My name is Julia and I come from Portugal. I studied physical therapy in university and after graduating I decided to come travel to Asia and do some volunteering. I found this volunteering project and decided I wanted to help, since as a physical therapist I could correspond to some of the needs of the disabled children. When I arrived at the center I was very impressed with the facilities that are nice and modern, with a spacious therapy room with sufficient material. However I was disappointed to realize that there were no therapists, doctors, nurses or psychologists to help care for the children, who need more medical and therapeutical attention than most children. Thankfully there is a physical therapy assistant with much experience to help the children, but they need more care.

The children all have different physical and cognitive abilities, but they are all super sweet with big hearts. In the first days I assessed their physical abilities and made therapy goals to work towards with them. It was always a pleasure working with them, and trying to find different strategies to motivate them to work, be it with games, jokes or small motivational speeches. They really appreciate the 1 on 1 attention and being helped and challenged with their physical abilities. We were able to help some walk, stand up, change positions or just sit up independently, and the smiles on their faces when they did were very motivating to me. Any skills that we can help them achieve during therapy are very important for their everyday activities.

I really enjoyed playing with the children at the end of the day on the trampoline, swings and with simples games, and seeing them smile and laugh so much. It was also really nice to see the relationships the children have with eachother. They are very affectionate and compassionate, and the ones with more independence always help out the others.
There was also some cultural exchange where I was able to learn more about thai culture and customs and share about my own, and I had the chance to visit Chiang Rai and various villages closeby. I shared some nice moments with some of the staff and the franciscan brothers visiting from Singapore.

I had a really good experience and I think Camillian Social Center has a great mission to help the disabled children and children from low-income families to have access to education, and is a charity that is definitely worth supporting, be it by volunteering or by making donations.

Miss Julia Best -  juliaelibest@hotmail.com