The Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy (IICP)

A little information about where we have been working and living in Kolkata for the last 5 weeks.

I had envisioned the IICP to be a fairly grassroots organization with maybe one or two physiotherapists and no Occupational Therapists. Turns out it is a large organization with maybe 8 physios, 2 OT’s, several social workers, many special needs educators and lots of volunteers. The more time I spent there learning about India, the organization and the health care system, the more I realized how truly great this place was. For one, there are about 150 with CP that attend classes there, a family services clinic, a baby clinic, a hydrotherapy pool, respite care and vocational training for adults with CP. We had hands on learning that we would have never been able to get at home. 5 days a week we pretty much lived and breathed the IICP as our dorms were kitty corner to the catering unit, beside the lunch room, down the hall from the computer room and upstairs from the classrooms. This was incredibly convenient of course because getting to work involved walking down a hallway and down some stairs.

Secondly, the people that worked there were inspiring, caring and generous people who openly invited us into their lives. We learned that to work as a physio or OT for a government hospital would pay twice as much as an NGO like IICP, would offer more benefits, more access to private work to make money on the side, and would require working less hours in a week. Needless to say, these therapists are dedicated to their work and extremely compassionate. I loved working with them every day and learned so much from them.