Medicine & Physiotherapy - SRI LANKA Volunteer Stories

Physiotherapy in Sri Lanka - Chloe Paddock

My name is Chloe and I spent a month in Sri Lanka as a physiotherapy volunteer. It was a brilliant and interesting experience!

I was very lucky to have a lovely host family and a good group of other volunteers where I was based in Karapitiya (Galle). I originally went out with two friends from my course but met loads of other people out in Sri Lanka. For a start everyone in Sri Lanka is very friendly although you had to get used to everyone staring at you because you were white..but it's funny more than anything. The country is also beautiful and green and you get used to the very hot weather (I had to shower three times a day I swear), which is broken up with heavy falls of rain.

I worked in the hospital for two weeks and then spent two weeks in the Southern Centre for the disabled which is a centre for amputees. The two placements were quite the contrast to each other! The southern centre is newly built after the tsunami and is clean and up to date whereas the hospital has been there for a long time and some of the equipment is outdated. I enjoyed both placements because I learnt different things from them both.

In the hospitals out patient's department where I worked you could get any type of patient coming in, from babies to stroke patients to shoulder pain patients. This meant you had to use all of your physiotherapy knowledge. The hospital is also really busy with some physiotherapists treating three patients at a time, which did get a little confusing! The senior physiotherapist was very good and spent time with us and did some teaching with us. I treated so many babies which is something I had never done back home.

In the southern centre everything was much more laid back and you could spend as long as you wanted with the patients. It was also really rewarding because me and the other physiotherapist, Sam got to see some of our patients progress to walking with out any aids. The physiotherapists were also really friendly here and made us feel part of the team.

The weekends were for travelling, and although I was only there for a month I got to see most of what I wanted. We were lucky to be living by Unawatuna Beach which is beautiful and also the location of a very tasty rotti shop (which I spent far too much time in). We also got to sample the local brew which is called arrack.

I also took part in an outreach programme where we all painted some of Panadura hospital. It was great fun which may have been due to the fact I was high on the paint fumes.. But anyway I saw so many amazing things; there is just not enough time to write about them. All I can say is thank you to Projects Abroad for arranging such a wonderful experience and to those who are going out to Sri Lanka enjoy it and eat lots of rotti!


Chloe Paddock

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