SNG's for Ephraim

Back in February I sent an SNG of $100 for Ephraim for whatever they might need most. In May I received the letter and photos showing what the money was used for. Ephraim and his family received 50 kilos (110 lbs) of flour, cooking oil, sugar, 25 kilos (55 lbs) of mealie meal (a coarse corn meal) and beef.

The report stated that his mother would use the flours, sugar and oil in her income generating activity (she's a street vendor) and that the profits would help the family greatly. As for the beef, the family was going to enjoy that themselves. Here he is with a happy grin next to the goods.

When I received his progress report for this year, it stated that he was no longer in school due to lack of funds. So I called and asked to find out how much school would cost for him. Upon learning that it would only cost $125 to send him back to school for the year I sent a check.

Here he is with his new school clothes, shoes and notebook, all of which was included in that same $125, ready to go. What a great investment! Honestly I can't think of a better way to spend my money or a place where it could possibly go farther. Naturally I'll be sending money for school each year from now on until he is out of high school. I hope it will make a big difference in his life trajectory.

We have a new family member!

Her name is Paola Emma and she's from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Guayaquil is on the coast, a busy port city of 3.3 million. As you can imagine it gets very hot and humid there. She turned 12 last December. She's 4'6" and weighs 62 pounds. Her favorite school subjects are Science and Grammar. She speaks Spanish. In her spare time she likes to play with friends and ride her bike. She helps out at home with dish washing and general housework. Her father is a bricklayer and her mother is a homemaker. She has 2 older sisters, one younger sister and 1 younger brother. Her home has a wooden floor and a corrugated metal roof. It consists of 1 bedroom, a kitchen and a living room. The family sleeps on

wooden beds and cooks on a portable gas stove. Water has to be delivered in barrels by truck. Under electricity it states: "non regulated usage". Not sure what that means. Sounds like maybe they tap into a power line running nearby, not the safest way to get your electricity! Here is an earlier picture. Looks like she was sponsored in 2005 (the date of this earlier picture) and lost her sponsor recently. I just found out recently that once a child becomes sponsored CI will keep providing them with sponsorship benefits even if they lose their sponsor. That's good to know. I can't wait to get my first letter from her. I've already sent her a letter welcoming her to the family. I also sent her a special needs gift so that she can get something she really needs. So there she is, our seventh child. I'll keep you posted on her progress as I receive more info.

News From Haiti, La Gonave Update

Below is a reprint of an email I received the other day from Nancy Casey. She lives here in Moscow and goes to La Gonave, Haiti every year taking seeds and garden tools as well as donations she has raised through the year. Following the email is the text of a document that was attached to the email which I could not upload with it's pictures and attached video. If you'd like me to email it to you just leave a comment and let me know. By the way, the Janice Boughton who went along on this trip is my doctor.

Hello everyone...I write this from the Haitian countryside where it is
raining. It rained yesterday, too. The rain brings relief from the
chocking dust and raises an optimism in the whole peasant community. At
last it's time to plant. Maybe there will be enough food.

I'm connected to peasant groups concerned with agriculture, the
environment, women and children's rights and human development. Everyone
is reeling from the earthquake and stoically going forward. I've been
learning more about their work and dreams and helping them articulate
their ideas about the help they need in proposal form.. I look forward
to sharing more information with you when I return home to Moscow, Idaho
at the end of the month. Attached is a newsletter with a report on a
visit to these same communities by three women from Moscow, Idaho.

When I am not "working" I've been sitting on porches and courtyards with
my extended network of Haitian family and friends. I've been laughing
and dancing a lot. I have walked miles and miles up and down mountains. I am fit and happy.

If you would like to send a tax-deductible donation to help the groups I'm
working with, see
www.CourageWoman.org/donate.htm
for the full info. Or send a check to VP Foundation PO Box 9757 Moscow,
ID 83843

If you want to be on a committee in Moscow, ID actively supporting this
work, contact MareeMcHugh: maree@samaree.net.

If you don't want to receive these updates, or if you are receiving two
copies, please let me know.

Thank you for all your support.


Nancy Casey
nancy@turbonet.com



NEWS FROM HAITI, LA GONAVE UPDATE

News from LaGonave
By Nancy Casey

What a pleasure it was for me to bring three visitors from my home-town of Moscow, Idaho to LaGonave to share the experience that I have been having here for 8 years. I feel so much less alone in what I have learned on this little island floating in the bay just off Port-au-Prince. Larger than the destitution, larger than the heart-ripping earth-quake stories, larger than the mind's struggle to reconcile "have" with "have-not" is the realization that these people take such joy from your simple presence. You fill your suitcase with the things you think they will most need, only find when you get here that the youness of you is the real gift you have to give. You don't even know how to give this, yet they receive it and it leaves you reeling.

Ryan Law

What to say about Haiti? Well what I want to say is that we all have perceptions, myself included. We tend to rely on peoples fears and judgment without thinking beyond that. There is so much more that is right about Haiti than wrong. They are people of a very generous and diligent nature. I found family in Bwanwa, the community where we stayed. I found parts of myself that have been buried. I would say "Thanks to the wonderful people of LaGonave for teaching me about humanity"

Janice Boughton

A country like Haiti has been poor for so long that receiving charity has become normal for many people. The only English greeting many children know is "give me a dollar" and many of them will say it without even knowing what it means. Nevertheless, the people whom I came into contact with on my trip were among the most hard working, creative and industrious I have ever been around. It is these characteristics that allow them to live fairly successfully on an island like LaGonave which has been raped of many of its natural resources decades ago and left for dead. This island now blooms with numerous kitchen gardens,farms, churches, schools and vibrant woman's rights groups. Rather than in the spirit of “helping,” we made our visit in the spirit of supporting them in the good work they already do. There are things that are wrong with Haiti, but there are more things that are right.

Louise-Marie Dandurand

When Louise-Marie Dandurand came back from her first walk with two agricultural agents her eyes flashed brighter blue than the sky as she said, "This is just amazing!" She toured family and community vegetable plots, gullies terraced for soil conservation, tree nurseries, and met some of the people responsible for encouraging others to do this work without adequate tools or nutrition. Upon returning home, Louise-Marie writes: I'm no longer shrink-wrapped to the couch. I have some thoughts to write up, in relation to gardens, soil conservation, and water water usage. I'd like to address some of the (plant) diseases I saw, as well as explore some ideas on seeds and plant breeding. I wish I could find more information about the endemic plants of Haiti. I also saw a lot of homes damaged by earthquake as I was walking around.

Nancy Casey

Now that the visitors are gone, I am back to "work". My calendar is packed for the next three weeks with visits to gardens and earthworks, sitting in on meetings of community groups and women's groups trying to make things better for themselves, looking at earthquake-damaged houses we helped rebuild after the quake, and helping the farmers' and women's groups turn their visions into clear proposals that I can find funding for. The needs are astounding. I wonder if I give the wrong impression when I write of my astonishment about how much Haitians do with so little. $4000 helped to repair/rebuild a half-dozen houses in two isolated communities, leaving about 200 more houses to go in those towns, and another hundred or so towns with no help.
The $90,000+ budget for Courageous Women is mostly for food to help destitute children and feed women who walk an hour or more to attend a meeting. Janice Boughton helped the group bring more focus on women’s health needs—good public health education, women who can’t afford to have breast cancer or TB treated despite the low cost, sexually transmitted diseases, preventing the incipient AIDS epidemic.
The "Farming is Life" group hopes for $6,000 to buy 20 sets of tools, each of which will be shared by 25 families. Another $3,000 will raise the salaries of the two young men leading this work to a living wage. They wish they could feed people who come to trainings, build and repair cisterns, save the islands indigenous flora and the knowledge of healing associated with it. They were so inspired by Louise-Marie Dandurand’s extensive knowledge and the possibilities she raised for finding university research contacts. Today, before going on an hour-long bone-jarring motorcycle ride to Plèzans, a community where we helped re-build 2 houses, I spent a couple hours working through an accounting and reporting process with the farming group that is simple enough not to detract from their work, but accurate enough to make their handling of money transparent. I don't want to discount the value of your donations in the least. Every dollar you send goes really far. Still, I hope with the information I'm bringing back from this trip--written by the Haitians themselves--we will be able to supplement your donations with grants from foundations that support this kind of work. I fear that the generosity of our personal pockets will not be sufficient for the needs.

VP Foundation: Encouraging balance in people's lives and communities
PO Box 9757
Moscow, Idaho 83843
Tel: (208)882-9698
Email: nancy@turbonet.com

How to Get Involved
I'm thrilled that Louise-Marie, Janice, and Ryan have shared the experience of the Haiti that I know. I would lead another trip this winter if somebody wants to come. Let me know. nancy@turbonet.com
We are still hoping to bring Abner Sauveur and Elijen Deravil to Moscow (Idaho) this summer to watch our gardening season unfold, learn English, and connect with collaborators. Abner has a 5-year visitor’s visa and can easily travel to the US. At present the US Consulate in Port-au-Prince is not accepting visa applications for Haitians, Elijen is ready to apply as soon as the door is open.

DONATION INFORMATION
You can support this work by making a tax deductible donation online at::
www.CourageWoman.org/donate.htm
Or you can send a donation by mail to:
VP Foundation Box 9757 Moscow, ID.
You can tag your donation for: food, farming, environment, women and children, health care, housing, exchange visit, or "as needed".
Thank you so much. Mesi davans.

Meet Soila Lucinda and another great book

Soila Lucinda joined our family in August of last year. She is our oldest sponsored child (well, nearly an adult now!) and turned 17 last December. She lives in rural Guatemala, near the capital of Guatemala City. She lives with her parents, 3 sisters and 2 brothers. Her father is the sole breadwinner for the family and brings in about $154 a month working as a carpenter. Her home is constructed of concrete blocks with a concrete floor and corrugated metal roof. It consists of a kitchen and 4 bedrooms. Cooking is done on an open fire. The family is fortunate to have running water in the home and wooden beds to sleep on. She reports that people in her community work the land and harvest lots of corn.
Soila likes to play basketball (even though she's only 4' 10"!) and soccer in her spare time. Her favorite school subjects are Math, Accounting and Art. She has a talent for drawing and painting. She speaks Spanish and a little Cakchiquel (an indigenous language) and is learning English. She wants to be a teacher "in order to go on and help child(ren) like you are doing to me now". I have contacted Children International to ask if she needs help with school to achieve that goal.
When I first sponsored her I sent a Special Needs Gift of $100 to welcome her to the family. Here she is with her gifts. She is a lovely young woman with a good heart and I am happy to be able to help her.

I've just recently read a great book called Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn a husband and wife team of journalists. I really can't say enough about this inspiring book. Here is a website about the book, the authors, their work and the organizations they profile in the book. Each chapter outlines a problem in a developing country and a person or organization that has chosen to tackle that particular problem, often because they themselves have suffered from it. Often these groups have been started by local women who saw a need and decided to try to remedy the problem themselves, for their own sake and that of their families and neighbors. In other words many of these organizations are grass roots, home grown, local, bottom up instead of top down programs started by people who know what is really needed and what will work. As opposed to well meaning but misinformed top down foreign projects that sometimes miss the mark, or aren't culturally savvy enough in the countries they are trying to help, to know that they are breaking local taboos or stepping on toes. Here is an article by the authors that will give a good idea about the book. It is a long article but gripping reading. Try your local library for the book.

Update on Ephraim's Schooling and another kind of sponsorship program

I called Children International (CI) on March 9th to ask about Ephraim's education. I had recently learned that most children in Zambia cannot afford to go to school beyond grade 7 after which school is no longer free. I just received a letter from CI today confirming that Ephraim was no longer in school due to lack of funds. He should be in Grade 8. The letter stated that it would cost $125 a year for him to continue his education. I have just sent off a check to CI for this year's school fees. I have recently read that almost all the children that the CI centers in Zambia can accommodate have been sponsored and that they are working to open a new center there. Also in today's mail came the news that CI will soon begin work on a center in Uganda near the capital, Kampala. This will be a new country for CI, the first since Zambia joined the family 5 years ago.

Now let me tell you about another kind of sponsorship program. It's called Women for Women International. It was founded by Zainab Salbi who grew up in Iraq under Sadam Hussein. This program operates in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq, Kosovo, Nigeria, Rwanda and Sudan. You may notice that all of these countries have one thing in common: They are countries that have recently been or are currently at war, whether from within or without. Their slogan is "Helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives."

You can choose the country in which you wish to sponsor a woman or designate "wherever the need is greatest. In 4 to 6 weeks you will be matched with a woman and will receive an info kit about your new "sister". As a sponsor, you pledge to contribute $27 per month (plus a one time administrative fee of $30 to set up your account) to support one individual woman in a year long program of vocational and technical skills training, rights awareness and leadership education. Your support will provide the tools and resources your sister needs to rebuild her life after war. Your monthly contributions will also help your sister to obtain basic necessities for her family, like food, clean water, and medicine; to pay school-related expenses for her children; to use the funds as seed capital to start an income-generating project. Perhaps more importantly, your letters will provide an emotional lifeline to a woman who may have otherwise lost everything.

So if you want to help those in need but aren't sure you want to take on the average 13 year commitment of sponsoring a child here's another, shorter term way to help someone whose life has been shattered by war get back on the road to self sufficiency. To learn more about Women for Women International click here.

Meet Katiusca, our diminutive Dominican Republican

This is Katiusca, our youngest sponsored child. She has been part of our family since August 2005. She turns 10 tomorrow. She lives with her father, mother, one older brother and one younger sister in Santiago. Her father works in a factory and her mother works as a cook at the University. The family income is about $137 a month. They have a concrete block house with a concrete floor and a corrugated metal roof. The house has a kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a dining room. Cooking is done on a gas stove, and they have running water in the house. This family of 5 shares 2 beds. Her favorite color is pink and her favorite school subjects are math, grammar and art. She likes to play indoor games with her friends and family in her free time. She counts painting, dancing and singing among her talents. She reports that she
behaves well at home and helps here mom with chores like sweeping and washing dishes. She is having some trouble with science in school but says she will try harder. Katiusca is not sure what she wants to be when she grows up, but she is thinking about it. Last Christmas she got to go visit her Grandmother at the beach and got to eat cake and ice cream. She has really grown quite a bit since we first sponsored her, don't you think? I have recently sent a Special Needs Gift for Katiusca and will report back on her when I receive news of what the family used it for.

Katiusca came to us when our first sponsored girl in the Dominican Republic, Yulisa Antonia, (pictured below) left the program because she got married at the age of 14. Naturally we were upset but unfortunately marrying quite young is not unusual in poorer countries. We only had her 4 months before she was gone. CI suggested Katiusca and we were happy to accept her into our family.

Children International has been working in the Dominican Republic for 31 years. There are almost 28,000 children sponsored in 2 agencies there. Income inequality there is among the highest in the world.

I want to add some more information about the book The Life You Can Save by Peter Singer which I mentioned here a few posts ago. Here is a link to an article published in the NY Times on March 10, 2009 about the book . The article is entitled: If you think you're good, you should think again.

And here is a link to an article by Peter Singer in the NY Times Magazine of December 17, 2006. That article is called: What should a billionaire give - and what should you? Both very good, thought provoking articles. I will warn you that the second one is rather long but well worth the read.

And finally I will leave you with a quote from George Eliot "What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?"

Do your children a favor

I'd like to make a suggestion to my friends and relations who still have children living at home. Sponsor a child in a developing country. This is an excellent way for your children to learn about other parts of the world and other cultures. It's also a good way to introduce your children to the idea that not every child on the planet has an i-pod, a personal computer and their own color TV. It's a way to let them know how fortunate they are and how important it is to help others less fortunate. If you sponsor a child about the same age as your child, they can be pen pals. They can exchange photos and art work. It'll be a rich and rewarding experience for both of them and there are few families in America who can't afford this. It's only $22 a month. Click here to visit Children International and get started today.