February 2015 Playa Del Carmen, Mexico

Cycling to raise funds for dog therapy at the Integral Care Center Objective Participate in a 30km cycle challenge to raise funds to support our partners at the Integral Care Center to implement weekly dog therapy sessions. Summary On the 27th of February volunteers participated in the Tour de Tulum 2. A 30km bike chal-lenge through the Mexican jungle. Community volunteers participated in this event in order to raise funds to support our partner organization, The Integral Care Center, to provide weekly dog therapy sessions for the children and adults that attend the Special Needs School. Due to the amazing generosity of volunteers, family and friends enough money has been raised to fund over seven months of this highly valuable therapy. Report The Integral Care Centre is a current partner organization supported by GVI Mexico. It was formed on March 18th 2008 by a group of concerned parents who support children with disabilities. They wanted to ensure their children’s physical and mental needs were being met through reha-bilitation and therapy, thus improving their quality of life.1 The center currently runs a Special Needs School, five days a week, which is attended by several children and adults with a range of disabilities from Down syndrome to cerebral palsy. It provides important physical, sensory, cognitive learning and speech therapies for their attendees. Equine therapy sessions are also run twice a week where the children perform a number of exercises on horseback. Equine therapy helps the children improve balance, coordination, muscle tone, self-esteem, concentration and attention.2 This year the Integral Care Center is endeavoring to extend its current program by also providing dog therapy once a week. Dog therapy, a type of animal assisted therapy, is shown to have many benefits, particularly for people with disabilities. Dogs have been providing comfort and assistance to humans since the beginning of recorded history.3 However the official origins of dog therapy date

1 http://ceai.org.mx/ 2 http://www.asocequinoterapia.org/english/Beneficios.htm 3 http://dogs.about.com/od/workingdogs/p/therapy_dogs.htm

Figure 1: Volunteers assisting a dog therapy session at the Integral Care Centre to see the benefits of the fundraising.

GVI.2015.1

back to World War II where dogs were used in hospital wards to provide comfort and cheer to wounded soldiers’.4 Patient improvements seen in these early instances lead to the bene-fits of dog therapy being studied and its use expanded with growing evidence supporting its continued use. Dog therapy is now used in not just hospitals but also in retirement homes, nursing homes, schools, hospices, disaster areas and to assist people with disabilities.

Dog therapy aims to im-prove individuals social, emotional or cognitive functioning. The dogs provide comfort and sup-port to patients. They are a motivational tool help-ing individuals to build confidence, improve as-sisted or independent movement, improve mo-tor skills, build self-esteem, decrease anxiety and loneliness, increase verbal communication, develop social skills, im-prove interactions with others and motivate a willingness to participate and engage.5 In the case

of The Integral Care Centre the dog ‘Morgan’ attends weekly with two handlers who facilitate a number of activities that foster learning and physical development. The smiles on the chil-dren’s faces during this time are the true indicator of just how beneficial this treatment is. The Integral Care Centre is funded entirely by donations and fundraising. GVI has therefore offered to donate funds to cover the cost of the weekly dog therapy sessions. In order to raise this money vol-unteers participated in the Tour de Tulum 2. A 30km bike challenge through the Mexican Jungle from Pez Maya (GVI’s marine conservation expedition base lo-cated inside the Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve) to Tulum. Volunteers initially set a target of raising enough money in this event to cover first three months of this therapy, with the intention to later partici-pate in further events to raise additional funds. However due to the amazing gen-erosity of volunteers family and friends the initial goal was surpassed and extended on several occasions. On the 27th of February volunteers participated in the Tour de Tulum 2. They turned up ready for a hot and sweaty day but were instead confronted with a torrential down pore. De-

4 http://www.njpetcommunity.com/pets-life/history-of-smoky-the-first-therapy-dog/ 5 http://www.healthline.com/health/pet-therapy#Effects2

Figure 2: A dog therapy session in action at the Integral Care Centre.

Figure 3: Tired and wet volunteers celebrating after complet-ing the Tour de Tulum 2

GVI.2015.1

spite the weather volunteers had a fantastic time. Completing not only a 30km bike ride through the mud and rain but also a number of challenges along the way including eating insect tacos. Upon completion volunteers sense of achievement was enhanced by the fact that all their efforts were helping kids with disabilities. As a result of their fantastic work, and the incredible generosity of family and friends, volunteers have currently raised enough to cover over seven months of dog therapy at The Integral Care Center. However donations are still being accepted so this figure could continue to rise. Great job everyone!! For more information about the Health Care project please visit: http://www.gvi.co.uk/programs/volunteer-health-project-mexico/ References http://ceai.org.mx/ http://www.asocequinoterapia.org/english/Beneficios.htm http://dogs.about.com/od/workingdogs/p/therapy_dogs.htm http://www.njpetcommunity.com/pets-life/history-of-smoky-the-first-therapy-dog/ http://www.healthline.com/health/pet-therapy#Effects2

GVI.2015.1