Do Not Fold, Staple, or Mutilate

In the Sermon on the Mount was it not recorded that Jesus said, “Blessed are the creators of forms for with their paperwork the sick will be healed.”? 

Did Gandhi ever stop his weaving of his own clothes, shaving his own hair, eating the minimum to stay alive, going to prison, to write reports for funding so that the Indian people would resist the English?

Did Martin Luther King, Jr., call on the Black people of the South to march on Washington by making sure that form A-159 was filled out in black ink, signed, dated, and notarized?

I think not, and while I sit here writing this blog I am postponing all the paperwork that I need to complete to  start the process of healing the sick, calling people to give to the poor, and reporting on how money was spent and what good was done…so more can be done (and more paperwork created)...literally.

 

With all these forms, letters, and reports which feel like the bane of my existence… I am so tired.  More times than not paperwork is one of the necessary boredoms of my life and I lose sight of what is important…people.  I can get so bogged down in working at the computer that I forget and lose my way.  And if I am truly honest many times I use paperwork to buffer me to the pain of others and I get lost in the comfort of the forms.

Yesterday talking to Josefa, our clinic administrator, and Jorge, our radiologist, I asked if they knew what hospital would the volunteer cardiologist coming in October work in because I needed to write a letter for him to use to request pacemakers.  He is planning to surgically install donated pacemakers as a volunteer.

Jorge said that his wife knew two people who have been waiting on a list to get pacemakers for a long time…and it became more real to me…not just a letter to be written but a letter offering life.

People, faces, hope, life that is what I need and sometimes even the paperwork will get me there.  Now to write that letter…                                   -Kathleen

Life-Giving: Gift of Private Space

Life-Giving: Give an Alternative Gift this season that keeps on giving, as a single gift or a monthly pledge.Your gift will be acknowledged to the receiver with a beautiful card.

Maria was 17 years old when she joined the New Mothers group.  She was pregnant with her first child.  Unlike what most think, a 23 year-old man flirted with her, and she deliberately chose to get pregnant.  Maria thought having his baby would motivate him to take care of her and help get her out of her family home.

Seems a bit drastic, doesn’t it?  But we are not living like Maria…not only is her family desperately poor, but Maria cares for her mother’s baby and all her brothers and sisters.  She doesn’t go to school.  She doesn’t even get out of Nueva Vida very much.  Her father is an alcoholic and would beat her mother, her siblings, and her when he was drunk…twice he even tried to rape her.  Drastic situations call for drastic measures.

A baby was now on the way, and the 23 year-old dad was long gone.

Maria wishes she had made different choices, but what choice does she have now?

We have support groups for New Mothers, Mothers with Toddlers, and Las Lobas (She-wolves), a group of teen and preteen girls where we show them different choices and a bigger world.  

But -- and this is a big “but” -- all these groups need a private space to meet, and we don't have one.  They meet in our second clinic building, either in the lobby with people moving in and out, or in crowded storeroom where sound carries out into the busy hall.  None of the participants are going to bare their souls in such environments, and how can one help if all the pain is bottled up?

A third clinic building will have a private space for sharing and talking, with no one walking through the area.  We will be able to have a room…really private room...for women’s care, and we will be able to give our counselor a better space.This season, give a gift to help us build the third building and give Maria and others like her the space to talk and share and so, so much more.  
-Kathleen

Life-Giving: The Gift of Credit

Life-Giving: Give an Alternative Gift this season that keeps on giving, as a single gift or a monthly pledge.Your gift will be acknowledged to the receiver with a beautiful card.

José is a farmer and has selling his organic sesame seeds to our agriculture cooperative since 1996.  When he began he and his wife lived in a shack with a dirt floor and an outhouse in the back.  His wife took in wash to add money to their income from the farming.  They had two children and even though it was a financial strain to send them to school, they did.

Because we helped José get and keep organic certification for his crops, his land has stayed fertile and he and his family healthy and free of toxins in pesticides.  He also got better prices and has been able to expand some. Our agronomist has worked with him for years helping him overcome problems and improve his yields.  

As a result, José’s family now lives in a home with indoor plumbing and a tiled floor.  They no longer have a wood burning cook stove, but cook with propane, which saves them money, saves trees, and saves the lungs of everyone in the family.  His wife no longer takes in wash but now has someone who comes in to help her!

They are not wealthy by any means but they are more secure and life is much easier…THIS is what is hoped for…not only easing people’s burdens but actually moving people out of poverty.
This season, give a gift to the Vida Fund to help provide capital to farmers like José who are just starting out.

-Kathleen

Life-Giving: The Gift of Special Care

Life-Giving: Give an Alternative Gift this season that keeps on giving, as a single gift or a monthly pledge.Your gift will be acknowledged to the receiver with a beautiful card.

Here are three stories about patients who have chronic illnesses, but unlike diabetic and hypertensive patients, they need very special care:

Chapter One

Lupe is 66 years old.  She lives with her daughter and grandchild in a small house in Nueva Vida.  She suffers from type 2 diabetes and hypertension, but she also had an abdominal hernia.

Last January, she was attacked by a dog and fell down.  She popped open her hernia and her intestines came through…even though her skin was intact.  She waited eight days to come to the clinic when she started running a fever and had severe pain.  We did an ultrasound and sent her to the hospital where they did surgery taking out part of her intestines.  Now she needs special colostomy bags…which we cannot always get.

Chapter Two

Felipe is 53 years old.  He was diagnosed with advanced Parkinson ’s disease five years ago.  He too has type 2 diabetes and hypertension as well.  He lives with his wife who cares for him and cooks and sells bunuelos, a Nicaraguan dish that is fried yucca dough with honey.  She has a difficult time caring for him as the disease progresses, and they are so, so poor.

Three years ago he could talk…now he cannot because of all the tremors.  We give him medication for the Parkinson’s which helps some, plus diabetes and hypertension medicines, though he is having complications in his hands and feet.  Our medical staff visit him at home because it is hard for him to come to the clinic.

Chapter Three

Tomás is 84 years old.  He lives with a family that took him in.  They live in the Areas Verde of Nueva Vida…the green area.  Sounds nice, doesn’t it?  In actuality, it is the squatters of Nueva Vida who have put up a shack of tin or cardboard.  Tomás has a room that is as big as his pitiful cot.

He suffers from an arterial ulcer on his foot that he has tended for 16 years.  His toenails have atrophied.  He, too, is diabetic.  He got the ulcer while fishing 20 years ago.  He came down from the campo, the remote rural areas of Nicaragua, to try and make a living fishing in the polluted lake of Managua.  While fishing in the lake…with no boat…he was bitten by something.  The wound never healed.  Patches would help a great deal. 

This season, give a gift that will help Lupe, Felipe, Tomás and others like them who suffer from poverty and these conditions that you and I cannot imagine unless they are described to us.

-Kathleen

Life-Giving: The Gift of a Healthy Mouth

Life-Giving: Give an Alternative Gift this season that keeps on giving, as a single gift or a monthly pledge.Your gift will be acknowledged to the receiver with a beautiful card.

5-year-old Natalia has been coming to the clinic as a collaboration between us and ORPHANetwork, which operates feeding centers in Nueva Vida.  Though very poor, she now comes regularly to get her teeth cleaned and repaired. 

Most Nicaraguans go to the dentist when they are in pain and the tooth has to be pulled.  Through this collaboration over the past two years, we have slowly begun to make a difference in these children’s mouths.  Like Natalia, they are coming for cleanings and repairs.  

We are doing more preventive and restorative work than extractions.  We give out toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss and teach patients how to use them.

I overheard Dr. Art Kaslow, DDS, say to his fellow volunteers, “The Nueva Vida dental clinic staff are really making a difference! This is much different from other Third World clinics where I have gone to work. They do sealants and the sealants are holding. They are really making a difference!”  He volunteered in the clinic with Solvang Rotary Club (CA).

There is much to do though…like with Natalia.  There are thousands of children and adults who need dental care.This season, give a gift that will help Natalia and others like her who suffer from poverty AND rotten teeth.

-Kathleen