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May
2013
As
I write this newsletter,
Mike, Becca, and the
staff of COPROEXNIC,
the  organic
agricultural
cooperative,
are meeting with members of
Once Again Nut Butter (OANB)
and representatives from one
of the four large peanut
production businesses in
Argentina. Much of
this is to help us figure
out how to best go forward
with our organic peanut
program.
Mike went
to Boston to meet with
representatives from OANB,
Maggie’s Organics, and
others, to address issues
surrounding the
certification process for fair
trade, and how to get
representation for small
farmers around the world
onto the Boards of Directors
of fair trade certifying
organizations. Along
with all these
folks, we also had a visit
from a past volunteer, Lisa
Spicka, who is exploring
consistent and just
standards of fair trade with
OANB.
The
sesame was a good crop
this past season
but as with peanuts, the
processing plant and the
shipping companies are not
doing their job of getting
the seeds north to the
buyers in a timely
fashion. We hired
someone to watch the
processing of the sesame and
peanuts and we have great
concerns with the plant… we
need to have a reliable
plant here in Nicaragua that
allows access to our
farmers.
El
Porvenir, the coffee
cooperative, has
its own old but reliable
processing facility for
coffee.  As
a result they are careful
with the processing
which gives their coffee
more value. This year
they had a good crop of
38,000 pounds of coffee to
sell… up by 10,000
pounds from last year.
COPROEXNIC hired an
administrator, Idalia.
She is from Ciudad
Sandino. She first
volunteered with them and is
now an enormous addition to
the staff.
Our
health
clinic has been
full to overflowing with
patients.
 In
our first quarter alone, we
have seen almost half as
many patients as we saw all
last year. As a result
our medicine purchases have
doubled. We also now
receive fewer donated
medications from the U.S.
because of increased
governmental restrictions as
the current government tries
to protect its populace from
expired or useless
medicines. Current
donations are not covering
the increases in care we
give.
In
our dental clinic we
have seen an enormous
increase in children
from the feeding
centers.
As I write, we are fortunate
to have the volunteer
services of a dentist,
assistant, and hygienist
from Michigan. We
would like to have volunteer
dentists and hygienists once
a month.
We are
thrilled to have the
volunteer services 3 days a
week of Fabiola from Nueva
Vida who is studying to be a
dental assistant. We
need a full-time dentist and
also someone who will clean
the dental building.
With the increase in
services, one person alone
cannot keep both clinic
buildings clean … but we
don’t yet have the
money.
Last
year we held a total of
16 health
promotional classes; in
the first quarter of
2013 we have already
held 24 with 370 people
attending.
We have broadened our
services to include classes
on pregnancy, labor and
birth… desperately needed
because doctors here do not
have time to answer
questions and patients are
too intimidated to ask in
the first place. As a
result, women often depend
on handed-down stories from
mothers, and some tales are
harmful. Often, first
time mothers go into labor
without a clue as to what is
actually happening.
Giving them a space to ask
questions is very helpful
and giving them information
about what is going on with
their bodies is crucial to a
healthier pregnancy and a
less stressful labor.
Our
expansion into prevention
and early detection for women’s
cancer is growing steadily…
though we wish we had more
resources to better fund and
more widely spread this
education. A way to
help… 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
to help other mothers
(for more information
see http://jhc-cdca.blogspot.com/2013/04/one-mother-saving-another.html
.
In the
health clinic we have
started a family planning
program to provide free
family planning* so that
women can decide when they
choose to be mothers. We
have been providing family
planning for many of the
women at El Porvenir and are
now reaching more women in
Nueva Vida. We also
have a support group for
diabetics. Our nurse
and health promoter make
home visits. AND…
Our
volunteer orthopedist is
doing great things.  Last year we
received a grant from a  family
foundation for orthopedics
and the lame can walk
now! With the grant
nine people received
injections of hyaluronic
acid in the
knees. Dr. Perez
recently did surgery on one
man’s arm that was broken
but the bones had not
knitted together. He
now has use of his
arm! We have almost
used up that grant and would
really like to have another
$6,000 for orthopedics to
continue the healing instead
of just controlling the
pain.
Do you see a pattern
here? Please know
that if you donate
we will stretch your
donations as far as
possible. (You
can donate online.)
*This
does not include abortion
which is illegal in
Nicaragua.
 We
have hosted five delegations
since our last
newsletter:
the high school Spanish
class from Lopez Island, WA;
Boston College nurses in our
health clinic; Whitworth
University from Spokane, WA;
Winthrop University from
Rock Hill, SC; and Bucknell
University from Lewisburg,
PA.
Lopez
students went to El Porvenir
for two nights. They
worked on the community’s
health center building while
Becca and Pat examined and
gave eye
glasses to 55 people
(out of the 253 people
living at El
Porvenir). The
students also touched up
paint on clinic benches and
painted the clinic’s water
tank stand until they
discovered it was rusting
through and needed to be
replaced; it’s now fixed.
Boston
College nursing program
sends nursing
students annually to
work  in our
clinic. They went into
homes of patients, helped in
the clinic, and taught
classes on CP R,
infections, and burns to the
health
promoters.
Whitworth
University was with us for
only a few days. This
was their first visit. They
dug on a trench to move
water away from the cotton
in the gin.
Meanwhile, Winthrop
University brought two
dentists who saw patients at
El Porvenir and children
from the feeding
centers. The students
did a program on nutrition
for our new mothers and
health promoter.
The Bucknell
Brigade brought a
doctor who also went to El
Porvenir as well as treated
patients in our
clinic. The students
painted in the clinic,
helped with a sidewalk
between the storage building
and the gin, and dug on the
water trench.
The
Bucknell
Brigades always
bring a doctor and for
more than 26 delegations
it has been Dr. Don
Stechschulte. He
first came in 1999,
with Bucknell’s initial
brigade after Hurricane
Mitch, when 12,000 ref ugees
were moved to cow
pastures near us and the
barrio of Nueva Vida was
formed.
Don
served an integral role in
getting our clinic started,
and we hope he will continue
even though he has retired
from Bucknell. He has
fundraised, brought donated
medicines, and seen patients
in our clinic and at El
Porvenir (they call him
their primary care
physician). He has
advised us, and has been and
still is a dear, dear
friend.
The
Bucknell Brigades
fundraise for the
clinic. This year they
have been nominated for
being a True Hero, an award
to educational institutions
for their service. The
winner receives $3,000 that
the Brigades will send to
our clinic. Go to
http://truehero.org/projects/index.cfm?id=840 and vote for Bucknell.
 Jubilee House Community:
Sarah is in the States
speaking… she is spreading
the word of our work to new
groups through the South on
the way to Texas. She
is also visiting with her
children, grandchildren and
extended family.
Coury is
working with the CDCA as he
gets ready to transfer from
the medical school at UAM in
Managua to their dental
program that Daniel
attends. We have been
glad to have his help.
We want
to dedicate this newsletter
to the m emory of Martha
Arriaza,
who died the 7th
of February of cervical
cancer, an easily
preventable and treatable
cancer when caught
early. Martha was a
wonderful composer, singer,
a joyous woman, and a
fighter. Many of our
brigades were fortunate to
hear her sing. She was
39 years old and left her
daughter, Abril, age
11. The world is a
better place because of
Martha and a sadder place
now that she has left us.
Reflection:
Mike and
I went to the States.
We spent time in New York
City and Boston and the
greater area. People
were rushing to and fro.
Driving home from taking
Joseph to school this
morning, I realized that
people the world over are
rushing and not seeing the
ones who are next to them or
in front of them… and
suddenly in a traffic jam in
Managua with horns blaring
away, two memories flashed
through my brain.
The
first… In 1999, North
Anderson Community Church
from SC brought a delegation
down with three
doctors. We were in
our small temporary clinic
and we were swamped with 100
plus people wanting to see
the doctors. We had a
tiny room for our pharmacy
and we had four volunteers
packed in there with
me. I was a bit
overwhelmed to say the
least.
Sitting
at the end of the counter
was Betty Jane, slowly coun ting out
vitamins to have ready to
distribute… and I mean,
slowly counting… one by
one. In my - I hoped
well concealed - impatience,
I mentioned that she could
count them by twos or fives…
she looked up at me, smiled
and said, “I know, but I am
sending a blessing with each
pill,” and returned to
counting and
blessing. In
that moment, I realized that
our clinic should be more
than getting people in,
seen, and treated… we should
be blessing them as well.
The
second was talking to a
psychologist who is also a
Buddhist. I was
talking about feeling
constantly pulled at, and
that when I don’t respond to
the pulling I experience the
never-ending feeling of
guilt. She said quite
simply, “Look at the person
and breathe in the needs,
the pains, and the
heartache… and breathe out a
blessing.”
Giving out blessings is
something that we all can
do… quietly sharing good
energy to help others cope
with their difficult
lives. We can look
them in the eye and
acknowledge their self
worth. We can pray on
behalf of them in a
breath. When we feel
overwhelmed we can calmly
and freely give others our
desire that they find
hope.
Blessing
others changes us… others
cease being just “things” in
our way… but become people
who share our world.
It empowers us to be a
conduit for goodness.
Our lives have more
meaning. It calms us
and offers us hope… the
blessing returns to us… like
a boomerang… or like the
breeze gently in our hearts.
-
Kathleen
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Online
tax-deductible
contributions are for
the general operating
budget (designations
accepted),and
may be single
donations or
recurring.
This
Mother’s Day, I would
like to give to “One
Mother Saving Another”
, to the
Nueva Vida Clinic’s
new Women’s Cancer
Program in honor of my
mother, to
help other mothers
. I am giving online.
PLEASE NOTE: In order for
your mother to receive her
gift card in a timely
manner, please email her
name and email address,
and your name to:
becca@jhc-cdca.org.
You can either designate
your donation online, or
send in a check designated
“Women’s Cancer”.
(see http://jhc-cdca.blogspot.com/2013/04/one-mother-saving-another.html)
for more
information.
I would like to receive
an electronic newsletter
instead of paper at this
email address: [email
to: Sarah@jhc-cdca.org]
______________________________________________________________
Please note: you can also
give online via the
shortcut
http://tinyurl.com/5rwxa.
Yes!_I_want_to_support_the_work
of the CDCA by giving
online*
*Website for online
donations, or to set up
automatic monthly online
donations:
http://www.networkforgood.org/donate/MakeDonation2.aspx?ORGID2=561252307
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