Flying through a hurricane: being elderly and poor in Nueva Vida

“The elderly need special help,” our projects director César told us in a meeting last year.

To be seen by doctors and treated at our clinic in Nueva Vida, a patient must contribute to the community…they can either work (filling in mud puddles that are breeding mosquitos, cleaning trash off the streets, cleaning the yards of the schools, etc.) or they can contribute 30 córdobas (the equivalent of about $1.35), but frequently the elderly cannot work nor do they have family who can work on their behalf. The elderly tend to be destitute as well.

We were slow in finding the elderly patients who needed our help. Who has no family…who is destitute?

When our new health promoter, Jessenia, was settled into the Nueva Vida community and had the health promoters from each area reorganized and renewed, she took the challenge to the community to find 15 elderly patients we would see at no charge. It was easy and FAST…the community knew who needed our help.

Jessenia did an initial health and needs evaluation of all the patients, and then our volunteer nurse, Kim, went with Jessenia to see them. Seven of the 15 patients could not walk and so they needed rides the few blocks to the clinic.

We got all the patients to the clinic and evaluated by our doctor. Many have to take medications needed for chronic conditions. A few had acute problems but all, ALL, need to be evaluated on a regular basis and need to have access to a doctor. As soon as they all got to the clinic there were another five wanting to be in the program!

Kim makes rounds seeing each patient every-other-week and the 20 patients love her. One of the patients is 103 years old! 103 YEARS!

Now we are looking for funding to hire a nurse because, come August, Kim will leave to go on with her life. We feel that we are serving a population left out of the system as it currently exists.

Golda Meir (Israeli Founder and Prime Minister) said, “Old Age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you’re aboard, there’s nothing you can do.”

For the poor it is like flying in a hurricane, but if someone can help you get to the eye of the hurricane, then maybe you can rest some. -- Kathleen

Towards a Healthy Nueva Vida

Jessenia is our new health promoter! We were able to hire her with two designated gifts and she has been a true gift to the clinic!

She has used her artistic hand in putting up informational signs all up in the clinic and giving the clinic a brighter look.

Mostly she has being organizing health promoters. She has two promoters for each section of Nueva Vida. In the future she will help organize the “green” sections of Nueva Vida, areas where squatter homes have popped up, so that those who are very poor can have access to information and to the clinic.

We have given out emergency first aid kits to the health promoters so that they can clean and bind wounds, give rehydration fluids, and reduce fevers and allergic reactions. We are anxious to see how the community receives this aid and how it all goes.

We have a held a few trainings on diabetes and are looking at doing more. In the future, funding permitting, we hope to have comprehensive education on diabetes…a campaign to reduce sugar intake of children and adults, exercise to reduce weight, and how to use inexpensive food wisely for diabetics.

For the poor sugar is a cheap source of calories…but lots of sugar with no protein wreaks havoc on the pancreas and sets the body up for Type 2 diabetes. Plus the main food for the poor is carbohydrates…white rice, beans, corn, and white bread. Meats are expensive and many vegetables are also expensive. Culturally most fruits are drunk as watered juices with sugar added for flavor. Food in any culture is hard to change (look at the U.S.) and it is even more difficult if money is scarce…but we are looking at ways and we are looking for funding to try.

Our dentist, Inya, is going into schools for oral hygiene awareness raising classes that Jessenia set up. She is giving out toothbrushes and tooth paste and encouraging children to come in for sealants. Obviously with the above mentioned sugar intake, diabetes is not the only resulting health problem!

Then there are HIV/AIDS, family planning, hypertension, asthma, dengue, and malaria…all public health concerns! The list is endless…we are so grateful to have Jessenia on our staff. She has given us all a boost in our spirits. It is exciting, no? -- Kathleen

Nicaragua mourns withJapan

In light of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Nicaragua watches and mourns with the Japanese. In the 20^th Century, Nicaragua experienced one major natural disaster every two years.

One such disaster was the 1972 earthquake which killed 10,000 people and left another 250,000 homeless, many of whom were relocated to Ciudad Sandino as refugees. Another, Hurricane Mitch, left 11,000 dead in Honduras and Nicaragua and another 2.7 million homeless – many of those were again moved to Ciudad Sandino and the huge barrio of Nueva Vida was started with those 1,200 families. Nicaraguans feel the Japanese pain.

We watch as Japanese pick through the rubble that represented much of their lives. Whenever Nicaragua gets too much rain (at least every two years) we see people here picking through the remains of the little they had.

We watch and as a nation pray that Japan’s nuclear reactors will not fail more – because as a nation that has been knocked down over and over again – Nicaraguans understand one blow after another after another.

We feared the tsunami would hit the Nicaraguan Pacific coast hard, which would be devastating – even a small one would wash away poorly built houses on stilts or shacks made from plastic and flattened metal barrels. Luckily, the tsunami had lost strength by the time it reached our coast, and did no damage.

The horror in Japan is – well, terrifying, completely overwhelming, and heart-rending. But I think if it had happened to a Third World nation – with buildings not built for earthquakes, no warning systems, and no real capability for rescue and then relief – then how much more horrific would it be?

Nicaraguans care because they understand. We can learn much from our brothers and sisters who know natural disasters. – Kathleen

Spring 2011 Speaking Tour - Who, What, When, Where, and Why?

It's that time of year again... Sarah's planning her spring speaking tour, and this year she'll be roaming in a big driving loop from North Carolina to Florida and back. She'll also be hopping out to the San Francisco, CA, area with a stopover near Dallas, TX, on her return. So...

Who: Sarah Junkin Woodard (Sarah@jhc-cdca.org)
What: Speaking on the work & ministry of the JHC-CDCA in Nicaragua.
When: March 25 - May 25, 2011
Where: the southeast mostly, speaking in churches, college classes, livingrooms, civic groups, preschools, or anywhere else she gets an invitation! No gathering is too small. Contact her directly via email, please.
Why: for two reasons... to share updated information about the work with those already involved and with new folk who might become interested (i.e. education) and for fund-raising.

But here's the thing... many many folk are signed up on our database with only their email addresses, which means we have no way to know if you are along the speaking tour route, and we don't know to write you to ask if you'd like to host Sarah, or to let you know she'll be speaking near you. So we need you to write us/her about speaking possibilities, and if you know someone else en route, connect us to them... you see how this is a chance for you to really help.

Also, this link... http://tinyurl.com/4f4rmgx will get you to Sarah's online calendar. You can see where she will be on what dates, and what dates are still open. She will double-book, so grab her for a day time something even if she already has an evening something scheduled, and vice versa! She'll keep updating this calendar, so as the time gets closer, times of presentations and contact information will also be available if you can come to something already scheduled.

If you are interested in Sarah coming to your area, here's the bare bones info to share around regarding the presentation information and available crafts (where appropriate):

Sarah Junkin Woodard comes to us from the Center for Development in Central America (CDCA), the Nicaraguan project of the non-profit, faith-based organization, the Jubilee House Community (JHC). Before moving to Nicaragua in 1994, the JHC operated shelters for the homeless and battered women in Statesville, NC. Ministering in Nicaragua since then, the CDCA seeks to respond to human needs created by poverty in a nation where 45% of the population lives on less than $1.00/day, the second poorest in the western hemisphere. The CDCA is working towards freedom from poverty, helping communities become self-sufficient, sustainable, democratic entities, focusing its work in the areas of sustainable economic development, organic agriculture, appropriate technology, education, and health care. Sarah says, “The CDCA has been called to work with, and speak on behalf of, the poor in our area of Nicaragua, and to share their lives and stories with folks in the U.S., to bridge the gap between us and our neighbors.” Proceeds from craft sales go to the operating expenses of the project.

The Poor ≠ Market Opportunity

I spent much of last week writhing in agony in a ballroom at a Managua hotel. I was at an annual encounter of project executors for a large international development agency. I spent my days squirming in my chair trying to keep myself from running screaming from the room. What was so hard for me to hear? I’ll share with you a few snippets:

“When the private sector decides it wants to do something, it happens. Without the private sector we are nothing.”

“The middle man must exist, and we have to help the middle man so that the poor can be involved in the economy because they can’t do it themselves.”

“The poor are an unexploited market worth $6 billion dollars a year in Central America alone.”

Needless to say, there were no “poor” in that room. Just a roomful of smug, back-patting consultants with knowing smiles and obscene annual salaries. In most cases, these consultants are a perfect example of what Mike refers to as those who “started out to do good and ended up doing well.” They are the ones who think up and carry out “development” projects in Nicaragua, in many cases with the goal of what one mentioned as the need to “maintain our relevance” (read: salaries).

Are these consultants bad people? Not inherently, but they are servants of a system that does not work...in fact it does more harm than good. Yet they believe that they are doing good, which makes many of them self righteous and arrogant and dangerous. Sitting there, I can’t help but calculate that just one year of the combined salaries of the consultants in that room would build three Genesis spinning plants and equip them with machinery, creating jobs for 180 people. I, for one, would happily trade all of them for that.

And what are the projects these consultants are patting themselves on the backs for?

“We just approved a new project with the Free Trade Zone Commission to teach 600 young Nicaraguans English, with the goal that 400 of those will find work in Call Centers.”

“We have a successful project with a financing company to provide factoring to pulperías – the small corner stores in Nicaragua, which they will be able to pay using their cell phones.”

“We are working with large businesses to get them to use small farmers as suppliers, to include the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ in successful companies.”

Are these projects 100% evil? No. There are good aspects to most of the projects, and a few of them are even pretty good in general. What has to be evaluated is who is really benefiting here and who is just being used?

Do the 400 call center jobs really represent – as the development agency continually saying – any new “innovation”? No. It’s the same low-paid unstable jobs for young Nicaraguans that are offered in the textile sweat shops, disguising itself with a polo shirt and air conditioning.

I am not against pulperías having access to credit – I certainly spend a good share of time talking about how important it is to finance small businesses. But let’s ask ourselves why a factoring agency wants to give credit to pulperías? Because nobody else is doing so yet and they are an untapped market. The factoring agency wants to make money, so what kind of interest will they charge the tiny pulperías? This agency received a grant – that they will never have to pay back – and they will make money off of this hand over fist. That ain’t development…That ain’t right.

What about the “inclusive” companies benefiting the “bottom of the pyramid’? Those large companies are benefiting much more than the small farmers who aren’t granted exclusive contracts and are themselves responsible for financing the improvements needed on their farms in order to meet the standards of the large company. What drives these large companies to the project? More money, as the presenter himself admitted.

During my week in that hotel ballroom, I heard little mention of the project “beneficiaries,” as the development agencies call them. This word generally refers to the poor people whose poverty is purportedly alleviated through development projects. I loathe the word “beneficiaries.” It calls up an image people who sit back and receive while doing nothing. The women of Genesis are NOT beneficiaries. They are people, owners of their own business, who have made their project work and have made extraordinary sacrifices to do so. They are anything but passive receivers.

All of what I heard was from middle men and about middle men. The JHC-CDCA has spent the last 17 years in Nicaragua getting rid of the middle man – in agriculture and industry – and you know what? It works. I believe there is a place for someone who can connect those who have – money, skills, time – with those who have needs – financing, advice, markets…as long as that connector does not do at the expense of the poor. If we focus development on helping the middle man, you will never reduce poverty because it’s the middle man – and his executive cousin the consultant – who keep people poor by seeking to make money off of them.

We cannot achieve “development” through yet another project that sees the poor as only a market. It is only through projects that stop viewing the poor as passive beneficiaries but the owners of the projects that we have a chance to bring about the systemic change these folks in “development” claim they want.

But we have to take risks. You can’t have systemic change without risking yourself. And we have to share those risks with the poor…the poor as owners, agents of their own destinies. No middle man required. – Becca