Many of the families Common Hope serves have children with special needs, so we also try to help them through our programs. One way we do this is through offering occupational therapy for students who need the services.

Currently, Maggie Shank, a volunteer from Chicago, Illinois is teaching an occupational therapy class on life-skills learning that meets three afternoons a week. The first part of the class focuses on basic hygiene, like brushing their teeth and washing their face and hands. They are also expected to remember to fill their water glass as part of learning the importance of preventing dehydration.

Recently, the class has been making bead jewelry. Maggie has taught them about symmetry and patterns and the technical aspects of making jewelry. The students have made a variety of necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, which they are selling at our Antigua site. This activity serves several important purposes. The students are developing their fine-motor skills, especially helpful for the deaf students who need to have the manual dexterity to sign. They are also learning discipline and independence.

They work independently on the project, but receive guidance and assistance from Maggie and Sara, an occupational therapist from Minnesota who is also volunteering in Guatemala. Discipline comes from learning to work with the small beads and adhere to the pattern they begin with.

For now, Maggie handles the business-related aspects of the project, like material buying, jewelry sales, and customer service. But in the future she plans to give the students lessons on money, business, and social skills so that they can handle some of these things themselves. These will be valuable skills for the students, because many of them have difficulty finding outside work, and jewelry-making may allow them to generate their own small source of income.

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