(Photograph used with permission of Humanity and Inclusion – please also see their original Facebook post)

Stephanie Wells has been volunteering for Humanity and Inclusion in Hanoi and reports:

“The offer to work with the Speech and Language Therapy team in Hanoi through Trinh Foundation Australia’s partnership with Humanity and Inclusion, was such an exciting prospect. It was also, as with most new experiences, impossible to really imagine what it would involve on arrival. What I found was a team so welcoming to me as an individual and so happy and eager to expand their knowledge in this relatively new and developing field. The small SLT team consists of healthcare professionals trained in other fields (Drs, PTs nurses), all with varying knowledge from short SLT courses. The diverse backgrounds of the team really contribute to their role as SLTs.

Work here has involved working directly with the therapists and patients and giving lectures on specific topics to pull together and expand their existing knowledge; growing the base of therapy and assessment resources available to the team; as well as helping to establish administrative procedures necessary for an SLT team to run smoothly. As there was interest and enthusiasm across the hospital towards SLT, there has also been multidisciplinary training sessions and hospital-wide training.

This has meant a new adventure every day, not just teaching a subject that I love to an enthusiastic audience but learning how the therapy framework that I know can sit within the different structures and practices of another country’s health system.

Throughout my time here, the staff across the hospital have made sure I feel welcome and comfortable not just at work but making sure I fully experience Vietnamese food and culture by taking me on trips that I am sure I would not have been able to experience without local assistance!”