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KIVALLIQ
A physiotherapist who worked in the Kivalliq for three and a half years says the experience she gained here helped her while working in Haiti for six months this year.

Brooke McKenzie, a physiotherapist who worked in the Kivalliq region with the Northern Medical Unit from 2002 to 2005, was in Haiti this summer working with Handicap International. With her in the photo is Martine, a young girl who would visit the rehab centre McKenzie worked in. - photo courtesy of Brooke McKenzie

"When I was working in Rankin, I had to be able to handle whatever came through the door and be able to find the resources that I needed. It was the same in Haiti," said Brooke McKenzie, who now works in Whitehorse.

McKenzie arrived in Haiti a year after the devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake that flattened the country Jan. 12, 2010.

While there, the 31-year-old worked with Handicap International to help rehabilitate amputees. McKenzie was part of a mobile team that travelled to communities for follow-up appointments with patients who had previously visited the rehabilitation centre in Port Au Price, the country's capital city.

While visiting the patients, she had her team - a translator, rehab assistant and technical assistant - see if the patient was ready to wear their prosthetic at home. Part of that was evaluating the accessibility of their home or immediate environment, something McKenzie had learned to do while living and working in the Kivalliq from 2002 to 2005.

"(Like) in Rankin, walking down a street with gravel or a huge incline, sometimes can cause an accessibility issue, so I had those skills in my toolbox already (when I went to Haiti), as far as being able to evaluate the environment and come up with ideas without having resources or being able to change the environment.

"And being able to think on my feet and be like, 'OK. This is what I know about this situation. This is your problem. What can we do to problem solve it?'"

She said the flexibility and resourcefulness she picked up while working with the Northern Medical Unit was invaluable.

McKenzie graduated from the University of Manitoba with a bachelor of medical rehabilitation in physiotherapy in 2002.

In her last year of the program, she came to Rankin for an eight-week placement, which later led to her applying for a permanent job with the Northern Medical Unit.

"I was thinking I would stay a year or two years and I stayed three and a half," she said. "I loved the community involvement that I got in Rankin.

"And I love working in the communities and to see the whole picture of a client, which I got to do a lot when I was in the Kivalliq."

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