Travel & GIVES Telehealth Program

The problem we are solving is the inaccessibility of therapeutic interventions and specialized education for individuals living with disabilities in countries where stigmas prevent inclusivity and hinder academic and social growth of the individual.  In Haiti and Kenya, children with disabilities are labeled as karma for the parents’ wrong doings and consequently shunned from the typical community. Many villages believe that a person’s disability is contagious, and therefore they avoid interactions, limit social and educational opportunities, and in turn isolate the child.  Families feel shame in identifying a child with a disability, or label them as poorly behaved, rather than providing them with necessary support to promote the highest level of independence possible. 

Our partner locations have limited to no licensed service professionals to address the disparity in education and therapeutic intervention. These children are disadvantaged because they are not exposed to environments that elicit their language, fine motor, gross motor skills and address their mental health state at an early age. Related health services such as speech, occupational therapy, and mental health services are not common professions in Haiti or Kenya.

While allied health services are valued and understood in well-developed and diverse countries, globally this is not the case.  According to the 2019 census, 2.2% of Kenyans live with some form of disability. Further exploring this population, 42% of those with disabilities experience mobility related challenges, while seeing, hearing, cognition, self-care, and communication range from 12 to 36%. In Haiti, around 800,000 individuals in a population of 8 million live with physical disabilities.  Across the world, approximately 15% of the population experience some level of disability.  Those with disabilities are more likely to experience adverse socioeconomic outcomes than persons without disabilities. In both Haiti and Kenya, there are limited to no resources and therapeutic services for people living with physical and communication disabilities. 

Travel & GIVE’s (TAG) Telehealth program is run by licensed professionals to provide support in the areas of special education, speech, occupational and physical therapies, audiology, behavior management, and mental health services via online services for our partner orphanages and schools that do not have access to these necessary services due to their socioeconomic status or location. In addition to supporting the staff at our partner orphanages and schools, parents and local educational leaders are invited to access the Telehealth program in order to gain understanding and promote critical targeted child developmental instructions and stimulation, and advocate for individuals with developmental delays. 

Our partners have access to professional development courses and direct communication provided by the licensed professionals of TAG via GoogleDrive. Our Haitian and Kenyan partners are educated by TAG professionals on how to identify children who would benefit from the Telehealth program. Through collaborative efforts, an intake form is completed on the selected child or group of children, and intervention plans are created based on the needs of the child. From there, our partners are trained on how to provide therapeutic services to help children obtain goals via GoogleDrive, video sessions shared on Whatsapp, and meetings via Google meets. Each selected client within the program has a developmental goal to reach within one year of receiving therapy from a local staff member supervised by a TAG professional volunteer. Via this innovative Telehealth program, children in rural areas of Haiti and Kenya now have access to quality therapy services and educators are learning new skill sets that can be taught to others, thus creating a self-sustainable community. In addition, services early in these children’s life development promotes necessary life skills and decreases the socioeconomic struggles in these already underserved communities.

Since 2017, we have partnered with schools and orphanages in Haiti and Kenya that service a number of children with physical anomalies and developmental delays. Our program directly supports the staff within the organizations we’ve partnered with, the children they care for, as well as parents of children with disabilities, and in-country allied health professionals. With this Telehealth program, educators and caregiver staff receive direct training from licensed professional volunteers, gain access to educational workshops for parents, mentorship and collaboration with in-country service professionals. The Telehealth program allows educators and caregiver staff to be trained in implementation and maintenance of education strategies and therapeutic support outlined in individual treatment plans.  This gives individuals with disabilities access to equitable educational and therapeutic support as well as social inclusion.  Travel & GIVE’s Telehealth program brings collaboration between US licensed professionals and in-country professionals. This helps to decrease the lack of clinical mentorship currently received in the country, integrate cultural considerations within education and therapeutic approaches, and elicit sustainability of learned skills by all stakeholders which will improve the capacity for more individuals to receive necessary supports.

Martine Harris is founder and president of Travel & GIVE (TAG).  Martine is a Haitian-American, with strong connections to her Haitian roots. At 10 years old, Martine’s 16 year old cousin, Jean-Bernard, who was deaf, was adopted by Martine’s mother and relocated to the United States in hopes he would live a more fulfilling life since there were limited to no educational services available to him in Haiti.  In the United States, he thrived through access to quality therapeutic services which focused on promotion of independence and autonomy. In 2009 Martine returned to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, to work as an English teacher.  During her tenure as a teacher, Martine identified barriers to success and limited resources for children with disabilities in the Haitian community.  In 2010, a devastating earthquake impacted Haiti, and disability numbers greatly increased, while allied health services did not.  Fueled by the lack of accessibility and misinformation surrounding disabilities in Haiti, Martine founded Travel & GIVE to promote inclusivity and understanding of disability, to allow more children thrive within their own community.  

Travel & GIVE's (TAG) executive team is composed of allied health professionals (speech language pathologists and occupational therapists) who are active participants of their professional communities as providers, leaders, and educators.  The greater team consists of physical therapists, mental health professionals, audiologists, and other skilled professionals actively working to create change.  Representation matters.  When children learn from people who look like them, they are not only able to relate more easily, they also build self-confidence and long term goals.  TAG’s team is composed of a diverse, largely minority individuals providing role mentorship for children receiving services who they can relate to and learn from.

During the initial stages of planning and development, collaborative meetings are held with partner organizations to identify areas of concern and develop implementation plans to best meet the unique needs of the facilities.  Needs assessments are completed by the partners ad-hoc through each discipline to identify children’s’ specific areas of impairment, establish mutually agreed upon goals, and establish and provide interventions.  Communication between Travel & GIVE and partner organizations in Haiti and Kenya is available through various platforms: telephone, video-calls, Whatsapp, e-mail, and a shared cloud drive.  Annually, TAG volunteers perform site visits to engage directly with staff members and children at the partner organizations to build a culture of mutual respect and inclusivity. To promote autonomy in the respective communities, TAG has extended communication with some of the limited allied health professionals in the areas, and seeks to empower and collaborate with them to continue to develop our professions.

The mission statement of SOLVE directly relates to and supports to the mission and vision of TAG. TAG’s outcomes for these identified communities and populations  would create the type of program development that Solve seeks to establish in the world. 

In order to continue meeting the needs of our partners and their communities abroad, TAG requires substantial support.  Technical barriers include a lack of physical supplies such as computers/tablets, inefficient or inconsistent internet access, partners’ limited knowledge on navigating platforms utilized, and lack of accessibility to IT support within their communities when problems arise.  Financial barriers include: cost of reliable internet services at our partner locations, cost for children enrolled in the Telehealth program to maintain school tuition and stay enrolled in the Telehealth program, cost to contract with local professionals to support local autonomy, and the cost of travel/lodging for TAG team members to provide semi-annual in-person professional development and program reviews.  Culturally, children with disabilities lack access to quality therapeutic and educational services, and our targeted population lacks the advocacy needed to create change. In both Kenya and Haiti, there is no legislation requiring equal accessibility to education for children with special needs as their typically developing peers. As an organization, TAG requires guidance on data collection, marketing, donor engagement, and an overall growth of our network starting with simply getting a seat at the table.

Through Solve, TAG will have access to a network with a variety of skill-sets and knowledge that will allow us to further build our program and face challenges with a solution-focused approach.  Solve will provide our executive team with proper mentorship and coaching to grow our skills internally, and improve our ability to function autonomously.  Through partnerships with other Solvers, we hope to improve our visibility, obtain and maintain funding through grants and other revenue sources, improve organization structure, and impact the lives and rights of children with disabilities globally.

While many not for profits with similar missions seek to provide support to underserved communities globally, the provision of these services has always been limited to direct in-person time, which prevents carry over, and leaves recipients of services without a feasible way to continue when the organizations depart.  TAG has identified the lack of carry over and trauma that is potentially induced in children who are recipients of such services.  Children and staff build emotional and professional relationships with volunteers who render services and support while present, and are then often left with anxiety, mistrust, and an inability to maintain continuity once volunteers leave.  Many organizations return only annually, and transfer of knowledge is almost non-existent due to the minimal training opportunities.  TAG’s Telehealth program utilizes technology as an innovative approach to maintain flow of communication and build trust with partners .  In the United States, provision of tele-services has grown especially throughout the pandemic, however little has grown internationally. TAG’s Telehealth program utilizes multiple aspects of GoogleSuite, as well as WhatsApp, to provide continuous professional development to staff at our partner schools and orphanages. TAG is providing services that make a difference in the lives of the children and the Haitian and Kenyan partners by using technology to overcome the costs of the traditional services models that have been in place for many years.Along with professional development opportunities, licensed clinical professionals can guide interventions in real-time through videos of children’s skills, and return demonstrations from professionals.  This guidance will allow for autonomy at our partner organizations, and allow them to generalize skills to other children in their care. 

Along with empowering our partners and improving communication and carry over of skills, utilizing a shared cloud drive and continuous, reliant communication, we are able to build a trusting relationship with our partners, and our in-person visits will have a greater impact since these will no longer be barriers to information sharing.  We have met with local professionals (occupational and speech therapists), and will incorporate them into our programing, to improve the visibility of allied health professionals locally as well. This improved visibility and sharing of knowledge will allow greater access to therapy services for children not only at our partner schools, but within their greater communities. 

Within our first pilot year of the Telehealth program, TAG is providing therapeutic services to 3-5 children at each of our 4 partner organizations in Haiti and Kenya.  TAG provides monthly virtual professional development courses and at least 4 parent-centered trainings to improve accessibility and knowledge of disabilities and treatment plans.

It is TAG’s goal that within 5 years, keeping in alignment with Haiti and Kenya’s country goals to improve the lives of individuals with disabilities, our program will expand parent, educator and caregiver education on disabilities with semi-annual in person workshops and training. The Telehealth program will provide support for direct educator-led therapeutic interventions with support from licensed professionals and local professional collaboration, leading to a sustainable intervention program that allows for annual growth of 25% for individuals at each partner site having access to ongoing educational and therapeutic support that ensures the country’s goals of autonomy of education and independence.

TAG consists of allied health professionals who are trained in current U.S. healthcare documentation practices. TAG health professional representatives establish objective, measurable short term and long term goals that accurately documents the progress of each child’s development.

Currently, the Telehealth program is supporting 4 partner organizations in Haiti and Kenya; in the pilot year, each organization has assigned 3-5 clients presenting with learning delays to receive support from TAG.  Each client within the program has a developmental goal to reach within one year of receiving therapy from a local staff member supervised by a Travel & GIVE professional volunteer. Local staff are taught to collect data over the child’s progress using unique data tracking sheets to collect client progress over the length of intervention. This data is analyzed collaboratively throughout the year to track clients’ progress, weigh the success of the program, and modify intervention plans as needed to maximize outcomes. In addition, we measure impact goals and success by providing feedback forms and satisfaction surveys for our partners to fill out on a quarterly basis.  When in-person visits are performed, partners and attendees will complete surveys which assess pre and post skills, as well as provide input on overall satisfaction.  In regards to overall growth, Travel & GIVE will track the number of clients enrolled annually, as well as additional partners added to the program after the pilot year. 

Through collaborative efforts in developing intervention plans for the identified children that would enhance their life development and providing consistent, practical inservices for the adults interacting with these children, TAG believes that these positive interactions will change the perceptions and expectations of children with developmental delays. These informational exchanges and therapeutic interventions provided through Telehealth delivery will support consistent communication for those interacting with individuals with developmental delays.

By implementing the Telehealth program, we will immediately provide therapeutic and special education  resources which our partners did not have access to previously.  The children enrolled in our pilot year of the Telehealth program will have short-term immediate positive outcomes by receiving therapeutic and educational interventions which will immediately improve their ability to function.  The educators and caretakers who participate in the Telehealth program will improve their fund of knowledge, allowing them to impact and create positive change for other children with disabilities that they serve.  

During our visit to our partner organizations in Kenya in March of 2022, we interviewed various parents, educators, caretakers, and professionals.  They shared with us the excitement they have to finally have access to quality therapeutic services for their children.  They also shared stories of neglect and abandonment of children with disabilities due to negative stigmas surrounding them.  They voiced the positive changes that will come at low and high levels throughout Nairobi due to Travel & GIVE’s Telehealth program.  According to our surveys that were provided to caregivers and parents following collaborative in-person sessions, attendees reported an increase in understanding of disabilities and needs. 

By communicating with the limited local allied health professionals and encouraging their participation with our partners locally, we can promote long-term change by helping them to develop skills to more-successfully work with children with disabilities across their community.  Our partnership with local professionals will help us to advocate for disability rights and the allied health professions within those communities, hopefully creating legislation mandating the availability of quality therapeutic services to children with disabilities. 

TAG's telehealth program utilizes the GoogleSuite cloud-based platform as the primary delivery method for a multitude of resources to our partners.  In addition to GoogleSuite (GoogleDrive, GoogleDocs, GoogleForms, etc.), we utilize audio/video applications to create professional development series, model therapeutic/educational interventions, and provide program support viewable to our partners’ at their convenience.  For live communication, we utilize GoogleMeet as well as WhatsApp for direct messaging and clarity of videos.  These platforms allow for easy collaboration and sharing of information between Travel & GIVE and our partners abroad. 

The core of Travel & GIVE’s mission is to provide education and therapeutic services to better support children with disabilities and help to dispel stigmas and discriminatory practices against them.  This same focus on diversity, equity and inclusion is carried throughout our leadership team which is primarily minority-women led. As the TAG team is actively growing, the focus on maintaining and growing our diverse team has continued.  TAG members have presented at professional conferences targeting diverse members of allied health professions (such as National Black Association for Speech-Language and Hearing), while emphasizing the need for volunteers from a variety of cultural backgrounds and gender identifications. We are continuous in our outreach efforts to create partnerships with universities to bring undergraduate and graduate students on board who come from diverse backgrounds. We hire in-country locals to be a part of the team as translators and accompany volunteers on site visits. Once on-boarded, volunteers and/or consultants for the organization are incorporated into team meetings at all levels, promoting open communication and emphasizing the value they hold in TAG’s future and growth potential. TAG promotes an inclusive workforce in which every individual can feel valued to provide input and promote change.  Semi-annual performance reviews are completed with all members of the team, from volunteers up to executive team members.  Reviews are a collaborative effort where individuals have the opportunity to identify goals, discuss opportunities for growth, and strengthen overall investment in the mission and team. 

The initial business model of the Telehealth program is a combination of free trial and open-source business model as we obtain data for the first 2 years to track the success of the program. Currently, our staff is volunteer-based which allows for us to provide the program at no cost to our partners. Via the open-source model, the program continues to be free to our partners as we rely on our donors, fundraisers, and crowdfunding campaigns to cover costs for translations, management of the platform, and site visits. After 2 years of the success of the program and as we grow on a global scale, we will transition to a combined subscription business model + open-source model where continuous financial support from crowdfunding and donors will offset costs of the program for our partners as they will pay an annual fee of only $1,500.

We receive funding through committed individual donors and corporate sponsorship through special events. In efforts to become self-sufficient, we have developed a development strategy focused on diversifying our funding through foundations, corporate partnerships, government funding, and major gifts. We are also expanding our board of directors, which already includes a sub-committee for fundraising - which oversees grant applications, major gift donor outreach, special events, capital campaigns, and corporate partnerships.

We have been able to garner funding in a variety of ways. We currently have reoccurring individual donors connected to matching gift programs at their corporations. We have special event fundraisers each quarter, one being our annual gala. Prior to COVID, we raised a total of $31,000 in special events and donor contributions in 2019 alone. In 2021, we raised around $26,000 through special events, and a sum of $54,000 including recurring donors and matching gift programs.