This is Volunteering?

I wish that I could capture the depth of involvement I have in this so-called "volunteer" position.  As I agreed to work 25 hours/week, my 39 hours this week sets a new record!  I think the result of this over-commitment is the narrowing of my view on what I might do here in Belize for fun!  Dave, who is flying at the moment, does impact our ability to get away.  I know that my mind-set, i.e. that there is work to be done at the Children's Centre, also impacts our spirit of adventure.  For example, I have not yet been to the House of Culture or to the Belize Museum.  Both of those are only open on weekdays, and there is no logical reason that Dave and I can't go to those during the week!  I make my own hours, and if we had to leave for Dave to fly, we would still be close to the airport!  I think I am writing this blog to kick me back into a bit of tourist mode!

This week was really action filled.  Without revealing too much confidential information, I will try to generally describe the kinds of situations with which I dealt.  The week began calmly enough, so I offered to help "my" assistant in reviewing files for missing documents and in separating sibling files.  In the past, families have been "lumped" in one file, useful when there are four or five children listed on each visitation form, etc.  But the Centre is in the process of becoming licensed and privitized, and files must be individually completed.

I had a meeting with the Acting Director of the Department of Human Development,  with Karen Simplis, who is a social work professor at the University of Belize, with Yvette Burks, who is the director of BERT and in Rotary and who asked me to volunteer at Dorothy Menzies Child Care Centre, and with the Assistant Foster Mother for DMCCC, Marcia Stephen.  The purpose of the meeting was to review how my presence at the Centre is going, results and challenges.  I think the group heard way more than they were expecting!  Besides the problem of 60 children in a limited amount of space with a limited number of staff to supervise and a limited amount of money/resources to address problems, I have been very frustrated with the lack of response by the social workers assigned to the children.  We have had a number of children that have been involved in incidents that have alarmed me!

I must have been heard, because the Director of Human Development called a case staffing for five children, all of with whom I have serious concerns!  16 people were involved at one point or another in this all-day meeting!  Our conference room never had so much action!  And some of that action was pretty loud!  From the meeting, I am hoping that the action items/tasks identified with dates in the next week really happen!

Some of the problems are really overwhelming for the Department, for us, and really for Belize in general.  There are few treatment programs.  There are few places to house, treat and supervise highly reactive, disturbed children.  Where is the 13-year-old boy who was raped as a youngster and who is now sexually acting out going to go?  He is a risk to himself, and he is a risk to our young residents, but those issues are true at the other facilities in the country, too.  Where is a girl who threatened a staff member with a machete going to go when she is too young for jail, there really is no juvenile detention facility that I've heard about, and there is no treatment program for violent youth?  And these are only two of five whom we addressed, and I have one more equally serious case that will have a staffing separately, hopefully soon.

So when I wake up at 2:00 AM to consider what medication might be used and who might monitor the dosage given, I feel like I am not in the volunteering world, but in the trenches of work.  And yet, I wouldn't trade it!  I don't know that I am impacting anyone in a positive way, and I don't know how I will ever measure that.  But I feel engaged in a process with others who are concerned and committed, too!  And when I say that, I mean the over-worked, over-extended social workers who receive the brunt of my complaint that these high risk children are not getting the attention they need.  I recognize that the social workers are struggling, too.  While I think that there may exist some systemic issues, the problems are certainly not new to me.  I found them in the U.S., too.

One of the funnier moments for the staff at DMCCC this week was when I was walking down the long hallway to the office, where a staff member was holding our 1-year-old new resident.  To the staff's great amusement, he pointed down the hall, saying "Mommy!  Mommy!"  (Sometimes I'm not even sure of my own identity!)

Maybe I will do something fun this weekend and my next blog will sound more like a tour book!  At least Dave and I had a fabulous shrimp dinner by the Sea at the Hour Bar & Grill last night!  Perfect temperature, wonderful food, and wine!  A treat after a long week!