Mother Nature

There’s always so much I want to talk about, but I never know where to start!

The first thing is that I got my electricity back! Hallelujah! Actually, I got it back two months ago but forgot to mention it in my last update! It’s nice to be able to cook and heat bath water… even though we’re now in hot season. :( That means the next nine months will be a period of enduring mosquito bites, especially during rainy season (November – February)! That means lots of DEET (I apply it liberally like lotion!) and burning cow dung (which I don’t have) and basil. And planting lots of marigold and lemongrass.

That brings me to my next issue… we have been preparing ourselves for malaria season (during rainy season when mosquitoes breed like crazy). In July, our health workers (the overworked social workers/medical assistants/community advisors combined into one) ventured into the villages and recorded the names of under-five children who didn’t have insecticide-treated nets. About 17% of our catchment population are under-five (roughly 3,000), but most of them didn’t have nets. I think it was only about a quarter of those under-five who did have them. (Of course I don’t know how reliable the data is, because I heard some mothers would lie.) We just received the nets last week to distribute to the mothers, but there was a shortage of nets so some remained without them. In fact, the shortage of nets (and everything else) is so substantial that the donor withdrew distribution of nets to other targets. The original targets included the under-five children, people living with HIV/AIDS, orphans and vulnerable children, and other needy people, but the nets were so scarce that they could only distribute them to the under-five children.

I’m not sure who the donor is for this campaign, but I do know of a few who are trying to battle malaria. At the forefront is our very own Presidential Malaria Initiative. In 2005, Bush pledged millions of dollars to eliminate malaria in 15 countries with the worst cases of malaria. Malawi was one of them. Malaria is actually the number one killer here (as you may or may not remember from my update about “death season”); HIV is not. So many die from it that anytime a person is sick, the cause is assumed to be malaria – no questions asked. Not “What are your symptoms?” or “Were you tested?” It’s “Oh, you’re sick? Poor you. You must get malaria medicine.” But as I mentioned, the millions of dollars Bush pledged are going into the nets and medicine.

Another donor is PSI/Malawi. Their nets are usually given to the Ministry of Health who use the nets to promote incentives for women and children to attend the health facilities (instead of the traditional birth attendants and traditional healers who sometime put their lives at risk). Pregnant women usually receive a net during their antenatal check-ups (so the health professionals can monitor their health) and another one upon delivery (so they can have a proper and safe delivery that doesn’t involve putting herbs into their vaginas). And usually babies who are starting their immunizations would receive nets too.

At one point, UNICEF (or some other organization) was distributing nets to health centers to sell at a cheap price. But it was stopped for some unknown reason. I remember asking someone in the Peace Corps office about it and the response was about some unknown “higher up issue”.

On the one hand, there’s a huge demand for nets. I don’t know why there’s such a shortage of nets (isn’t it cheaper than DEET?), but I can understand why mothers are trying to scam the health workers to purchase nets for themselves. To them, malaria is the face of death.

But on the other hand, even with a sufficient supply of nets, they’d all be distributed by now if it weren’t for the “scammers”. While some people want to use the extra nets for themselves so they don’t have to buy them (most people wait until the free ones come even though they’re meant for children), others use the extras to sell for profit. By the lake, fishermen were using them for fishing. It’s beyond me why people refuse to spend money on a net (it was so cheap that it would only cost them maybe about 1.5 sodas’ worth) when the money they spend for treatment at a private facility or transport to a public facility would cost them 4-6 times what the net’s worth.

And that brings me to my next point – malaria treatment. My in-charge told me that before the Americans stepped in with their large-scale campaigns, people died from malaria without any hope of survival. Medicine was and still is so expensive that even private pharmacies couldn’t afford to buy them in Malawi. In fact, the plant used to make the medicine – Artemisia – is worth $300! Holy macaroni! The reason it’s so valuable is because it’s the only treatment that can effectively treat all strains of malaria (yet another reason why it’s so hard to combat). I heard the Chinese had known about the plant’s secret for centuries and refused to share it. It wasn’t until recently that the scientists discovered the secret after ten years of research. Since its discovery, some people have taken great effort to introduce Artemisia as a natural treatment. If you look at our health center’s front yard, you’ll notice a little tree that looks like a Christmas tree – that’s the miracle tree.

I think it’s amazing that there’s so much value in one little plant that it’s such a shame to think of so many potential medicinal plants being destroyed by deforestation and environmental degradation. Though natural medicine has been around for eons, the movement to use natural medicine as a complement to western medicine didn’t start until about ten years ago (perhaps coinciding with the discovery of artemisia’s secret?). You can learn more about it at http://www.anamed.org/.

I’ve been trying to set up natural medicine workshops for villagers, but the challenge is that we already have traditional healers (herbal doctors) are often associated with witchcraft. In reality, not all traditional healers practice witchcraft but because they both use natural means of “treatments”, natural medicine carries a negative stigma.

To be honest, I wasn’t interested in natural medicine much before I came here. My knowledge went as far as the bitter concoction my parents made for my colds (and which I adamantly refused to drink) and the “cuppings” and “back carvings”, but that was about it. I have yet to use acupuncture. Since I’ve been here, I have a newfound appreciation for our ancestors’ knowledge and methods of Eastern treatments. I think that we overrate Western medicine to the point of neglecting our ancestors’ methods that have worked since the beginning of time. What I like about ANAMED is that they actually try to experiment and see if a specific plant is effective or not, so we’re not blindingly believing in a plant’s potency.

So to advocate the use of natural means of improving your health, I’ll give you a few pointers! (Keep in mind that they’re not cures but are complementary to other forms of treatments to improve your health.)

-Garlic is good for boosting your immunity and memory, and reduces high blood pressure. It can also treat amoebas, colds, and fungal infections like athlete’s food
-Chilli pepper is good for flatulence and hemmorhoids! as well as rheumatism and hair loss. It can also help a woman with labor pains if you stick a chilli in her mouth!
-Lemon is good for coughs, fever, cold, and herpes labialis (canker sores).
-Eucalyptus is good for coughs, sore throat, and helps with diabetes and urinary infection. (It can also be used to make toothpaste!)
-Ginger is good for nausea and vomiting (especially during pregnancy) and hookworks.
-Onions are good for improving memory, gastrointestinal infections, and fungal infections.
-Aloe is good for burns, wounds, ulcers, conjunctivitis, and loss of hair.
-Pineapples are good for amenorrhea (lack of menstruation flow), oedema, external inflammation, and indigestion.
-Peanut leaves are goodf or sleeplessness.
-Coffee is good for migrains and nausea.
-Pumpkins (yes we eat them here!) are good for tapeworks and stimulating lactation after giving birth.
-Honey is good because it tastes good! :) It’s good for exhaustion (sleep is good too), heart diseases, liver damage, and most especially wounds.

There’s a whole lot more (see? isn’t it fascinating?) but I don’t want to write incessantly (or is it too late?)! I think it’s so interesting that the plants we live with and are used for ornamental or seasoning purposes can actually have medicinal purposes! I hope this gives you a newfound appreciation for Mother Nature and her gifts to us!

Baobab tree - the oldest tree in the world!

It's about 5,000 years old - can you imagine someone like the pharaoh passing through and embracing this tree? I'm sure once upon a time, it was worshipped by the Malawians. But this tree also has a lot of medicinal properties (and other uses) as well!

(By the way, can you see me standing next to the tree? haha)

Camp GLOW was a GO!

“When you educate a woman, you educate a nation.”

I just spent 10 days with a group of 78 teenage girls with raging hormones. These are girls who like to wake up at 4 AM screaming and singing at the top of their lungs; clog our toilets and flood our floors with water; walk around their dorms stark naked; start their mornings with gospel songs and dances; and end their nights with laughter and conversations that could be heard from miles and miles away.

And I loved it.

The girls on stage singing and dancing in the morning

Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) was a huge success. For those of you who contributed to the camp – WE THANK YOU WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS. We are truly grateful for all your support and wish you could have seen just how much you have helped to change these girls’ lives.

Though I was a bit stressed with planning all the recreational activities, competitions, prizes, AND being a counselor, my favorite part was just hanging out with the girls. I have to admit that I wasn’t too excited at the thought of being with teenage girls, but they had exceeded above and beyond my expectations of them and for them.

We invited 80 girls from all over Malawi who had great potential for their futures. The camp was preceded by two days of training for the counselors, followed by six days with the campers. Each day consisted of smaller sessions, assemblies/speakers, recreational activities, and competitions revolving around the theme of the day – Women in Malawi, Environment, Health, Self-Esteem, Career, and Future. We had special visitors from Opportunity Bank, USAID, Peace Corps, and the U.S. Embassy. They learned about things, from gender roles to vertical gardens to journalism. But the most important thing was that they walked out of the camp with more confidence and dreams of becoming Malawi’s future leaders.

One of my girls drew a picture of her future goal - to become a nurse

I don’t know how else to describe the success of the camp except through my perspective, so I guess I’ll talk a bit about what I’ve learned and experienced. I had nine girls in my group: some were quiet and shy, a few loud, a few strong, etc. One of the highlights was pillow talk- a time allotted before bed for girls to ask us questions and discuss their choice of topic. It became apparent that these girls are smart and brilliant. They were asking me questions I had no idea the answer to: “Why do STIs cause esotopic pregnancies?”, “Can a 3-year-old boy transmit HIV to a 3-year-old girl?”, “Why does gonorrhea cause blindness in babies?”, etc. Uhhh, yeah… I’ll get back to you on that.

And then we started talking about their initiation ceremonies. A few girls who had participated explained how the ceremonies influence girls to get married at a young age by talking of things that are meant for adults and things that are not ever spoken in public. I’ll spare you all the details. But I encouraged the girls to think about how girls can maintain this important rite of passage into womanhood without encouraging early marriage. We then started discussing about the impact of HIV/AIDS from initiation ceremonies.

The other highlight was the night activities. We had a cultural showcase (broken up by tribe), quiz bowls, poster contests, cake-decorating competitions, an indoor relay race, talent show, and a disco dance. I tell you – these girls LOVE to sing and dance! It was so much fun watching these girls become like little kids!

My group of girls - the Canadians!

(Don't ask me about the name - I have no idea how they came up with that)

The best highlight was to personally watch the camp transform their lives, especially for a special girl in my group. Here was a girl who displayed so much potential, maturity, intelligence, diligence, and respect. She was one of those girls you’d see in class raising her hands, answering questions in her almost perfect English, diligently paying attention, interacting with all the girls, and well-mannered in every sense. The last day of camp, she sat down with me and started telling me her life story – one that touched me and inspired me. Orphaned by both parents at a young age for an unknown reason, she lived with her older sister, who also had a family of her own to care for. Unable to support her school fees, she had to turn to other financial sources. Since she didn’t know her father’s family at all, she tracked down her relatives and sought assistance. They provided the finances for a short while before they stopped supporting her. She then turned to her mother’s sister for assistance. With seven children of her own, it wasn’t long before she had to stop financially supporting her. In the end, she turned to the director of the Ministry of Education who agreed to assist with her school fees. After explaining her challenges to me, she told me that Camp GLOW had changed her life and has really encouraged her that she really can do anything she wants and be anyone she wants. In her parting letter to me, she wrote, “I will never forget you, because you have really changed a lot of things and I will never be like those girls who always let themselves down.”

Another girl in my group also wrote, “I tell you, ‘I can do anything’, it’s a lot like a song, but really from now [on], ‘I CAN DO ANYTHING!’”

At the end of it all, I sat there thinking, “Wow, these girls are so amazing.” I’ve always taken gender equality for granted, but these girls have had to face so many challenges and obstacles – from their parents’ lack of encouragement or lack of parents to the pressure to bring some source of money into the family whether by farming or working for “sugar daddies” – yet they’ve persevered in spite of them. I can only hope that Camp GLOW has encouraged them and empowered them just a bit more so that they won’t give up on becoming the generation who will fulfill the purpose of “gender equality” and make Malawi a better place for girls. These are the Girls who will Lead Our World.

Once again, thank you! Even though you are halfway around the world, YOU have also made an impact on Camp GLOW and the girls at this camp. Thank you for supporting girls’ education in the U.S.; for creating gender equality in the classroom and workplace; for defending women’s rights when no one else believed in it; for encouraging them to fulfill their dreams and aspirations; for telling our sisters, daughters, and friends that “Girls can do anything”!

Power to the Girls,
Elaine

P.S. My work with gender will not stop here. I’m part of the Gender and Development committee for Peace Corps Malawi, working on ways to promote awareness about gender equality and gender development.

P.P.S. I apologize if my thoughts seem scattered. I had insufficient and inadequate sleep for the last 10 days. But feel free to ask me more questions about anything!

The group of girls in my hostel

The girls made origami birds that I taught them (you can see me behind the right arm)

Me and two of my girls

And finally... a non-GLOW picture...

Me and my coworker's baby Hope - isn't he so cute?? :)

Nostalgia

Sometimes I have these flashbacks of my first days (more like months) in Malawi and I remember just how harsh and foreign the conditions can be. The days of building fire. Unsuccessfully. Of hovering by a candlelight. Of drawing water from a water pump. Of my hands numbing from washing my clothes in the freezing cold water. Of bathing with cold water.

It all started with a man’s $7,000 mistake (cutting down a tree by himself instead of with others) resulting in destroying our whole mission’s electricity transformer… meaning I don’t have electricity. Yes, I know, it’s a privilege taken for granted all too much, but sadly, I actually rely completely on it since I have no alternative mean of cooking and heating water without it. Usually, I would stress, but it has happened so many times (that is… black outs, unpaid bills by the mission, bad wiring, melting sockets, etc., but not a destroyed transformer) that I have resorted to just shrugging and telling myself, Oh well, I’ll figure something out.

Even though we were told the transformer would be replaced in two weeks’ time, I somehow doubt it will be. Another site about 16 kilometers has been waiting three months… and the site where my friend is located 8 km from me has waited two years. It doesn’t surprise me, since Africans don’t have a good sense of time… even if they are the only electric company in Malawi.

I’m starting to contemplate the idea that I might have to live my last year of service without electricity (which was what I thought coming to Malawi anyway), so I’m trying to adapt as quickly as possible. The first thing I did was, after a week of waiting for market day (Tuesday and Saturday), buy a charcoal stove... which I still have to master. (It can’t be harder than building a fire… can it?) I’ve been making paper briquettes, so I don’t have to use regular charcoal… which is just too expensive and too detrimental for the environment. I just have to pretend that I’m camping everyday!

And I’ve resorted to taking cold baths… even though it’s winter (which was exactly what I had to do last year when I first moved to my site). It’s not the most pleasant experience, but I’ve learned little things like… NOT pouring cups of cold water on myself! Instead, I’d scrub myself with a loofah while squatting to maximize contact with my body heat. And I’ve mastered washing my hair without touching my face and body. Granted, I’m not as clean as I’d like to be… but I figured it beats losing all my body heat through the water vapors. (By the way, if you don’t know this already, I do bathe outdoor.)

But in all honesty, it wasn’t that fun losing electricity. It’s one thing to not ever have electricity and become accustomed to building fires and all that good stuff, but it’s another issue to be totally unprepared when you rely completely on electricity.
My situation really isn’t that bad, but the unfortunate issues are:
1) our health center operates completely on electricity, so it’s crippled without it,
2) our water taps also depend on electricity, so our whole mission is crippled without water, forcing people to walk to further to water pumps, which might cause…
3) the water pumps to dry out earlier than usual since it is dry season and is currently overused by my mission

Other than the electricity ordeal, I also had these other moments. I had become so accustomed to the lifestyle here that I have forgotten so easily how strange they once were to me. I tried to think… if YOU were here, what would stick out to you? I thought of things like… the roosters crowing at the break of dawn and often at my door… the hens and chicks parading around, digging into my garden… the Land Cruisers (private vehicles) and Toyota caravans (public vehicles) rumbling over the rocky roads and kicking up dust… men on bicycles carrying their usual katundu (“parcels”, i.e. firewood, boxes, chickens)... women carrying buckets and pots of water or vegetables on their heads… the children running around barefoot twirling some old bicycle tire… the pounding of maize and women’s heaving breaths before the sunrise… the overwhelming smoke and smell of burning plastic and leaves… the eee and the ah-ahhhh and the ohhoooo departing their mouths… the tinsmen pounding into the metals fashioning watering cans and charcoal stoves… the acapella chorals reverberating in perfect harmony in an abandoned house on a Sunday morning… Palibe wina opanda nanu…

Amazing, isn’t it? They created this… indescribable feeling within me. There are some days when I feel at such a loss about why I’m here or what I’m really doing… some days when I’m bubbling with anger within me… some days when I just yearn to be at home in my own bed eating watermelon… some days wishing that I could do away with all the guilt within me… some days wondering if I should be doing something more than just reading and thinking… some days when I think that people just have absolutely no idea… But when I stepped out of my own shoes for a moment – just a moment – to see the little niches of Malawi that makes it special and my life different, all I can think is, Life ain’t a cakewalk, but right now, it’s worth the walk for a piece of that cake. :)

Conate to Camp GLOW Online!

Thanks to those of you who were waiting patiently to donate online! Thanks to those of you who have already sent your non-tax-deductible checks!

If you would still like to make tax-deductible donations, please...
1) go to www.peacecorps.gov
2) click on "donors", then "donate to volunteer project"
3) type in "malawi" under keyword search
4) you will see this: MALAWI Camp GLOW 2008 - Perlman M. - MD 614-196 - $3,014.27 (the amount we're trying to raise)
5) make your contribution!

That's it! Thanks again for your continual support!

I'm actually pretty excited about this camp! I'm one of the camp counselors, as well as the activities coordinator, and there will be 2 girls from my area who will be attending!

Let me know if you have any questions!! Zikomo!

FOOD CRISIS

Maybe some of you have heard; maybe some of you haven’t. There is a crisis taking place in our world.

We are running out of food. The food and gas prices are going up. There’s competition for maize for food and biofuel.

Did you know that just last year, while consumption rates increased (shopping for A&F), donations to the World Food Program decreased (byebye food)? In fact, it decreased so much that WFP had to withdraw aid to perhaps the most heavily damaged people – the refugees and the displaced.

I think being Americans and the richest country in the world, we don’t see the impacts of the crisis. Of course, the rich are always the last to feel it. It’s not so much that people – particularly the Africans – just lack food. I’m not saying that we should just keep handing out food (or “redistributing” America’s surplus food), because that’s all the international aid seem to keep doing - creating dependency rather than self-sufficiency – when they could create a better balance of investing in immediate relief but more so in long-term benefits, such as basic financing and agricultural skills. (Never underestimate the good checking and balancing can do, something that no Malawians seem to know how to do.) And it probably would help if the agricultural officers were…. actually working. The health workers, even the ones who had been here 7 years, could not seem to identify who our agricultural development officers were. I’ll be honest – the government and the world are pouring tons of money into HIV/AIDS and the likes, yet little of that money touches the agroforestry department. Don’t get me wrong, HIV/AIDS is a major problem that needs to be addressed immediately… But the reality is that while 14% may be affected with HIV/AIDS, it’ll be the 75% who are starving and malnourished, including those with HIV. Those with HIV don't die from AIDS; they die because of their illnesses, which are exacerbated by their inability to nourish their own bodies.

So guess who bears the brunt of the world’s problems?

Africa's hunger - a systemic crisis
By Martin Plaut BBC Africa analyst

More than half of Africa is now in need of urgent food assistance.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning that 27 sub-Saharan countries now need help.
But what appear as isolated disasters brought about by drought or conflict in countries like Somalia, Malawi, Niger, Kenya and Zimbabwe are - in reality - systemic problems.
It is African agriculture itself that is in crisis, and according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, this has left 200 million people malnourished.
It is particularly striking that the FAO highlights political problems such as civil strife, refugee movements and returnees in 15 of the 27 countries it declares in need of urgent assistance. By comparison drought is only cited in 12 out of 27 countries.
The implication is clear - Africa's years of wars, coups and civil strife are responsible for more hunger than the natural problems that befall it.
Critical issues
In essence Africa's hunger is the product of a series of interrelated factors. Africa is a vast continent, and no one factor can be applied to any particular country. But four issues are critical:
Decades of underinvestment in rural areas, which have little political clout.
Africa's elites respond to political pressure, which is mainly exercised in towns and cities. This is compounded by corruption and mismanagement - what donors call a lack of sound governance.
Darren, Lobatse, Botswana
"Poor governance is a major issue in many African countries, and one that has serious repercussions for long-term food security," says a statement by the International Food Policy Research Institute.
"Problems such as corruption, collusion and nepotism can significantly inhibit the capacity of governments to promote development efforts."
Wars and political conflict, leading to refugees and instability.
In 2004 the chairman of the African Union Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare, reminded an AU summit that the continent had suffered from 186 coups and 26 major wars in the past 50 years. It is estimated that there are more than 16 million refugees and displaced persons in Africa.
Farmers need stability and certainty before they can succeed in producing the food their families and societies need.
HIV/Aids depriving families of their most productive labour.
This is particularly a problem in southern Africa, where over 30% of sexually active adults are HIV positive. According to aid agency Oxfam, when a family member becomes infected, food production can fall by up to 60%, as women are not only expected to be carers, but also provide much of the agricultural labour.
Unchecked population growth
"Sub-Saharan Africa 's population has grown faster than any region over the past 30 years, despite the millions of deaths from the Aids pandemic," the UN Population Fund says.
"Between 1975 and 2005, the population more than doubled, rising from 335 to 751 million, and is currently growing at a rate of 2.2% a year."
In some parts of Africa land is plentiful, and this is not a problem. But in others it has had severe consequences.
It has forced farming families to subdivide their land time and again, leading to tiny plots or families moving onto unsuitable, overworked land.
In the highlands of Ethiopia and Eritrea some land is now so degraded that there is little prospect that it will ever produce a decent harvest.
This problem is compounded by the state of Africa's soils.
In sub-Saharan Africa soil quality is classified as degraded in about 72% of arable land and 31% of pasture land.
In addition to natural nutrient deficiencies in the soil, soil fertility is declining by the year through "nutrient mining", whereby nutrients are removed over the harvest period and lost through leaching, erosion or other means.
Nutrient levels have declined over the past 30 years, says the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Consequences
The result is that a continent that was more than self sufficient in food at independence 50 years ago, is now a massive food importer. The book The African Food Crisis says that in less than 40 years the sub-continent went from being a net exporter of basic food staples to relying on imports and food aid.
In 1966-1970, net exports averaged 1.3 million tons of food a year, it states.
"By the late 1970s Africa imported 4.4 million tonnes of staple foods a year, a figure that had risen to 10 million tonnes by the mid 1980s."
It said that since independence, agricultural output per capita remained stagnant, and in many places declined.
Some campaigners and academics argue that African farmers will only be able to properly feed their families and societies when Western goods stop flooding their markets.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/4662232.stmPublished: 2006/01/31 02:32:22 GMT© BBC MMVIII

My One-Year Mark

I can hardly believe it. I’ve made it through one year! Another year seems so long, yet I know it’s not enough time to do all that I want to do.

It’s good to be back again. I was initially wary about coming back, but once I saw my counterpart, the youths, and the babies, I was content. A part of me was still saddened, because I had lost my best youth who was my best friend (for a good cause though! like nursing school) and my other confidant/tutor/friend who was a teacher at the mission (also for a good cause! like teaching at another school). It seems that everytime I befriend someone, he or she leaves me for a better cause.

I’ve only been back at my site for one week before having to take off again for another 2-week trip. This time, it’s not pleasure. After attending a few Peace Corps demos and a really early 4th of July celebration at the Ambassador’s house, I’ll be back at my old training ground for our Mid Service Training and meeting the new health group. I can’t believe I was in their shoes just a year ago. It literally seemed like it was just yesterday (I still remember that sense of bewilderment very well, or maybe it’s just because I still feel it.)

After cleaning up my cat’s potty messes and taking cold baths due to lack of electricity, I got to thinking about my projects again… and that was when the waves of doubts started hitting me. There were a few issues.

As some of you may know, I was helping my church (in Malawi) raise money for their new church building, and I was enthusiastic about helping them. But when the time came to buy the materials, I started wondering if I really was doing the right thing. After thinking about it some more, I decided that I am. The church had been raising funds for the last 7 years and all I (and other gracious donors) did was to help cover the roofing portion.

Then I started wondering if I should also be writing this proposal for a shelter. After a youth suggested for a permanent shelter to use (we’ve been using an assembly hall that’s not always available), I discussed with my medical in-charge and counterpart, who also suggested that the shelter be used as an under-five clinic. Technically, all health centers are supposed to have a shelter where mothers and children can wait and be weighed, but mine lacked one because it was part of a private clinic. Initially, I was excited at the thought of a shelter for the youths and children, but when I came back and learned of the low attendance in our youth club, I started doubting. It was when I went to my youth club on Friday that I remembered how much I enjoyed their company and appreciated the great things they’re doing, no matter how slow they’re going or how few they are. I still have my doubts, but I try to remember of my love for the youths and children. Even if the youth club completely falls apart with not a person left, at least I know there will always be children and mothers in need of vaccination to use and appreciate the shelter come rain or sun.

I guess in the long run, I want to make sure that I’m not being more detrimental to my community by letting them think that we foreigners have the money and the solution to all their problems. I don’t want to take away the “sustainability” of their own skills and resources. The moment I cross that line and do their job for them is the moment I’ll know that I have failed my job as a Peace Corps Volunteer.

But until my next update, let’s hope I can still do something right! J

Tiwonana,
Elaine

Supporting Burma and China

Dear friends,

I know that some of you may be sitting at home anxiously wondering how some of the world’s leaders will respond to the disasters taken place in Asia, while wondering how you can assist yourself. I’ve thought a bit about how we can best support the displaced by following the news and donating to organizations that can place your funds most appropriately:

www.irawaddy.org (an independent publication of Burma and southeast Asia)
www.chinadaily.com.cn
(I don’t know how reliable these sites are but you’d get more information about the countries from their perspectives)

www.unicef.org (based on what I’ve seen in Malawi, they seem to give to established institutions, i.e. schools, health centers, and sometimes local organizations but doesn’t monitor the distribution of funds)

www.wfp.org (same as unicef, they seem to only give to established institutions but not much to local organizations)

www.redcross.org (it seems that Red Cross has the most leverage in terms of getting access and support to refugee camps)

If you would like to support other NGOs, I highly encourage you to go to www.charitynavigator.org and evaluate their ratings and effectiveness.

I’ve already gone ahead and did some research for some NGOs within China and Burma you can support from the ground. You can click on the link and view the ratings and websites of each NGO. These are the best NGOs (four stars) suggested by Charity Navigator:

CHINA:
· ACCION International
· Islamic Relief USA
· Mercy Corps
· Operation Blessing International
· PATH
· Project HOPE
· World Relief
· Kids Alive International
· Global Volunteers
· Doctors of the World-USA
· Half the Sky Foundation
· Church World Service
· Himalayan Cataract Project
· ADRA
· International Institute of Rural Reconstruction, U.S. Office
· China Care Foundation

BURMA:
· Action Against Hunger-USA
· Save the Children
· World Vision
· Kids Alive International
· Church World Service
· ADRA

And last but not least, sometimes the only and best thing to do is to pray which would never go unheard.

I hope this helps to make giving less stressful!

Blessings,
Elaine