You've (Not) Come A Long Way, Baby...

March 8th is International Women’s Day.  Nicaragua celebrates Day of the Woman…though not as much as it used to be celebrated in the 1980s and '90s.

This day is marked by countries the world over calling to attention the progress women have made as well as all the inequalities heaped upon women that still exist today especially in the poorer nations. 

And there are many problems…and it makes me mad:

• Women make up 70% of the world’s poorest people
• Women work 2/3rds of the world’s working hours
• Women grow ½ of the world’s food
•  yet earn only 10% of the world’s income
• and own only 1% of the world’s wealth
• 7 in 10 women have experienced physical or sexual violence in their lives
• 100 -140 MILLION women as girls are genitally mutilated including 6.5 million in western culture
• 80% of the 100 MILLION people trafficked…slaves…are women and 79% for sexual exploitation
• Worldwide up to 50% of the sexual abuses are against girls under the age of 16
• More than 100 million girls are “missing” due to prenatal sex selection
• Of the 500,000 mothers who die in childbirth 99% of them live in poor countries (1 mother a minute dies)
• Of the 61 million children who are denied access to BASIC education 60% are girls and as the level of education is raised, (i.e. secondary and university) the gap widens greatly.

In Nicaragua…in my home:

Photo Solomon Bill

• 83% of working women are heads of households and earn less money than men
• Women in sweat shops work on average 72 hours/week with no sick days
• 1 in 4 women will die from complications due to type 2 diabetes
• More Nicaraguan women of reproductive age die of cervical cancer than any other cause (easily preventable and treatable through early detection) than any other country in the Western Hemisphere
• 1 in 2 women have been physically assaulted by their husband/partner
• 1 in 4 women were assaulted in the last 12 months
• Rape and sexual assault is still prominent and 2/3rds of the cases reported are by girls under the age of 17
• Nicaragua has more teenage pregnancies than any other Latin American country per capita due mostly to poverty and lack of opportunities

Globally women have little to no power in governments. In many sects of different religions women are abused in order for men not have to take responsibility for their own actions.  Women are kept under the thumb of male members of their families, kept ignorant and poor...and yet, women are the vast majority of the caretakers of the human race.

Why?  It is time for this ludicrousness and injustice to end…NOW. -Kathleen

http://www.un.org/en/women/endviolence/pdf/apromiseisapromise.pdf 
http://www.globalcitizen.org/Content/Content.aspx?id=058f8fee-01f4-4508-a54d-464ff22a4716   
http://www.campaignforeducationusa.org/educating-girls-women-in-developing-countries                

Real Work is Done on the Inside

As I noted in an earlier blog our goals in education are to educate the wealthier people about the poorer people and their struggles.  We do that through various mediums: newsletters, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, speaking tours…
 
And delegations.  We want to expand our volunteer delegations to Nicaragua.  Why?
 
In her article The Problem with Little White Girls (and Boys): Why I Stopped being a Voluntourist, Pippa Biddle talks about her experiences of going to Tanzania and the Dominican Republic to volunteer and “help” when in actuality she realized that she was more of a hindrance and could have donated the cost of her airfare and done more good.  Now as an adult, she funds a camp in the DR that is run by Dominicans.
 
The article is excellent and Biddle hits the problem of being the “white savior” right on the head….but what she seems to miss out on completely is that those trips are what made her into the adult that she is now…aware and committed to the poor abroad.

This is why expanding delegations falls under our 2014 goals for education.  Biddle is right…nationals can do much of the work better than unskilled volunteers.  But the real work that volunteers do is the work within themselves.   

Our delegations spend an hour or so each day with speakers so that volunteers learn about Nicaragua, the relationship between Nicaragua and the rest of the world, and poverty. 

We take them outside of their comfort zones to see poverty and help them to process what they see…because their most valuable work and long lasting work for Nicaraguans and the poor will come when they go home and start making changes in their own lives.

Quote on bus: "Just remember: you're here to help a little and learn a whole lot. When you Truly understand this, you've done something right."

Poverty is intertwined with the distribution of wealth and most people do not see that unless the poor have faces and touch their lives.  The poor need no “white saviors,” but they do need friends in powerful countries who can change those power structures. -Kathleen 

Adios Bus!

 Our final goal in education for 2014 is to spend less for better quality bus service for delegations…in short, we are retiring our yellow bus that has taken groups to so many places around Nicaragua.  It was purchased and driven down by Highlands Presbyterian Church in Maryville, TN in 1999.  It will be missed.

It starts with pulling out a map...

Our goals in education are to educate the wealthier people about the poorer people and their struggles.  We do that through various mediums.  One is our newsletter….
 
Our first newsletter of this year was mailed and emailed in the last two weeks…take the few minutes to read it.  We’re starting our 20th year in Nicaragua!
 
Another is our speaking tours and our first goal in education for 2014 is to broaden our speaking tours.*
 
Sarah is working to leave Monday on her spring speaking tour and she is running around trying to get everything done (contact her if want to invite her to speak NC-Maine). What goes into getting ready for a speaking tour?
•    Pulling out a map and our data base and charting where to go and who is where
•    Writing and emailing all those contacts to see what can be lined up and then constant follow up
•    Looking for cheap airfares
•    Making sure the van in the States is running**
•    Creating, printing, and folding all the brochures to take with the speaker and to be used here
•    Ordering crafts from the artisans, following up over and over again, picking the crafts up, packing the crafts and sending them back with willing volunteers
•    Creating a power point presentation
•    All the while doing the daily jobs and wrapping up things so that the person leaving doesn’t leave those of us behind in the lurch.
 
They say it takes a village to raise a child…well it takes a community, volunteers, and folks willing to host in “foreign lands” to do a speaking tour. 
 
*In April Becca and Paul are going back to Ireland and also going to Germany to visit family and talk about our work.  Sarah will be going again in September to a new area. Pat and Kathy will go in November.  So we are in the process of broadening the speaking tours.
 
**It also takes vehicles.  We need a new used van.  Ours is aging and breaks down on the tour leaving Sarah or Pat and Kathy stranded.  Another of our goals in education is getting two vehicles to use on these speaking tours: one on the east coast and one on the west coast.
 
-Kathleen

New Lesson for Today

Some weeks you have one thing after another coming at you…you know the feeling.  

This is one of those weeks.  If you follow the blog you know we were going to write the next few blogs about our goals, but instead the week is going nutty…including a Rotary Club meeting to welcome the governor of the district right in the middle of all the the craziness.  It was a BAD day to be having a luncheon meeting.  We were short-staffed, behind in paperwork, and running.  Plus...

My dad was in the hospital in the SC, I had just gotten word that a friend was dying in a NC hospital ….my mind was in many places.

And like so many things that Nicaraguans do…the meeting ran on and on.  And I start fidgeting, sighing to myself, and fidgeting some more.  Eventually the agenda was checked off: Becca did a great power point presentation showing all that the club had accomplished in its first year as a legitimate Rotary Club; the governor was through talking; and it was time for lunch…2 hours later!  

Finally!  We could eat and get back to the work waiting on us and I could check email.  Relief was in sight!

Then come the dancers…you have GOT to be kidding me!

Of course, I KNOW better than to expect a Nicaraguan meeting to be over by JUST being over.  Dancing is a part of almost all special functions especially the Folklorico…the traditional folk dancing with the beautiful flowing skirts and the flowers in the hair, but let’s face it...

 I wanted to be back at work and checking on loved ones.

 The music of the marimbas started and the tiny woman came out in her bare feet, smiled so large and started dancing.  I have seen her street clothes…she is not a wealthy woman at all…and here she was gracefully gliding around while we stood around watching.

I stood for awhile.  Went and sat in the other room and prayed for Daddy and Connie and Connie’s family.  I got up and down watching and praying… and then for the tiniest of moments, I felt settled in my soul…and I gave thanks that there is ALWAYS time to dance in this country…and maybe that is the lesson for the day:

Always make time to dance.*

-Kathleen

*A blog about goals can wait a few more days.

Flurry of Activity

It is hard for me to believe that a month and a half of 2014 has come and gone…we have been that busy.

• We welcomed a new volunteer coordinator, Maria, and said “see you later” to our old coordinator, Neville.* 
• We have also welcomed a new volunteer, Alice.
• We have had a brigade from Bucknell University. 
• Two dear friends were with us for the month, Nora and Becky. 
• My parents came for the last two week.
• We hired the orthopedist.

  

  Rogelio consulting with technician at sesame plant

• We obtained the lease of the sesame processing plant and as a result... 
• We have much goings and comings to the plant two hours away:
• Cleaning, painting, etc.
• Inventorying
• Getting lights and water to the plant and much, much more   

 
And the start of the new year always means

• brochures updated 
• year-end books closed
• a board meeting
• goals set
• year-end letters and booklets mailed out
• getting Sarah ready for her speaking tour including her presentation
• as well as the day-to-day tasks.

With all the year-end reporting we look back and go “Wow!  A lot got done” …not as much as we would have wished – always - but a lot nonetheless.  And the work that did get done is a direct result of others.





 

Pedro cutting grass at sesame plant

The staff of the CDCA is extraordinary.  Our clinic is reaching more and more people, doing better quality prevention and education because of our health promoter, nurse, and our new administrator who has more organization in her little finger than I could ever hope to have.  Our new hospitality director has providing for the needs of delegations down to a tee.  Our projects director is a phenomenal community organizer.  Our construction director is a self-taught architect, engineer, and manager.   And the list goes on.  The work is nothing without them.
 
And then there is you - who give to the work and support the work from afar - which allows the CDCA to have the freedom to do what is needed when it is needed.  For example: when Dr. Jorge Flores, a radiologist who had worked with us for the first 10 years of the clinic, wanted a job full-time that would have helped us address two goals for the clinic and more importantly two great needs for patients…many of you responded with gifts and pledges and so within less than a month we hired him.  This is one example of many.
 
We have goals and dreams for 2014 and over the next few weeks, we will be writing about them so you can dream with us.  So stay in touch.  -Kathleen
 
*Neville is still in Nicaragua working for another NGO.