One Mother Saving Another

 Abnormal.  Those were the results of the pap smear that María Isidra Calderón got in November.

Maria Isidra with newborn grandson Cesar

“I was scared, I thought I had cancer that couldn’t be treated,” she says, holding her newborn grandson César Joseph who’s just come home from his first well-child check.

After she got the results, the Nueva Vida Clinic’s health promoter Jessenia paid María Isidra a visit. “Jessenia told me that all of us who had abnormal results would be going to a clinic in Managua, and we all went together.  I was nervous, but the doctor explained everything to me.  And thanks to God, I’m okay now.”  María Isidra was one the first women to participate in the Nueva Vida Clinic’s new cancer prevention and detection program.

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in Nicaraguan women – two women are diagnosed in the country each day – and Nicaragua has more cervical cancer than any other country in Latin America except Haiti. 

Health promoter Jessenia during home visit

No woman should die of cervical cancer.  If it’s caught early, it’s easily treatable.  It’s caught early by going for regular pap smears that are read quickly and with timely follow-up for abnormal results.  Unfortunately, most Nicaraguan women don’t go for regular exams.  By the time they suspect something is wrong, they can wait months for pap results, and follow up for abnormal results might be scheduled months down the road. Cervical cancer kills more women in Nicaragua than any other cancer. 

That’s why we’ve started the Women’s Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Program at the Nueva Vida Clinic. Here’s what the program does: 

•  Educates women about breast cancer and cervical cancer 
• Teaches women how to do breast self-exams 
•  Takes 30 women each month to the Ortiz Gurdián Foundation for mammograms 
• Encourages women to come to the Clinic to have pap smears 
•  Sends the paps to a private lab for quick turn-around (under 2 weeks) 
•  Women with abnormal results are accompanied by the health promoter to the to remove precancerous lesions, perform directed biopsies and for regular follow-up appointments 
•  Since November, the Clinic has taken 96 pap smears of which 8 have come back with abnormal results. Seven have been given a clean bill of health and scheduled for regular follow up exams; one has been scheduled for a hysterectomy. 
•  Since March, 34 women have had mammograms, one had abnormal results and is scheduled for minor surgery this month.

Maria Isidra with daughters Ana & Marielis & grandson Cesar

Everywhere in the world, mothers put their children’s health above their own. They’ll take time off work to take their kids to the doctor, but their own complaints go untreated. María Isidra was no different. Her youngest daughter Marielis has epilepsy and needed constant supervision…she now gets her medication regularly from the Nueva Vida Clinic’s chronic illness program, and her epilepsy is under control.  María Isidra’s oldest daughter Ana Carolina is 19 and gave birth to her first son César last month. She now participates in the Clinic’s New Mothers Program.

Luckily for María Isidra’s family, she took the time to look after her own health – she’s been to four follow-up appointments and each time has been given a clean bill of health. “I’m happy,” she says rocking little César.  “Now I can look after my family.”

One Mother Saving Another…this Mother's Day give a gift in honor of your mother to the Nueva Vida Clinic’s new Women’s Cancer Program.  Donate $25 to the program in honor of your mother and we’ll send her a beautiful e-card.  (Please email your name and her name & email address to becca@jhc-cdca.org)  

Happy Mother’s Day!

-Becca

The Fundraising Game

Fundraising is a game.  I know this because I receive emails from nonprofit networks that tell me so.  I get invitations to webinars on how to write a subject line that will guarantee people open it, I get told you have to ask seven times before someone will give, I get told that pictures of little boys get people to donate more than pictures of little girls.

Well, I’m sick of it.  I’m not good at playing games with people’s emotions.  I hate the subtle manipulation of heart-strings that tries to inspire donors to give without coming right out and asking.  And I hate asking.  I just want to talk to our supporters like they were sitting right in front of me, but all this fundraising game-playing is a wall between us. 

What would happen if I broke down that wall? 

Here’s what I’d really like to tell the supporters of the JHC-CDCA:

Remember us?  You built houses after Hurricane Mitch/sat on our porch in Nicaragua with a group of students/met me when I spoke at your church/found us online and were so impressed with our projects. Remember?

You’ve been busy. You get a whole inbox of emails every day asking you to sign petitions, donate now, watch this video, read another joke about growing old.  I know, I get them too. You’ve got a lot on your plate – your family, your job, your finances, the good work you do in your own community – you’re overwhelmed.  I know, I am too.

You don’t have time to play games, and I don’t either.  You don’t want to be manipulated, and I don’t want to manipulate you.  I just want to tell you one thing:

I believe in what we’re doing at the JHC-CDCA.

I get up in the morning and I’m excited to get to work.  I honestly can’t believe all that we’re doing:

• 3,000 farmers have good markets for their crops thanks to our work
• 20 people are working full time processing organic cotton thanks to our work
• 8 women got treatment for early stages of cervical cancer and dozens more have got a clean bill of health just this year, thanks to our work
• 35 new moms have the support they need to breastfeed their babies and keep them healthy thanks to our work

And we’ve got so much more in the pipeline.  I go to sleep at night dreaming of all we can do.

We’re doing it together with the community.  One of the few rules we live by in our work is that we don’t tell the folks we work with what they need, we ask them what they need, and help them work to reach their own goals.  Today, we’re in better communication with the communities we work with than we have been in a long time – they are better organized, more motivated and they’re keeping us on our toes.  It’s working.

It’s not perfect.  It never is.  We have setbacks.  We spend a lot of time waiting.  Some things just plain fall through.  But I can promise you one thing: when it all goes to hell in a hand basket, we’ll tell you about it.  We’ll talk about why it didn’t work, and we’ll try not to make the same mistakes twice (not when there are so many new ones to make!).  I want you to see us for who we are, warts and all. 

We can do so much more. Every day we get requests from people that we can’t fulfill.  Every day a new possibility to do good arises, and most of the time we don’t have enough money to do the good things that need doing.

It’s not always sexy. Here’s something that nobody wants to hear, something that kills a good fundraising mood: we just have to do some things that are absolutely boring.  Pay the electric bill.  Put toner in the photocopier.  Change the oil on a car.  Fumigate for mosquitoes. Repair a washing machine.  I can’t fundraise for that.  I can’t make it exciting.  But unless we do these mundane things, we can’t do all the sexy things that look good in glossy photos.

Here’s the truth:  I know you don’t have much.  But you might have a little extra.  If you do, we surely need it.  We will not waste your money.  We will stretch your dollar further than just about anybody else can.  

You can help us do good. 

We need your help. 

Please give us everything you can spare, and then some. Thank you. – Becca

¡Martha Arriaza, Presente!

Photo: Reynolds Risseeuw

Martha Arriaza, singer, songwriter and soul of the group Guitarra de Madera Azul died Thursday night after a long battle with cervical cancer.  There were tributes on radio, television, at her wake and at her funeral – Martha was well-loved.  She was the life of any concert, bantering and flirting with the crowd, endearing herself to all by mixing up songwriter’s names in her passion to talk about their music.  But when Martha opened her mouth and unleashed her voice, she sent chills of rapture up every spine in the room.

Martha was extraordinary.

But cancer that killed her is all too ordinary. 

Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in Nicaraguan women – two women are diagnosed in the country each day – and Nicaragua has more cervical cancer than any other country in Latin America except Haiti.  Of the nearly 100 pap smears we’ve taken at our Clinic in Nueva Vida since beginning our new cervical cancer prevention and detection program in November, 8 have come back with abnormal results.

***

Photo: Carl Agsten Jr.

In September– seven months after she’d been given six months to live – Martha told the crowd at a concert, “I have terminal cancer.”  The crowd gave a collective gasp.  Martha then raised her fist in the air and shouted, “But I’m still fighting!” The crowd went wild and Martha slung her kidney drain bag over her shoulder and gave an incredible performance.

Martha fought like a warrior.

But the cancer that killed her fought back.

No woman should die of cervical cancer.  If it’s caught early, it’s easily treatable.  It’s caught early by going for regular pap smears that are read quickly and with timely follow-up for abnormal results.  Most women in Nicaragua don’t go for regular pap smears, saving what little cash they can spare for health care on the children in their family.  By the time follow up is necessary, they’re too scared and too broke to follow up.  Poor women die of cancer in Nicaragua.

***

Photo: Reynolds Risseeuw

Martha knew something was wrong inside her body, but even her insistence to doctors that something wasn’t right only led to misdiagnosis and confusion for too long.  Her story is echoed in public hospitals across the country – when Martha finally got a pap smear and the abnormal results came back months later, she was told not to worry and scheduled for a follow up appointment months down the road.  Although Martha didn’t have many economic resources, her music and personality had endeared her to people high up – flowers at her funeral were sent from an alphabet soup of government institutions and big names. 

Martha was loved by people with connections.   

But the cancer that killed her couldn’t be stopped by all the connections in the world by the time she finally found out what was wrong with her. 

In the public health system in Nicaragua, even women who discover their cancer early struggle to be treated in time.  While accompanying Martha in the final agonizing stages of her cancer, 6 of the 65 paps taken at the Nueva Vida Clinic in November came back abnormal, and it felt to us like referring those women – including one of the young moms from our new mother’s program– into the public system would be tantamount to throwing them to the wolves.  We looked for another solution, and were able to make a connection that did make a difference.  Just a month after going in for their pap smears, our health promoter Jessenia took those women in to the Ortiz Gurdián Foundation for directed biopsies and colposcopies.  In January they were all given a clean bill of health and scheduled for follow up exams in a few months.

***

Abril singing at a benefit concert for Martha

Photo: Carl Agsten Jr.

Martha fought so hard because she couldn’t give up on the life she loved so much, and especially because she couldn’t leave her daughter whom she loved more than life itself.  At her funeral, Martha’s daughter Abril, who will be 11 next month, kicked off the musical tributes to Martha by getting up on stage and telling about her mom’s last moments.  Then she unleashed her own voice, and sent the street filled with people to its knees as she shared her private grief and evoked her mom’s public persona.  She told the crowd, “I’m going to follow in her footsteps.”

In the first world, girls of Abril’s generation won’t die of cervical cancer. 

There is now a vaccine against human papilloma virus (HPV), the virus that causes cervical cancer.  Girls and boys Abril’s age in the U.S. are routinely vaccinated against HPV, and deaths from cervical cancer are now a rarity there.

In Nicaragua, girls of Abril’s generation aren’t safe from cervical cancer.

The HPV vaccine still isn’t available in the Nicaraguan public health system, upon which the vast majority of the country relies.  The vaccine is available through private doctors and a bureaucratic paper trail, but the combined cost of the 3 necessary vaccines is $150 for one girl…a small price to pay for life, but still out of reach for most Nicaraguan families who would be lucky to earn that much in one month’s wages.  Keeping their daughters safe from cervical cancer is out of reach for most Nicaraguan families.

Cervical cancer is now a class issue, mostly killing poor women in third world countries.

***

There are many broken hearts in Nicaragua today…not just those of the multitudes that loved Martha Arriaza, but also the multitudes that have also lost their own unforgettable woman to cervical cancer.

My heart is broken.

¡Martha Arriaza, Presente!*

--Becca

*During the Nicaraguan Revolution it was customary to shout the names of those heroes fallen in battle and after each name cry, “Present!” because the spirits of our heroes & martyrs live on in us.