!! Nous avons compris que nous étions sur la bonne voie lorsque les enfants nous ont mimés et sont presque devenus de véritables ostéopathes!!
Il serait trop long de relater notre mission jour par jour, ce que je peux simplement dire, c'est qu'une fois de plus j'ai rencontré des gens extraordinaire : - Les acteurs de Virlanie qui font que cette association tient debout et tourne 27 ans après sa création ; - Le courage des "mamas" et "papas" s'occupant chaque jour de leur jeunes pensionnaires ; - Les volontaires participant à l'édifice de Virlanie! "
Luis, 1ère action solidaire HOS
"Our mission started on the 14th of August 2019 until the 14 of September, four weeks doing Osteopathy as a volunteer for Virlanie Foundation. The foundation is established in a neighborhood in the middle of the busy Manilla. They have 7 different houses that give shelter to many children that were in need. They also have a building with an office, a small dentist clinic, a learning center and another two houses where we stayed as volunteers. Before the mission, we were provided with all the information we needed and the staff was very helpful giving us all the details. I had the opportunity to understand where I would go and what I would do during my stay in Manilla. On arrival, they were very welcoming, and we had a few days to get used to the Philippino weather and to know each other. We leaved with the other 5 volunteers that worked for Virlanie in different roles. The house was quite comfortable, with space for everyone where we could gather all together and spend some evenings telling stories about the experience in Manila. At the beginning of the first week, we organized our schedule and went to all the different houses to present ourselves. We tried our best to establish a schedule but every time we went to the house we were supposed to go, they would have forgotten that we were going at that time on that day. Anyway, it’s a cultural behavior, they live their life day by day so you should not make big plans with them because the next day they would forget it. They live the present! So, the idea was that everyday Nathalie and I would go to a house and treat the children that lived there. Some of them need more them others, but because we had plenty of time, some time was possible to see them twice. The first challenge we faced was the place where we treated the children.
We had to lay a mattress on the floor and treat them on the floor. Well, this makes all the difference because we get trained and work as osteopaths with the patients laying down on a plinth. This “small” change made us improvise and developing new techniques which take a lot of effort and energy. On the other hand, you learn so much about what you can do and how you can do it in terms of your osteopathic techniques. Another challenge was communication. In health, communication plays an important rule, because it is through it that we understand the complaints of the patients. In the Philippines, they have English and Tangalaw as the two official languages. Most of the children spoke average to good English but the younger ones didn’t. We had to use a mix of language, gesture, and translator to communicate with some of the children. It was a very interesting experience and we develop a lot of our skills in terms of body communication because it was the only “language” we could speak with each other. It was a very important mission, especially for the children we treated, most of them were healthy children and only had small injuries from the sports they practice. However, where we felt that our work was more in need was in the houses of the children with disabilities. Both Elisabeth and Jade's home (house outside manila) were where we felt the biggest need of our hands. Not only because you could understand that they really appreciate what we did but also, as an osteopath, it was where we could find more disfunction. It is completely different to work with a child with psychological difficulties. If they enjoy what you are doing, they stay calm, however, if they are uncomfortable with what you are doing, they will make you stop or go away. It was such a joyful experience to see them smile after the treatment and every time we were back to their house to visit them. You could see the happiness in their face every time we were there for them. I guess that we accomplished the aim of the Virlanie Foundations, “giving back the smile to street children”. After all those weeks building a good relationship with the children and the people in the neighborhood, it was hard to say goodbye. We completely forgot our lives to concentrate our head and heart in those people. You finish these weeks completely different from the way you started them. Not only in our personal life but also as Osteopaths it is something that changes yourself."
Nombre de consultation réalisées : 280 sur 4 semaines d'action soit la totalité des enfants de Virlanie. Pérennisation des actions Pour 2020, deux actions ont pu être planifiées (mais une est annulée suite à la propagation du coronavirus dans le monde). De préférence profil autonome (savoir organiser son planning, repasser dans les différentes maisons pour prendre les rdv, checker la liste des patients à voir, relancer les mamas le nombre de fois nécessaires en respectant la communication philippine…). Parler anglais.
