Profiles of our lay missionaries
Angela Keane, Co Kerry who went to Peru in mid September 2006, relates the following
‘Ayacucho is in the Andes Mountains with a population of 560,000 people. The altitude varies from 2,700m to over 3,00m. We are ten hours by bus from Lima or one hour flight. I am staying in the capital city which is Huamanga with 24,000 in population. This region suffered terrible during 1980-1992 under the terrorist group the "Sendero Luminosa" also known as the "Shinning Path", this group was responsible for the murder of 30,000. Many families have been left scarred and lost many members. Few people will talk of these difficult years.
I am working with the Columban Sisters. In this region three years ago, Sr. Ann Carbon (Philippines) started a clinic for mental health. This clinic has grown with a staff of 14 and over 2,000 patients. The clinic staff travel to other pueblos and set up clinic for three/four days to offer an out reach service. There is a great need for this service as many people suffer with mental health problems since the troubled times.
I'm qualified as an intellectual disability nurse and have worked in this field in Ireland for twenty years. On my arrival in Ayacucho I discovered there are no services for this special group of people. I found myself visiting the special school and continue to work here three mornings a week. My earlier days in the school were very challenging as I experienced the children been hit by the teachers. I expressed my disappointment and now am working on showing the teachers different techniques of dealing with behaviour. The children get schooling for four hours a day up to the age of 18years. In this area there are no services from a multi-disciplinary team i.e. physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech & language therapy, social work etc. people have to travel down to Lima (10 hrs by bus) to avail of these services. After this time they remain at home. The mental health clinic had a number of files from children who visited with behavioural problems etc but could not offer them a service. I commenced following up on these files and started working with these children/adults on a 1:1 for therapy.
Six weeks later I am working with 19 families, I have also employed a staff nurse and the service continues to grow. The children’s disabilities vary from Down’s syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism and various degrees of intellectual disabilities.
I love the job and enjoy the challenges. The people are very humble and gentle and the kids are just great. I think my Kerry brogue is a great novelty not forgetting my white skin which is rare in this area. The people are so trusting of the white person.
My vision for the service is the hope it will continue when I move home. By employing the staff nurse it enables the service to get off the ground faster, it also gave me an extra pair of hands to have more children for a session. The nurse is general trained but has a great warmth for the children we work with, over time she will gain from my experience. Also my nurse speaks the local dialect which is Quecha, the language many of our families speak. So she takes all the case histories and writes up the day to day progress notes on each child. We are getting on great TG, and the experience has been very positive.
The language which is Spanish I find very difficult but not holding me back. I think I will still be getting Spanish classes when it's time to return home in two years. The Columban Sister's have been very supportive as have the clinic staff, I feel very much part of a big family here. I settled quickly and am delighted to be working with the people of Huamanga, we are both learning a lot from each other. I am also very grateful for having completed my overseas preparation course with Viatores Christi, I feel it has prepared me a lot for the challenges I am faced with on a daily basis.
A special word of thanks to my family and friends for the continued emotional and financial support, which is very much appreciated by me and the people of Huamanga’.
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