Provide a Posture Care Clinic for Mexican Children

A word from our director

We recently got back from a month away in Puerto Vallarta working with all of our projects and catching up with friends and familiar faces. There is so much to talk about and I am currently writing up our full report to share with all of our supporters. It has been a long 3 years away but our team has done a tremendous job of keeping the projects going and supporting those individuals most in need. I just wanted to share our highlights as well as a little note from one of our volunteers, Ellen. 

So in our whirlwind trip we managed to.....run four training courses focused on posture management and aquatic rehabilitation to 48 people, provide equipment to 20 children and adults, donate equipment to four centres/organisations working with people with disabilities, run 8 Catrin's Penguin sessions, sort out and organise all of our equipment, run a 5k, host two volunteers from the UK and visit our wonderful friends at the Deporte Adaptado. I am incredibly proud of what we achieved and of our wonderful team that surrounds us making it all possible. Special thanks also to our volunteers Ellen and Elsie. 

Ellen has shared some words about her time in Mexico

"Recently I had the amazing opportunity to go out to Puerto Vallarta to volunteer for Therapies Unite and see first hand the amazing work they do. While I was there I got to support the work Therapies Unite provided for Pasitos de Luz, Catrin’s penguins and Deporte Adaptado. I loved working with these brave inspirational people and providing support for them. There are huge needs in all of these areas that Therapies Unite can provide. It was amazing to fit all the equipment and wheelchairs previously sent out to PV to children in great need of this. One of my favourite moments was when a young girl thanked us for fitting her into a new wheelchair saying how much more comfortable and supportive it was. The support and equipment provided and the support for disabilities is so little in Mexico and needs our ongoing support from Therapies Unite to provide the care so desperately needed. This can only be done with support and donations to continue providing therapy services and to continue the journey of Therapies Unite and put the future goals into reality."

Plans Moving Forwards

We now have lots of work to do as well as lots of planning for Mexico 2023. We have a number of specialist volunteers who will be joining us to deliver all kinds of training and hopefully a team of volunteers and students from Keele University too. 

Our main focus for the rest of this year is fundraising. We need support to invest in and develop our services so we can have maximum impact. Every time we go to Mexico we know we help people and we know that we are changing lives. But this is not enough, we still do not have enough of an impact. We could do so much more and it is incredibly frustrating as I know so many children and adults that would benefit from our services but we simply do not have the capacity and the funds to help them. It was difficult to return after 3 years away and see the impact of this for some of the children and adults we know and have supported in the past. We are focused on making sustained changes, we are investing in training for local people, we are keeping our running costs as low as possible whilst trying to see as many people as possible and we are recycling equipment where we can. In order to grow and develop we need more funding and more hands on support to get our projects where they need to be.what  We have done so well over the past 12 years to build and develop Therapies Unite, I would never have dreamed that we would be where we are today. With this in mind and with fresh inspiration and motivation from our trip, we will keep fighting and working towards our goal to one day have our own specialist centre in PV.

Links:

• http://www.therapiesunite.com