​Mission Essential Goals for Peru:

1. Build and distribute 4 standers as a pilot program starting new partnership with La Mesa del Reino (LMR)
2. Ensure that LMR has internal capacity to produce more standing frames
3. Contact local organizations to begin building distribution network
4. Train PT’s from various organizations in the use of the SWM standing frame.

It was an action-packed day. Arriving in Lima, Peru at 1 am and was greeted by Julia and her daughter Dani taken to my hotel. Julia is the director of LMR and is a psychological therapist, Dani is an occupational therapist who works for another local NGO. I met with Julia for breakfast and discussed the plans for the next couple of days. She told me a little of the history about how LMR became interested in standing frames. She described that a local physical therapist and good friend of hers had asked Julia if she knew anyone who had a standing frame and at that time Julia said no but began praying for a standing frame. Within one week she received the email from Stand With Me asking if they had interest in partnering with us to make standing frames. She said that she believes SWM was an answer to the prayers of the local therapist to serve the local need for standing frames. She also updated me on the preparatory work they had accomplished before my arrival including the localization of CNC shops, material sourcing and pricing and contacting local organizations to schedule meetings to introduce our standing frame.

From breakfast we set out to the nearby woodworking shop run by Jose Luis called “Capacitados”, which means “The Capable”, and is a workshop where he trains people with various disabilities carpentry to the level of their ability. Capacitados will be our primary production facility for the moment and the students will be intimately involved in the production of the standing frames. I took the opportunity to explore the shop and verified that the shop already had all necessary equipment to assemble the standing frames and had a chance to discuss with Jose Luis information about the upcoming production. We are ready to begin as soon as tomorrow afternoon!

From the Capacitados workshop, Julia and I proceeded to Prite Callao which is a school for over 180 children with disabilities of all kinds. The director Yerika Villanueva showed us around the school which has 7 private therapy rooms decked out with colorful toys and learning tools. We had heard that Prite Callao had received a SWM standing frame about 2 years ago from our shop in Arequipa, Peru (south of lima 17 hr drive) however it turns out that was not the case. Yerika showed us two non-SWM standing frames that they have in their clinic, neither of which is very useful due to the poor adjustability or lack of support provided. When we showed her and some of the Prite Callao therapists pictures of our standing frame they became very excited and exclaimed, “this is exactly what we have been hoping and looking for”. We set up two sessions at their center for early next week to train their whole therapy staff in the use of standing therapy and the SWM standing frame.
Next we headed over to La Mesa del Reino’s facilities named “Qumi”. There we began contacting local CNC shops that we will use to cut out the plywood parts of or standers. I turns out that Julia is also a graphic designer so she has the computer program and skills to make edits to the standing frame CNC files at LMR, so we don’t have to pay an engineer to make the changes. So we set about editing the computer files to reflect the most recent updates to the design based on feedback from Guatemala earlier this week.
In the evening I went with Juan Marcos to the local Sodimac, the Peruvian equivalent of Home Depot, and we purchased the 2x4 and 2x3 planks. Those combined with the hardware and items I brought from Guatemala combine so that we now have all the materials required for the batch of 4 standers.
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Finally, 9 staff and patients from LMR and myself went out to a rotisserie chicken dinner as a team to get to know each other. This group of people are extremely talented and driven to help improve the lives of people with disabilities. It is now midnight, and I am exhausted, but satisfied with the immense progress that we made today. We are even slightly ahead of schedule. I cannot believe how smoothly things are going. It is incredible to see how god provides.  

I arrived uneventfully after a 17 hr travel day to the Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City and managed to pick up my rental car and get to the factory by 1 am. Was greeted by Mark Richard (director of Beeline Wheelchairs), Micah (Beeline administrator) and a visiting nurse around 7 am at the factory and we had a nice breakfast of eggs, beans and cantaloupe. I then had a chance to meet up with Pedro who is our new standing frame carpenter. We spent the morning reviewing his suggestions about the design, production and distribution, then we did a little practice together working out how to most efficiently make the backboards. We headed to lunch in San Lucas about 10 mins down the road from the factory and had a chance to relax and get some pizza. After lunch we set about making a new set of jigs which will improve the efficiency of standing frame production. So far we have begun the most complex jig which connects the legs of the stander to the backboard. This jig is very large and must be very precise so that the stander is not wobbly while the child uses it. 

​Mark, Scott and I (Monica) arrived at the factory to help make more standing frames. We drilled holes in wood and ran tests to figure out how long each step of the standing frames took to complete. With this data, we can accurately calculate how many standing frames we can make each week. 

The time came for Scott and me to say our goodbyes to the Stand With Me team. As we drove away from the factory I started to count my blessings and think overall we accomplished this trip. We were able to build, complete, and give away standing frames. Meetings were held to improve standing frame production and clearly communicate future goals to the Stand With Me team. The greatest blessing, children's lives were positively impacted. I felt truly grateful to be a part of an impactful trip. Cheers to next time! 

​Before 8 AM Saturday the van was packed at the Mission Impact factory and ready for the delivery of 10 standing frames at the Hope Haven factory about 5 miles away. The frames were unloaded and set aside for the children. As the families patiently waited for each child's turn to be fitted,  (Monica) I began talking to a grandfather of one of the patients. He told me he and his family traveled about two hours to come to the clinic today and received a standing frame. He also added that he was grateful to God for this opportunity. As I walked around the hope haven factory taking pictures, I was touched by the moment, this moment will dramatically impact the quality of life for these children and their families. This device that was once just an idea, grew into an incredible project consisting of a dedicated team and many generous supporters.

After the fitting and adjusting the standers to each child, parents were taught how to properly and safely operate the stander. Paper forms were also completed with the mothers before the children were prepared to head home and begin a new chapter in their lives where they will begin daily weight-bearing activity on their legs at home. The team waved goodbye to the small truck that carried away our six patients, their mothers and siblings as well as the six standing frames’ strapped to the roof of the truck. 

That afternoon we had the meeting with the Hope Haven staff regarding future plans for distributions and educated their team more about how to use the official Stand With Me forms that help us to keep track of our patients and follow them over time. It truly was a miraculous day in Guatemala.

​Scott and I (Monica) departed the airport at around 1pm, in our Kia Picanto. The hunt was on as soon as we landed in Guatemala City. One would assume finding a yoga mat and Velcro in a large city would be an easy task, this was not the case. Determined, Scott and I followed as many leads as possible and finally found the perfect 6 mm yoga mat that is used as padding on the standing frame. With a little more hunting we also discovered double sided one-wrap Velcro used to secure patients’ legs and feet. Once the goods were acquired, Scott and I joyfully drove to the factory to start assembling the 10 standing frames that would be distributed the next day.