Meet Christiane! Physiotherapist at Inclusive Cambodia
One fifth of the people with disabilities in Cambodia are children.* To this day, the intersection of disability and poverty remains inadequately discussed in either field of research, although people with disabilities are more likely to become/remain poor due to key societal barriers exacerbating a cycle of poverty.
Inclusive Cambodia’s core goal is to empower disabled individuals and their families by providing them with services to overcome those barriers - accessible therapy, healthcare and childcare among others. A key service is the provision of physiotherapy sessions to disabled children living on Koh Dach Island. This is a challenge from the outset, and every engagement must begin with a thorough assessment of a child, their physical and intellectual capacity, and their homelife. For those on Koh Dach, travelling to healthcare facilities in the nearby city of Phnom Penh represents a significant expense, and also means missing an opportunity to work. This means that children referred to Inclusive Cambodia often lack a formal diagnosis for their impairment or condition. For this reason, Inclusive Cambodia has always made sure that we have experienced therapists in action who can paint the clearest picture for a child and their family. With an assessment and diagnosis in place, the work can begin to enhance the quality of one’s life significantly.
Within this context, it is important to understand the work of our physiotherapists against the social phenomena of poverty and healthcare disparity. I decided to learn more about it with the testimony of Christiane. As a trained child physiotherapist from Germany for 38 years, she started working as a part-time physiotherapist in Phnom Penh for Inclusive Cambodia in May 2022.
What is the role of Christiane?
Beyond providing physiotherapy, the role of Christiane and the team is to deeply understand the abilities and limits of our beneficiaries. This implies a holistic approach to their well being by suggesting tailored exercises for the child to practise at home with the help of the caregiver - mostly mother or grandmother, outside of Inclusive Cambodia’s clinic. Located on Koh Dach island, our clinic is a safe and inclusive place that welcomes our beneficiaries and their caregivers. It is the hub of our community-based initiatives such as tailored education, health checks and physiotherapy. The clinic is currently open and receiving beneficiaries four days a week.
Christiane’s role also involves training Inclusive’s local rehabilitation trainee, Sreylak.
“Assisting Christiane in the delivery of physiotherapy enhances my understanding of anatomy, movement science, and the principles of rehabilitation. One of our beneficiaries is C, a 12 year-old boy who suffers from scoliosis. Christiane showed me a few exercises that could help him out such as side leg raises, reverse hand and knee extensions, elbow and knee touching, and working on his posture so he can be more stable. I try to make these playful for him, by doing Spider-Man game races for example. We also maintain an open communication, regularly updating each other on the children's progress.” - Sreylak
Christiane’s commitment to serving Cambodia and its people extends beyond physiotherapy as she dedicates time to language learning and cultural understanding, enriching her ability to connect with families on a deeper level.
How does Christiane plan and organise her physiotherapy sessions?
To address the challenge of disparities in access to healthcare for families living on Koh Dach Island, Christiane employs her extensive experience catering to the needs of children with a range of disabilities of all ages.
From the foundation of watching how a child acts, questions to the caregiver, and their motor-development interaction capacities. Christiane describes physiotherapy as an initiative to discern what should/could be done to prevent secondary effects coming with their disability.
Taking notes after a session helps her to keep in track with each child's development. Indeed, writing down on the one hand about the exercises she tried out during the session and how the child reacted to them gives her a better insight of what to prioritise/avoid during the following session. She also writes down about the well-being and daily mood, or anything relevant the caregiver shares with her.
“Physiotherapy with younger children is about building up a relationship to ensure a good interaction. That is why it is crucial for me to communicate with, to use my speech, my voice, my tone, to attract their attention and to encourage them in the exercise that I am practising.”
Memorable achievements
We are so glad when we witness achievements such as the journey of D, a young girl who started attending our clinic when she turned two. At the beginning, she was exclusively lying down. By means of various stimulation such as coordination and control of the movement exercises, Christiane saw her starting to sit up on her own. D is five as of today and is also crawling on her belly in her house. This means she starts interacting with the world, which represents a reward for the family who doesn’t need to carry her for every step. “I know that if she didn’t come to our sessions, it would’ve been different.”
On behalf of everyone at Inclusive Cambodia, thank you Christiane for everything you do!
* Disabled People Organizations (DPOs) in Cambodia, Universal Periodic Review (UPR 18).
