Christmas at MCC -- Life-Changing Gifts, and Cards, and Firelight Aglo -- December 2014 -- Month 5 at MCC in the United States :)

It's December already!  The months have flown by and though there's so much to tell about MCC (Mennonite Central Committee,) and also about the work still going on in the D.R. that I'm involved with, I've once again gotten behind on my blogging!

This coming New Years I will  "resolve" to do better! :)

 COMPUTERIZED CHRISTMAS FIRE COMES TO MCC

So what have I been doing at MCC? There are many things.  My position puts me in daily conversations and meetings with MCC workers and volunteers in countries and places from Lebanon to Guatemala to Israel to Philadelphia, to the Democratic Republic of Congo to New York City, to Canada, to California, to Vietnam, to Sudan, every day! There's so much great humanitarian, disaster relief, and community development work going on at MCC that I get to be a part of supporting (both around the globe and in the U.S. and Canada too) that it's hard to pick and choose what to write about.

So, this month -- since it's December -- It seems reasonable to focus on the Christmas stuff!  What happens at MCC (Mennonite Central Committee) around Christmas time?  Well, I can tell you, it's a great time of year!

 
1.)  First, here's a story (click the name of the story for the link):

CHRISTMAS MEAL STARTS MINISTRY TO NIGERIAN DRUG USERS



This (above) is just one very small story of the work that MCC supports local individuals (in-country nationals) in doing all around the world.  Part of my job is helping small organizations like Home Makers learn how to find sustainable income to keep their projects running and going strong.

2.)  The second thing that happens shortly before Christmas at MCC -- something I've loved for many years when I would see it show up at various churches I attended, long before I ever came to work at MCC -- is that the MCC Christmas Catalogue shows up! It's a great way to learn more about the work MCC is doing this year, and a great opportunity to give a gift that will truly change lives, not just fill someone's stocking with a gift that they'll recycle or return, or throw away tomorrow.

The MCC Gift Catalogue can be found here online,
although
I like this link over here even better because it gives more specific examples and ideas.

I would love it if some of you would consider a donation to help one of the projects of MCC this year, if you're interested!

It's one of many great ways to GIVE A SMALL GIFT THAT CHANGES LIVES.

Below are some of the categories you'll find in the catalogue.  Of course, since MCC does relief and development work in countries with ever-changing needs (including the U.S. and Canada too,) giving a gift labelled "WHERE NEEDED MOST" allows MCC to use your donation to help those in greatest need!






               HOPE                                            HEALTH                                    JOBS/LIVELIHOODS


3.) One last beautiful moment of Christmas at MCC actually happened already, way back in early-November!  It's something that most organizations in the world would never have the opportunity to stop and do, I don't think, and it was a beautiful moment that really touched me.  MCC, you see, has almost 1000 staff members (large numbers of them unpaid volunteers from the U.S. and Canada, Europe, Africa, and Latin America, all serving 3-5 years terms, in countries far from their extended families.) They don't generally go "home" for Christmas.  So in late October the email goes out at the MCC U.S. Main office in Akron, Pennsylvania, and at the MCC Canada Main Office in Winnipeg. "It's time to sign the Christmas Cards for the International Program teams!"   In Akron, they pop a CD into the computer (the one usually used for international skype meetings between "main office" where I work, and the international programs staff abroad,) and a computerized fire blazes on the screen, and the Christmas carols play.  And the staff at the Akron PA office stop their typing at their computers, set aside their phone calls and skype meetings, they stop balancing budgets, and sending out Thank You's to donors, and preparing for that next training they'll be giving next week to new staff, and they meet in the room with the "fire" blazing, in shifts, to sign Chistmas cards -- lots of Christmas Cards.  They're cards that will then be sent next to the Winnipeg, Canada office, and then on from there, cards for the volunteers and staff serving in each country program of MCC around the world (and MCC serves in 60 countries.)  The cards have to be signed in November, so they can get to the proper countries, through all kinds of postal systems and transportation arrangements, in time for Christmas!  The most beautiful thing to me wasn't the laughter as folks pretended to warm themselves by the computerized "fire," or the chocolate candy and cards and Christmas songs and cameraderie around that card-signing table. No.  It was listening to my co-workers -- most of whom have been at the MCC main office longer than me -- chatting about the people who would be receiving the cards.  They said things like: "Oh yeah, did you hear, Sonya's baby is cutting her teeth.  Yeah they've really been losing sleep over there in _______ (name of country)."   "Oh yeah, it sounds like their program teaching job skills to the teens there is going really well, but did you hear his story about how that crazy goat busted in in the middle of their class last week? That was hilarious! ..." or  "Oh, you know I was just talking to them yesterday and they were super excited to get that package of books that you sent... Jenna's in fourth grade now you know..."

                                      "Hey, who's got the stack of cards for the Asia Programs?"

It was another one of those amazing moments at MCC when I was reminded that MCC, no matter how huge it is (an organization with country offices supporting local workers in 48 countries and partnering with local humanitarian leaders in at least 12 more,) still has all of it's people on speed dial.  Everyone knows everyone.  Everyone at that main office in Akron cares about the MCCers and staff serving in the other country programs. The international staff send their own care right back to many at the main office as well.  They care about each other's kids, and hobbies, and the last book they read, and the work that they're all doing -- in 60 countries around the globe! As a new person in the main office I was thrilled to come across names that even I knew on the Christmas cards we were sending out, people I've already had the chance to work closely with -- people who are in Sudan, Columbia, Israel, Haiti, and more.  It was another one of those great moments -- moments that seem to happen basically daily at the main office, I've noticed -- moments of being reminded that MCC cares enough about it's huge extended staff and volunteer team to plan more than 2 months in advance, to stop the "work" for awhile just to remind everybody "We love you this Christmas! We're a team -- like a family (though we're definitely not perfect!) Even if you're far away serving this Christmas, we know you and your family and we're remembering you this Christmas, by name!"


So, herre are a few photos of the Christmas Card signing in Akron:

     Sending a photo of a Peaceful Holiday Moment from an MCC country program in 

     Latin America to MCCers working for "little  

     steps toward Justice, Peace, and safety" in the Middle East, Europe, and around the globe.

               

      My colleague Lynn (he works with MCC education programs globally,) testing the "warmth" of the computerized fire! :)

May you all have a Joyful Christmas Season!

August 2014 - A New Adventure: Mennonite Central Committee

As many of you know it was a busy summer for me.  I'm just now getting caught up on the blog!

In the end of June, 2014 I transitioned out of my position at Health Horizons in the Dominican Republic and into a position in the Planning, Learning and Disaster Response Department at the main U.S. headquarters of Mennonite Central Committee, in Akron PA.

Leaving the D.R. was very difficult and I’m still maintaining many connections there, (and assisting with one project there that I’ll tell you about in a later post,) but in my life I’ve learned to just follow God’s leading one year at a time, and it seemed clear that this year, at least, God wanted me at MCC.  So I moved to Akron, PA and joined 59 other new MCC workers at a week and a half-long orientation session in Akron. 

Now, I’ve always loved MCC as an organization.  MCC, the outreach arm of the U.S. and Canadian Anabaptist churches, works in 60 countries around the world, with offices currently in 48 of those countries and local partners in all 60 countries. MCC does the work of “Relief, Development and Peace in the name of Christ.” Unlike many organizations that do great humanitarian work around the world, most of MCC’s staff in those offices around the world are volunteers.  At MCC they’re called Service Workers and most of them serve 3-5 year terms.

Walking into the training I was impressed with the sheer numbers – 60 new staff and service workers in an orientation session! A couple of us were staying to serve in the U.S. and Canada and the rest heading out to countries all across the globe.  As I got to know these folks, my orientation buddies, I also became impressed by their passion, their experience, and their levels of expertise for positions (many of them full-time volunteer jobs) that they were putting their U.S. possessions in storage for or selling altogether.  Single people were going. Husbands and wives; couples with small children; retired couples who had sent their youngest away to college and were now heading into an international field of service.

We had:

• A U.S. Attorney heading off with his International Development trained wife --  to do advocacy work in Haiti
• A female Canadian Engineer flying off to help Communities build Sand-Dams to provide water to villages and crops in Mozambique,
• A young man from El Salvador who speaks 5 languages heading back to Columbia, where he's been volunteering fro several years, to continue strengthening communities there and working for peace in a country torn by conflict.
• Another young man, from Mexico, who has been serving in rural communities across Latin America for years heading back once again for another three year volunteer term.
• A couple who met in high school while missionary kids growing up in Congo, now heading back to lead the country program there for MCC.

The list went on and on.

I was impressed by the diversity and global knowledge of the group, and also excited that we had people who were Local Staff from MCC programs in South Africa, Mozambique, and Columbia all at orientation with me too. After orientation they would go back to their own countries to continue working in instrumental positions in their MCC country programs, providing leadership, and helping the people of their home countries. 

"Music, rap, working with children, teens, families, conflict resolution, non-violence, construction of Peace." (A presentation by one of the Columbian staff members on MCCs current work in her home country, conflict-torn Columbia, South America.)

(Reporting on a Colombian women's trauma-healing support group. Here the women are talking about the murders caused by civil-war style fighting in their communities and sewing the story into a quilt as a visual way of thinking about the horrors and beginning to tell their story.)

And I don’t want to forget to mention the Canadians and U.S. citizens who attended orientation so they could return to their own communities in Canada and the U.S., working for economic justice, racial and cultural reconciliation, and many other great aspects of MCC's global work that also encompasses North America.

So, it has been a pleasure to get to know some of the many MCC workers who are, have been, and will continue to be serving around the world.  Below are links and photos to three stories about just a couple of the many cool programs and projects that MCC Volunteers (service workers) and local country-staff have been doing in various countries this Spring & Summer.
Click the blue links below to learn about:

1.) Hygiene and Health Kits for Refugees & People Recovering from Natural Disasters

2.) Disaster Preparedness and Recovery training for Pastors following Typhoon Haiyan

3.) The Children at the Border -- Helping address root causes

I will post a couple of links like this at the bottom of every post of mine this year, (and beginning in November I'll plan to post monthly).  I hope you'll take a few minutes to click on just the topics that interest you, to get an inside scoop on the work that MCC is doing around the world :).

1.)  Hygiene Kits from U.S./Canadian churches & MCC help refugees and people recovering from natural disasters around the world (currently more kits are needed in Syria).

2.) Filipino Pastors Strengthen Skills for Future Disasters following Typhone Haiyan.

3.) Two Links re: the "Children at the Border Crisis": Dealing with Root Causes of Central American Migration to the U.S. &  Helping South & North of the border

Just call me: "Janelle Avocado-seed" - July 8, 2014

  

When I first decided that it was time to stop working at Health Horizons International in the Dominican Republic after 3 great years there working in medical humanitarian work and training and supporting local staff and volunteers, I knew it was time to look for a new position - either in or not in the Dominican Republic - depending where God opened the door.  But I knew that whether I worked in the D.R. or elsewhere in the future, the goodbyes would be really tough.  I love the D.R. and my friends and co-workers at HHI, and the communities we worked in.  Even if I stayed in the D.R. I'd probably be working in other, different communities than the ones where I had built so many friendships.

So I wanted to give a gift to my friends and co-workers in those communities so that we'd both remember our friendship -- in case we started seeing each other less. 

I wanted it to be a gift that would last for a long time.

Something Useful & yet also Something Beautiful.

Something that could perhaps make their lives better.

As a child I had always loved the story of Johnny Appleseed (not the real, historical story, mind, you, but the one told to children in school) -- of how Johnny Appleseed planted Apple-trees all across the United States.  I thought - hmmm, since many people in the area of the D.R. where I live don't have a lot of money, and some don't have enough food -- certainly hardly anyone eats more than Rice and Beans on a daily basis -- perhaps a food-bearing tree would be a good gift for my friends....

But what type of tree could grow from seed in the D.R.? (There are many that grow better from saplings than from seed, and I didn't want to have to buy little saplings.  I wanted to give a gift that my friends could later give again to others in the same way if they wanted to.  Something that would last. Something that  -- over time -- could spread!  So I researched... and I found the Avocado tree.  Avocadoes, my favorite food in the D.R., and a D.R. family favorite, are a great source of income for some families. Those who are lucky enough to have a tree can sell the avocadoes. They can eat the avocadoes too, a yummy and healthy addition to the rice and bean diet that many families subsist on.

Of course one avocado tree won't help you. You need two avocado trees planted somewhere near each other so that the bees can pollenate both trees and the trees can thus (in approx. 10 years after seeding) bear fruit.

So every few mornings, when I bought my 15 peso giant Avocadoes from the Hatian lady who came by my house with the bin of fruit on her head, and after I made guacamole or avocado salad for my lunch, I stuck the seeds in little white plastic cups half full of water.

Some of the seeds sprouted in a few weeks. Others seemed to take several months to really crack open and begin to get small roots down below the water, and then a little green twig coming out up top. (top photo). Once they really got a good root system and a real little tree on top, I repotted them into larger pots.  My porch got fuller and fuller of baby avocado trees of various sized and ages. I wondered for awhile if this was a stupid idea.  Perhaps none of my friends were growing their own avocado trees (a simple feat in the D.R. it seemed,) because they simply didn't want one; or because they didn't own any land of their own to plant two trees on - this was true for some of them, definitely; or because this just wasn't for whatever reason something that people wanted.  Perhaps it was a hair-brained "foreign American Girl in the D.R. idea" and all my Dominican and Haitian friends would laugh at this gift.  Perhaps it wasn't a good gift idea at all.

But soon my Dominican and Haitian friends and Neighbors started asking: "Hey, are those Avocado trees on your porch? Who are the avocado trees for?"

"For Special people" I said.

"Can I have one?" They often asked.

"We'll see." I said.  But for many of the little sets of trees, I already had people in mind.

 

Then God opened the door for me to take a position in the Main Mennonite Central Committee U.S. office in the department of Planning, Learning and Disaster Response. I was excited about the job, and the opportunity to work with MCC -- a wonderful International Relief & Development and Peace-Building organization that I have always loved!  But I was also very sad to be leaving the D.R. completely -- I had hoped to stay there longer and work more in the country.

But it seemed that for now God had other plans.... so it was time to deliver the avocado trees to as many families of my friends as I had had time to grow trees for.  

So -- for once, I rented a car for a day; a car with 4 wheel drive to take my little trees up the mountain to some of my friends living in the low income villages in the countryside.  I also gave out trees to some of my friends living in Montellano and Pancho Mateo - our more urban settings that still struggle with poverty.  It was a wonderful experience going to visit my friends in their homes or having them stop by my house for coffee or brownies, a chat, and to pick up their "very small surprise."  

I always said "I'm not sure if this is something you want or not, but I wanted to give you something that would be alive and last a long time and represent our on-going friendship."  Though I was still nervous that perhaps this was a stupid gift I was relieved that each one seemed delighted to receive their tree and talked about how they'll look forward to eating the fruit. 

I took a photo with everyone that I gave trees too, saying "ok, so now we can remember our friendship with these Avocado tree -- you'll have the trees and I'll have the photos."

(Below) I gave one to my friend Beatrice who helped me put up my Christmas tree last year and who helped me with my first Avocado tree planting experiments!  She taught me how Avocado trees are grown in Haiti (in the ground, not in cups,) but she liked the cups of water idea. :)

Then I drove up the mountain to visit my friend and Co-worker Estela and her family 

(above and below) in Negro Melo.

Her youngest daughter loved our little tree and immediately yanked a weed out of they're flowerbed and replaced it with the tree still in it's pot.

Estela said she wanted to carry the tree out to her garden several miles away on a protected hillside and plant it there so that the farm animals that she and her husband raise couldn't eat it's young leaves and so that the little tree would live long, grow much fruit, and be protected for years to come....  :)

But alas, she really couldn't do that, because her little tree was alone and it's sister tree -- the one that needed to be near it so that both trees in the town would get pollenated and bear fruit -- still needed to be delivered to her neighbor, my friend Mireya, who lived across the street.

So Estela swore to plant her tree right there in her front yard, facing Mireya's across the street, and to put up a fence around it to protect it from the animals...

And she said "hey, I'll go with you to deliver hers," so we set off together with the sister tree 

to Mireya's house.

 

Mireya, who I met three years ago because she needed medical care and Estela and I were able to help her with that (and did,) is a hard-working grandmother, currently single-handedly raising several of her teenage grand-children in a little house in the country. When I first met her she didn't have a job and feeding those grand-kids was a real struggle. Now she travels 30 minutes by motorcycle down the mountain to town, and then 25 more minutes on a public bus every few days to go clean house for a wealthier lady in the capital city of the province.  She expressed delight at receiving her tree, and when she heard it was because I was leaving she immediately offered to come down the mountain to see me off at the airport so I wouldn't be alone and sad while leaving. This was an expensive proposition for her that would have required her to travel almost an hour on various transport just to get there.  I was honored to give this tree to Mireya, a wonderful friend, loving Grandmother, and one of the only people I've seen in her town who is friends "equally" with the Dominicans and also the Hatian Immigrants who live there - a true bridge builder!

 

I love my friends up there in Negro Melo (Mireya on the right,) and will definitely miss them!

I also gave trees to my friend and co-worker Corina (who has created one of the most beautiful tropical gardens on all 4 sides of her home up at the top of the mountain in Arroyo de Leche), and one to her neighbor, my friend and co-worker Mercedes who is one of the best cooks in the D.R.! Mercedes already cooks food for half of her community some days it seems, so I thought she would be able to share her great cooking hospitality with even more people if she had an avocado tree of her own!

I gave one to my friend Dania, a great friend from Pancho Mateo, who always invited me over and  let me have the wonderful opportunity of spending holidays like New Years, Christmas, Easter and other important events with her fun extended family. She was married for a long time but now is a single mom and a great gardener with 3 growing children to feed, and - luckily -- neighbors (my great friends Carlito and Claudia,) who already have a "sister" avocado tree to get pollenated along with hers! :)

I would have loved the fun opportunity to share avocado trees with so many more of my friends who've been such an important part of my life in the D.R. -- but I only had a few trees left.

So I gave one to my landlord -- to plant in his back-yard;  and one to the mayor of my little town -- Mayor Sanchez, who has been a good neighbor to me, fixing the problem of water pooling in the road near my house when I and the neighbors asked him to do so, in an attempt to decrease the mosquito population and thus decrease the prevalence of mosquito-born illnesses like Dengue and Cholera in our town. Once we talked to him about the medical problems that can be caused by standing water he had workmen out there working on it the following day! So a tree seemed fitting for his family as a thank you.

And I gave two to my downstairs neighbor, Solangi, (photo above) who had been watching them grow for months. She's been a great neighbor!

And I gave 2 to the Community Health Workers of Severet, my friends and Co-workers Dorka, Catherine, Fones and Jahaira, so they can plant them at each end of the community garden that the community hopes to build, so that the neighbors in Severet finally have better access to vegetables to improve their diets and prevent the ever increasing Diabetes type 2 caused by a diet of mostly rice. (Great idea, Dorka! Dorka's the one in the pink.)

  

These friends from Severet (led by Dorka) had already prepared wonderful hand-made gifts for me (without knowing anything about the trees). They gave me a hand-decorated card signed by all, and several hand-crafted butterflies (a symbol of the D.R.)(inside the bag) that they'd thoughtfully created, covered with poetry, and signed -- for me to hang in my new office in the States.

So it will probably take about 10 years of love, sun, and warm Dominican rain to grow those little Avocado saplings into trees that are big enough to bear fruit.

But with the way that my past 3 friend-filled years in the D.R. flew by so fast, I can only assume that those next 10 years of love, sun, and rain will fly by too!

Of course handing out all of these trees gave me the great blessing of visiting so many of these wonderful friends to say "hasta la vista - let's keep in touch!"

Much love to all of my Amigos and Colleagues in the Dominican Republic!

I hope there will be many more avocadoes sprouting soon! :)

News, Moves, and New Adventures! May 2014 - Month 35 in the D.R.

Dear Everybody,

I've been trying to figure out how to write this post for the past couple of months -- trying to think of how to write it eloquently.  But time moves along and I have finally given up on that, realizing that I can't seem to find the words to say it eloquently, so in place of eloquence, I'll just share the news and leave it at that.

After 3 years in the D.R., (where I have felt very called to be, and have so very much enjoyed working and living, and where I have since day one fallen totally in love with the people and the work I do here -- can hardly imagine being somewhere else --) but God has opened a different door.

My 3 years of contracts at Health Horizons International will end in mid-June 2014 (aka really soon), and though I still very much feel God's call on my heart to the D.R., I'm going to be leaving the D.R. in late June to walk through a new door that God has opened for me and seems to be leading me into at this time. 

I have been offered a position with Mennonite Central Committee in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and have accepted that position!  MCC is an organization that has always been very much a part of my life (since childhood, growing up in Mennonite Churches) and I have been very passionate about the amazing humanitarian relief and development work that they do in the name of Christ, for many years.

Being offered this position at MCC was an unexpected, rather unplanned opportunity for me and I am excited for the chance to work with the MCC team in Akron!  I have already been so inspired by the welcome I have already received from various members of the staff there -- even though I have not yet even begun to arrive, and I look forward to working with such an amazing, God-filled, and caring group of people!

On the other side of the coin I am woefully sad to be leaving the D.R. and have little doubt that at some point in my life God will bring me back to international fieldwork, like the work I have been doing here, either here in the D.R. or somewhere else.  This work has such a strong hold on my heart (and has for years since I first began feeling "called to the mission field" when I was in elementary school).

I wanted to share this news about my move to PA for the position at MCC and to say the following 2 things to the readers of this blog (my friends, family, church family, and also fellow missionaries from the D.R.).

1.)  Though my location is changing I hope that you will still read this blog every month, because there are a lot more stories that I still want to tell -- stories of what's going on in the D.R. now (while I'm here -- there are several stories of things that have happened this Spring that I have not yet gotten to share!)  Then there will be stories I'll be sharing here of the amazing work that MCC is doing around the word that I will get to be involved in, AND (another exciting thing that I haven't gotten to share stories about yet) I'll be sharing stories of an exciting project in the Dominican Republic that I'm still going to be consulting on remotely as a volunteer, while I'm in Pennsylvania, working with the great programs of MCC.  So the Stories from the D.R. will continue and other stories from around the world will be added.

2.) So, please do keep reading this blog -- there will continue to be posts every month about things I'm working on here (D.R.) and things I'm working on in PA that affect and support the work of MCC around the world.

There are lots of great international mission and humanitarian stories to tell! I'm excited that I'll be able to report on two types now!

1.) Great MCC projects (around the world)

2.) Great D.R. projects that are still on-going!

I hope you will continue this journey with me over the years to come!
  
Thank you so much for all of the on-going love, support, and prayers!

Huge love to all!

- Janelle Bitikofer

Making a Double Difference in Diabetes -- April 2014 - Month 34 in the D.R.

This month (April) I get to talk about something that's super special to me.
Many people know -- and probably some people don't know -- that I have Type 1 Diabetes (the kind you get as a young person that requires you to take Insulin every day).

Because I myself have Diabetes, working here at Health Horizons International in the Dominican Republic, and getting to initiate interventions to help people here learn more about Chronic Illnesses like Diabetes, learning to prevent it, and learning how to live healthier lives if they already have it, has been a part of my job that's very close to my heart.

Here in the D.R. you can walk through any town and see a ridiculously large number of people with amputated legs.  Now many of those amputated legs are due to motorcycle accidents. But many of them are also due to Type 2 Diabetes that has not been well-cared for.  People are living with high blood sugars for years, not realizing the danger that this presents to their limbs, their hearts, and their eye-sight, all of which can be detrimentally affected by high blood sugars due to Diabetes.  Often amputated legs are the result.

Here in the D.R., treatment of Diabetes is becoming a priority of the National Ministry of Health  -- but there are many doctors who are still not well-trained on how to treat it, and many people living with Diabetes who don't know what they need to know in order to prevent the negative side effects that come from having high blood sugars for long periods of time.

So this month I'm thrilled to report on two great projects that I've been very excited to be a part of in the fight to get Diabetes information, treatment, and prevention to the masses here.

1.) The first thing:  A co-worker and I wrote a grant application seeking funding to help the Dominican Ministry of Health provide special training to doctors here in our Province of the D.R. related to Diabetes. We recently found out we WON the $200,000 Grant!  Now, with help from HHI, the Dominican National Ministry of Health, and Endocrinologists from the D.R. and the U.S. will be providing new training to General Practice Doctors here -- in the Public Health Hospitals and Clinics throughout the Province of Puerto Plata.  The Doctors will learn up to date info and strategies on how to diagnose, treat, and prevent Diabetes!  The project will also teach local Community Health Workers across the province how to spot the danger signs of Diabetes, make referrals to hospitals and clinics to get people linked to treatment, and help people in their communities live healthier lives to prevent Diabetes and it's side effects!  I'm super excited that this training program will be rolled out across the province, and there will be screening days at the large hospitals helping people discover if they have Diabetes, and if they do, getting them into treatment!  It makes my heart so happy to know that while HHI has only worked in 4 small communities until now, providing direct care to patients with Diabetes, now Doctors and Health Workers across the entire province will be better trained and better prepared to help people in many, many more towns, treat and prevent Diabetes.
 So I'm super excited about that and I thank God for the opportunity to get that project funded and started here at HHI!  

  2.) The second thing I'm really excited about this month is also in the area of Diabetes.

 

Here at HHI I supervise medical students (administratively) and Doctors and get to assign them to projects where they can really make a difference with our patients in the 4 communities where we do the direct patient care.  This month we had a medical student here for 4 weeks, and I asked her to walk alongside some of our patients with Diabetes who were really struggling and seemed unable despite their best attempts to get their blood sugars down to a healthier level.

 

She walked alongside them and their families, educating them about Diabetes, how it works, how to lower their blood sugar by eating healthier, exercising more, and taking their medications as prescribed.  And in the end, their blood sugars are getting lower! (The photo at the top of this post is of the Diabetes group in one of our communities, Pancho Mateo.)

 

So I'm really excited about their success -- and the patients report feeling better, and feeling excited that they can take control of their own health. They state they now understand more about how to take the power back from their Diabetes. It warms my heart!  So here are a few photos of some of the things the medical student (Emily) and I got a chance to do with the Diabetic patients and families over the past month.

Here we are learning to eat more healthy food with less sugar, less fat and less carbs - "Eating a little bit of everything we love" -- but doing it in a healthy way.

 

 

 Getting regular blood pressure and blood sugar checks by Medical Student Emily.

 

 

Here we're checking our Pedometers.  "30,000 steps in 2 days! Wow! That's a lot more than you were walking before. You should be really proud of yourself! We're all so proud of you!"

 

Using the "plate method" to figure out what we're eating, and how we can change our portion sizes and food combinations to decrease carbs and increase protein, veggies,  and implement an individualized food plan that promotes lower blood sugar and weight loss.

The program was well-received and at the end of the month we all shared stories as a big group (photo at top) sharing about the different things that each had learned and started to implement to improve their health.  Hugs were exchanged all around as med student Emily ended her month-long time visiting in their homes and helping them learn more about how to take back control of their Diabetes.  I was thrilled to see the new knowledge that they were all beginning to use in their daily lives!

 Here we are -- some of the group -- me (front/center), Emily, a few of the patients, their family members, and their community health workers who will continue to walk along with them and support them on their road to taking back control from their Diabetes.

 

So far during my almost 3 years in the D.R. these have been two of my favorite projects!

I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to begin helping folks here take 

back control of their health rather then thinking they have to give up

their livelihoods,  

their lives, their legs, and their eye-sight to Diabetes!

 

It's exciting to see people learning more about their health!

 

Thanks to all of you who have continued to support and encourage me in the work

that we are doing here.  I really appreciate it!  Every day here is an adventure full of new challenges but more importantly -- new possibilities. :)

Every day -- both here, and also where you are -- is an opportunity to give, as they say here, 

our own little "grano de arena"

(our own "little grain of sand")

to make a difference right where we are.

 

Togetherness Makes Our Work More Successful! -- March 2014 - Month 33 in the D.R.



One thing that missionary and humanitarian workers notice around the world, no matter where they're working, (and this happens in North America too,)  in places where there is a lot of need there also congregate a number of nonprofit and missionary groups trying to make difference there. While trying to make a difference is always a good thing, sometimes the help is not much help at all, if the various nonprofit and missionary groups don't communicate and work together, and they duplicate services, or give the same aid to the same people over and over again, and miss others. 

 Sometimes -- in places like the Dominican Republic -- many, many groups come from other countries, for maybe a week at a time. They want to help, so they hand out food or Tylenol or they try to build a bridge over a river that seems impassible at the time when they arrive. 

 

But if these visiting groups don't collaborate with the pastors and the community leaders, and the organizations that are locally led, and that have staff and volunteers living and working in that community 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year, then the help the visiting groups try to bring often amounts to very little actual "Help" and the funds they donate are often wasted on small projects that were already being handled by a local group -- it's just that nobody in the visiting group stopped to ask.

 

 

I work in one such community here in the Dominican Republic . The community, named Pancho Mateo is home to between 800 and 2000 people, according to local population estimates. It's a very close-knit community of families and relatives, low-income Dominicans and low-income Haitian immigrants, where almost everyone knows almost everyone else, and people help each other out.  

 

But there is a lot of need in Pancho Mateo. There is approximately 90% unemployment due to a general lack of job opportunities in the area.  While most of the young people -- teenagers and those in their 20s -- are now finishing high school and some going on to college, many of their parents and grandparents living with them in Pancho Mateo  had to quit school early to work, when they themselves were kids, and so many of the adults have between a fourth and an eighth-grade education.  As a medical worker serving in Pancho Mateo I occasionally run across patients of ours who don't have enough food to eat in their homes and therefore don't take their medications because they were told to "take this pill with food" -- and there isn't any rice today.

 More than half of the families in the community do not have running water of any sort their homes, and those who do, have dirty water that is not fit for cooking or drinking (as is true for all of us here in this part of the island).  There are many people in Pancho Mateo with medical illnesses who don't have health insurance or access to affordable  quality healthcare --which creates a phenomenon in which people involved in local traffic accidents lose their legs and lives over injuries that in wealthier countries would've been very curable, fixable, or preventable.

 

 So there are many needs in Pancho Mateo.

Unfortunately until recently more than 15 foreign nonprofit groups were working independently there - helping people with everything from education to health to food and financial assistance.  Many of them were doing great work. The bummer is that most of those non-profit and missions groups didn't talk much to each other. Many of them didn't even know that each other existed!

 

 You could walk into Pancho Mateo on a Monday and see a medical group handing out free medicine for hypertension.  Then if you went back to the same community a few days later you might see another medical group that had just stopped by for the afternoon, changing those people's medications to some other free medication they were giving out that day.  The two groups rarely even knew that they were both working in the same community, nor that by giving out medications -- in this example -- they were harming the people who they were trying to help, by frequently changing people's medications, which does not allow for efficacy of treatment for any of the patients. 

There were also at least 3 educational groups working in the community providing services to children and adults - yet they were generally unaware of each other, and of whether they might accidentally be duplicating services in some way.

 

But I'm thrilled to report that we are beginning to see a positive change! 

 

I and the leaders of two of the other non-profit/missionary groups working in Pancho Mateo had the wonderful privilege of pulling together a meeting the other week in which 5 (plus 1 in absentia) of the largest non-profit groups working in Pancho Mateo all finally came together to get to know each other, to network, to give reports on their existing projects, and to talk about ways in which they can perhaps work together and collaborate!

Above are the attenders at the first "Pancho Mateo Non-Profits Networking Meeting" held on March 25th, 2014 at Marua Mai Restaurant in Sosua!

 

Leaders from local non-profits that work in providing health and education services to our local low-income communities attended the meeting today!

 

Health Horizons International (the org I work for)

Dominican Eyes Plus -- run by a local missionary who provides free eye glasses & exams

Project Haiti -- a non-profit from Europe that works in education and health care and that brings social work/sociology student interns to Pancho Mateo D.R. and to Haiti

Makarios International -- a Missionary Run elementary school that serves low-income families with education and health services.

&
The Dream Project -- An organization that runs local schools in low-income neighborhoods, and also provides job training programs, a college scholarship program, and sports/health camps for children and youth in the summer time.

CEPROSH -- an organization that provides HIV and TB prevention and treatment was also reported on "in absentia." 

 

It was a small beginning, but a great first meeting, and I am so happy to see the organizations finally coming together to learn and network, and to see how we can work together alongside the leaders and community members of Pancho Mateo and the surrounding communities.
We've agreed to meet again to begin putting together the final sections of a Resource Guide that will allow us to more knowledgably refer folks in need to local services and non-profit resources available to them!
Resources on everything from medical care, to available college scholarships, to free, church-run summer soccer camps for pre-adolescent boys, will all be at our fingertips at last!

Here are a few highlights from the meeting:

Photo #1: Here are Educational and Health-related Organizations Networking.  "So -- your program is accredited by the Dominican Government. How can we get our program accredited too? What are the steps? Share with us your knowledge."

Photo # 2: Psychologist Mika from "Project Haiti" chats with Medical Director Darren, from Makarios school, While Kakito - pastor and disciplinarian at Makarios school (and soccer camp coordinator in Pancho Mateo) chats with Dream Project staff members who run several schools and a "Sports for life" program that teaches sports and health awareness to teens and kids in communities around the region.

Photo # 3: Here's an impromptu photo of half of the group, including my co-worker -- HHI's Carlos Castillo, Coordinator of the Community Health Worker program that serves Pancho Mateo.

Photo #4: It was a great day consisting of a "great beginning" to better communication and collaboration between the non-profits in the Pancho Mateo area, so that as a united front we can all help Pancho Mateo better, and empower the local leaders even more!

And the on the way home Carlito and I got to see this beautiful sunset over the sugar cane fields in front of our largest local mountain -- Mount Isabel.  It was a great end to a great day in the Dominican Republic!

First Family Visit! & GoMad Ministries :) Feb 2014 - Month 32 in the D.R.

I was super excited this month (February 2014) to have my parents, my aunt Fern and Uncle Rich, my aunt Sue and my Uncle Marlin all come from the U.S. to visit me!  I was so excited to have them come to learn about and experience my life here!  Thanks guys for letting me drag you all over the North Coast!

Here's a little video and a couple of my favorite photos from their 7 days here on our little Island of Hispanola! :)

 

 

 

 

 

We visited GoMad Ministries and

learned more about the work of my friends from church -- Missionaries Chantz and Renee Cutts. Here we are in one of the rooms of their medical clinic.  They'll soon be starting an after-school tutoring program in this same building as well.  Chantz and Renee's ministry began (and continues) with and outreach to women involved in the prostitution and sex-trafficking ring in Sosua Dominican Republic -- where my church is located. They are empowering local churches to reach out to these women, and they offer a safe-house and help with job training for women who want to get out of the trapped life of prostitution here, where older, rich, white men mostly from the U.S., Canada, and Europe come. The foreign men are the primary source of income generated to keep the sex trafficking industry going strong here in Sosua.  Since Chantz and Renee are friends of mine from church, I took my family to visit them to learn about their lives in ministry here in the Dominican Republic.

  

Here's their website it you'd like to learn more about their ministry.

http://www.gomadministries.org/about-us/

 

 

 We got caught in the rain at the Fortaleza (Fortress)!   

 

 

                                     I got a hug from my friend Wilmeri in Pancho Mateo

  
                   We visited My Friend and Co-worker Willy and neighbors in Pancho Mateo,
                                     and my family got a lesson in hair extensions. :)

             We watched Estela's elementary school aged daughters Hoola Hooping in Negro Melo

                                     
                                     Everyone got hugged by EVERYONE in Pancho Mateo! :)

                                              
                                                          ... And in Negro Melo  too :).

 

We took a walk down by the River in Pancho Mateo and chomped on sugar cane in Negro Melo :)

 

                  It was a real joy to me to have my Parents and Aunts and Uncles here to visit! 

                       A true HIGHLIGHT of the 2 3/4 years that I have been here so far! :)