Every year at our therapy program at ASELSI in Chichicastenango, Guatemala, we hold an annual parents’ meeting. The purpose of the meeting is to gather everyone together for words of encouragement, give practical teaching to help the families with their children with disabilities at home, and be a reminder of how the program works. In years past we have read the forms we have all parents sign when they start their child in the program, but this year our staff wanted to do something different. Just reviewing the form wasn’t working. They decided to create a video.

You can watch the video below. It reminds parents to call if they can’t bring their child to therapy, keep the mats clean and open for use, help in washing their child’s hands before snack time, wash the cups they use during snacks, and much more. It even encourages those that want to to give back to the program through an offering to help others receive the therapy they need.

Since this video played at our parent meeting in February, we’ve seen more families calling to let us know they cannot come, an increase in offerings, and more. One couple almost got into an argument about who could stay for the therapy time. One had been to the parents’ meeting and knew we asked to limit attendance to one family member per session, because of the number of people in the gym at one time and to prevent other children from being distracted. The other parent did not. I am grateful our rehabilitation promoter resolved the issue before it escalated. It proved that actions do speak louder than words. This video has produced more results than the reading and reviewing of the guidelines in previous years.