Provide HorseTHERAPY to 50 Nicaraguan Children

Wow, the very air is filled with excitement, as Horse Therapy opens, after five months of quarantine. The therapist and new assistant are bringing the children to the farm for the first sessions, as nature greets them with sunshine, fresh air, and the neighing of the horses. Their equipment is ready: saddles, masks, and shields are all in place. Mothers and children are all set to ride, stretch, strengthen, and grow their muscles.

"We worked with families, by phone and internet to do exercises, but that virtual work doesn’t straighten legs for standing or strengthen neck muscles to lift heads, without the help of the horses, we found many children had lost what they had gained in therapy before the shutdown, “ said Gustavo, the Titled Horse Therapist. Each case is different, but all of the children have lost some muscle control, strength, balance, and flexibility. The long calls on the smartphones to parents did pay off in motivation, keeping the children moving, but there is no comparison to the Horse Therapy they will now receive at Special Families.

The horses went on a regimented diet and exercise program one week before to prepare for the children.  These horses are considered athletes, working with vulnerable, yet happy children. They were sad missing the children, according to the owner, they instinctively know that the children need them. The children also missed the horses, never losing their love of these large animals, even during the quarantine.

A strong hope lives in this large outdoor arena, where these children can quickly regain their muscle tone, strength, and balance relating to nature. The therapist created new goals for each child so that they can regain what they lost.  The horses appear to glide with an agility that they didn’t possess before the shutdown, they make a difference in each child's life, helping them to reach their goals.

The therapist and the assistant are learning how to wear their masks and shields, plus assist the children with theirs, in the heat, so that they can do this therapy safely.  Health precautions are challenging but well worth it, says Gustavo, as he is actively working to give more space and time for each child. Oscar, the assistant, is confident that he can work with the horses to ensure the safety of the children.

Good effective Horse therapy happens through teamwork. The whole team works together for balance, strength, tone, flexibility, and safety. Our team includes the therapist, the assistant, the parents, the horses, the children, as well as you, our supporters.   

Parents are grateful, more aware now of the benefits of working directly with a therapist, after trying to do the exercises alone, at home. They realize that Horse Therapy opens up new possibilities for their children's growth so they can reach their goals.

The organization is grateful that all avoided the virus, during the quarantine, and are continuing precautions, as they improve the livelihood of these families with children with disabilities.

Knowing that you are on our team, makes a difference as we re-open amid this pandemic. It is great to know that we are not alone.

The horses are contentedly gliding, the children are enjoying their ride, the mothers are smiling, the therapist and the assistant are giving their all, in gratitude for this opportunity that your donations made possible. Thank you!

Links:

• Gustavo explains horsetherapy in spanish

Usually workers for Yogurt con Amor (Yogurt with Love) are moving around everywhere in all neighborhoods of Matagalpa promoting nutrition and the health benefits of yogurt plus giving mothers yogurt to help with their recuperating from cancer treatments.  But this is not usual time, “ I just couldn’t think of our promotors going into neighborhoods in and out of houses with this virus spreading “ said the administrator. “We just need to protect our vulnerable population and not spread this disease.”

 As of March 25 we decided to go on lock down to protect our health and those around us a very hard decision when people need nutrition now more than ever.  

The decision was made by the foundation to close as Nicaragua started having cases of Covid19.  FE works with people with disabilities who are more vulnerable to this virus so we could not envision doing anything else. At this time in May the government of Nicaragua has mostly ignored the pandemic and have not order any social distancing or self-protection for their citizens. The country leads in the percentage of deaths : cases ratio in Central America.  This is a sad reality that we have to live with and come through alive. The projected return is now scheduled for June 14 with hopes that we can feel secure to bring nutrition to children again.  Since there is no testing in our country we don’t want to just start up again and infect one another.  It is very hard without any government support.  Everything is an unknown for us but we continue to follow from social media from central American countries and the world Health organization.  That is all we have. 

We had to work quickly with yogurt to get our promoters off the street and notify people to stop any large orders coming in at this time.  There were questions about where we get our milk and also some of our bigger out of the city accounts where supposedly there were cases during this time of closure.  We also set up WhatsApp groups to keep in touch with those families who have access to social media. The small businesses in FE worked together on the closures to ensure that we did not lose products and sharing resources like freezer space and storage.   

As the main goal of Yogurt con Amor is nutrition to the poor, staff were very active in getting out two different times more than 200 packages of basic grains to people we work with in Matagalpa.

We used the delivery of these food packages to educate as we went in trucks with our workers in protective gear not getting out of the trucks but letting each individual enter into the double cabin and receive a small talk about the virus and being able to talk a bit about their experience so far.  We are trying to motivate people to stay in their homes to avoid the virus. This is not our usual style of direct work with the families but because public transportation is so crowded and the food shortage is so great we decided to do it in this manner to help our families when they are getting no help from the government or other social agencies.  We posted a you tube link of an inspirational video that we did about corona virus for our organization, on our you tube channel. We want to be a program to share health benefits not a vehicle for spreading disease unknowingly

Families Especial wants to thank everyone for their support con Amor for Yogurt and to say directly we are not going away we would prefer to be making and eating yogurt.  We are already working on plans on how we will reopen and get yogurt out in a healthy safe way.

We are aware that all over the world countries are at different stages in this virus, this dangerous unknown threat and we continue to keep everyone in the world in our prayers. A small prayer for children:  Dear God be good to me the sea is so wide and my boat is so small.

Links:

• video on our response to coronavirus