CUA Counseling Center’s Kavita Avula poses with children at the Aldea Infantil Juan Pablo II orphanage in Peru.

This past spring break, the CUA Counseling Center’s Kavita Avula, Psy.D., traveled to South America — but it wasn’t to soak up the sun as a tourist. The psychologist was making her second trip in four months to a Peruvian orphanage to volunteer her clinical expertise. 

Avula is a native of India and fluent in Spanish and Italian. Her interest in international psychology has prompted her to do fieldwork in Spain, Holland, Italy and Peru as a psychologist, providing short-term counseling and offering consultation and advice to health care workers. 

She first visited the small orphanage of Aldea Infantil Juan Pablo II last December to provide psychological consultation to its staff. Kavula had felt a strong desire to visit South America, in part because it was a region where she had little clinical experience. In advance of the winter break, she wrote to orphanages and organizations in several countries, introducing herself and offering her services. When she heard back from a psychologist in Cuzco, Peru, Avula packed her bags. At Aldea she found a center for children ranging in age from 3 months to 17 years, with most of the orphans between ages 3 and 8.

Avula was so moved by her December experience in Cuzco that she returned home and created Proyecto Cusco, an interdisciplinary clinical team geared toward providing further financial, medical and counseling support for the orphanage. A group of advisers and fundraisers — including CUA counseling center staff Megan Kerbs, Psy.D., Monroe Rayburn, Ph.D., and intern Sarah Johnson — helped Avula plan for her return to the orphanage over spring break. The psychologist arrived laden with medical supplies, shoes and other items for the children, and educational training plans for psychologists in Cuzco. One of her main goals for the trip was to promote the need for better hygiene and nutrition.

“They are the most loving, caring children I have ever encountered,” Avula says of the Aldea orphans. “You walk in the door and they hug you. They’re extremely open to taking in whatever affection, care and support they can get.”

Children at the orphanage received new shoes donated by CUA employees.

Aldea’s philosophy is to recreate a family environment for the orphans by employing women who work as mamitas, or surrogate mothers, to the children. Each mamita lives with about seven children in a casita, or little house. The substitute family approach was created to mitigate feelings of loss and abandonment so commonly experienced by orphans — the children even call each other brothers and sisters.

Yet, while this approach may promote a healthier atmosphere for the orphans, it can create a tremendous amount of stress and strain on the mamitas. The substitute mothers live at the orphanage and work seven days a week, 24 hours a day, with no break, very few resources and no one to talk to about the difficulties of the job. In addition, they see their own biological families only every eighth day. 

After observing conditions in the orphanage during her December visit, Avula realized that at least one mamita was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after the sudden and unexpected death of one of her infant wards. The caretaker had never spoken about the incident but was visibly depressed, experiencing flashbacks, nightmares and insomnia. After just one session with Avula, the caretaker displayed a marked improvement in her attitude and well-being. Avula says that most mamitas had never had a chance to experience therapy in a confidential setting. Their contracts are renewed every three months, which means they are extremely mindful that what they reveal may influence whether they have a job in a few weeks.

“Upon entering the Aldea, I feared that, due to the strong stigma attached to receiving psychological services, the mothers might avoid me,” Avula recalls. “But during my first day, I was booked back-to-back all day! The most amazing aspect was that after a one-time meeting, these women were reporting that their symptoms that had lasted for months had diminished and, in some cases, disappeared.”

For Avula, who is used to meeting with patients on a weekly basis for a year or more, such a psychological turnaround seemed amazing. She says it speaks to the paucity of resources that exist at Aldea and a general thirst for therapy among the staff.

Avula with her godson Jael whom she met while visiting Aldea.

During her two visits, the CUA psychologist bonded with one boy in particular: Jael, a 3-year-old with, as Avula describes him, “big bright eyes, a winning smile and killer charm.” When she first met the boy during her December visit, Jael had only recently arrived at the orphanage with his two siblings, following the death of their mother to stomach cancer. After a tense start, a special relationship quickly formed between the pair and, during her second visit, Avula made the commitment to be Jael’s godmother, or madrina. Her role in Jael’s life will be to provide both emotional and financial support as he grows, assisting with medical and educational expenses and maintaining a written correspondence.

For Avula, returning to the orphanage is a question of when, not if. Several colleagues have already volunteered to make the return trip, likely in the next academic year. She will check in on a staff support group formed during her most recent visit. Avula will also accompany the staff psychologist to the countryside to visit impoverished Peruvians who live in the mountains and who are in dire need of mental health support.

Avula’s next planned trip is to Spain; however, this one is intended solely for rest and relaxation. After two emotional and exhausting service trips to Aldea and many more on the horizon, the counselor says she could use the R&R.