Saturday, October 30, 2010

CARE III - The Colca Valley

We are headed to Peru next week to conduct our third research and community survey project with the University of North Carolina-Wilmington School of Nursing and Community Health and Dr. Kae Livsey.

Our project will be conducted in the high Andean region of the Colca Valley. We are partnering with the Portland based NGO Quechua Benefit to help define the health care access and utilization of a number of communities that rim the Colca Valley (one of the deepest and most beautiful canyons in the world - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colca_Canyon).

In addition to health care access and utilization questions, we will be seeking information on general socio-demographics and data on water access, employment and general lifestyle needs.

Our goal with this project is to create a statistically sound "picture" of the needs of the people living in the rural communities of the Colca Valley so that we can help to direct appropriate care mechanisms and resources. Equally, we are hoping that our research (once published) will have an influence on policy makers and government officials. Few studies have been conducted in the the rural communities of Latin American on health care access and utilization. If policy makers are going to truly use the resources they have at their discretion to meet the needs of their communities - they must have good, sound data to make those decisions.

Not too many politicians read dry community health research, but once the data reach the "public airwaves" it has the potential to create resounding levels of influence. As the saying goes - a bell once rung can never be un-rung.

You can follow our progress in the Colca Valley on this Blog - look for nightly updates on our progress. And, as always - thank you for all of your continued support.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Why donate to HBI?

Right now . . . somewhere in a small village, a squatter community, a city slum – a child has lost hope. The pain and suffering that they have endured for far too long have pushed them to the point of breaking.

Somewhere, right now . . . a child will begin a life on the streets.

Right now . . . somewhere in a small village, a squatter community, a city slum - a woman has taken her last beating. The pain and suffering she has endured for far, far too long has pushed her to seek a different life.

Somewhere, right now . . . a woman is desperate for new opportunities. Desperate for hope.

Right now . . . somewhere in a small village, a squatter community, a city slum - a young person is struggling with their sexual identity. They overwhelmed with fear that the life they so greatly wish to live will never happen. They are afraid that the life they were meant to live will get them killed.

Somewhere, right now . . . a young person is seeking the chance to become who they are meant to be. Right now they live in fear.

There is no way we can know how many children are in such situations. There is no way we can know the number of woman who suffer through domestic violence and abuse. There is no way we can know the total number of gay and lesbian young people who are struggling with their sexual and gender identities - without any guidance or support.

The numbers of people in these situations would overwhelm us even if we did have an accurate means of accounting for their needs. One thing we do know with certainty is that it will take more than one person, one organization or one idea to shift the reality for a child, to break the bonds of abuse and oppression for a woman to free a young person from the pain of rejection and cruelty.

It will take a community. It will take people committed to working in their own countries, their own communities, their own neighborhoods. It will take a movement. This is what HBI is all about. We are shaping a movement.

We know that we cannot reach every child, every woman, every young person . . . and, we believe that we can empower everyone to reach every child, every woman, every young person. Through our healthcare outreach campaigns, our educational conferences, our trainings and our community surveys we are working to bring greater awareness.

We are working to build a community of providers, professionals and people dedicated to creating and sustaining change. We are working to build bridges that allow everyone to cross over and make a difference.

We are working to assure that one day soon no child will ever be without hope.

Please know that every penny we raise will be used to its highest extent. Please know that the work you are doing to help HBI build our capacity – is work that will make a difference in the life of a child without hope, a woman without support, a young person without resources.

Please know that you are helping to change the world – by building bridges and empowering communities.

Thank you.

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Why HBI?


Health Bridges International is an organization that was started with the mission of creating bridges between resources and needs. This rather daunting task has led our organization to partner on a number of projects – from healthcare outreach campaigns to educational conferences to community surveys. Our work has been shaped by the ever-present desire to create sustainable change in the lives of people living in extreme poverty through collaboration.

For HBI, collaboration is a tool to serve the underserved. Our goal is ending extreme poverty.

Our ambitious programs have taken a slight shift in the last few years. This shift has been partly due to the changing economic and societal needs of the countries where we operate and partly due to our organizational need and desire to focus our efforts. We are still fully grounded in the belief that true change - lasting, sustainable change – comes from empowering people to develop their own futures; and, we believe that one of the critical ways that this happens is through educating and training the next generation of leaders.

HBI works to train, educate and motivate leaders at the professional level, community level and individual level. In 2011 we will be expanding our program to reach underserved communities through conferences and trainings, care delivery programs, and research projects.

For many years HBI has worked to bring services and advocacy to boys living on the streets of Peru. In 2011, we hope to develop a program that can be a training opportunity for students to learn the best practices and promising models of support. We hope that such a program will empower the next generation of change agents in their own communities.

HBI is dedicated to changing the world through connecting people, programs and ideas. We are working to build a community of providers, professionals and people dedicated to creating and sustaining change. We are working to build bridges that allow everyone to cross over and make a difference.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Strategic Planning

Photo: Our beautiful Alexandra Margaret.

Over the next couple of months, HBI will be undertaking a strategic planning process. The goal of our reflective process is to truly align our Mission with our programs and projects. The Board of Directors and staff will be meeting to discuss the Mission, Vision and Values of HBI and how we can best assure that these important philosophies infuse all aspects of our work.

I am really excited for this planning process and feel confident that we are going to craft a focus for our future that will help to make our NGO even more effective.

Stay tuned for updates from the Strategic Planning Retreat and our strategic planning process.

Thank you for all of your continued support.

P.S. Call me a shameless proud father - but I had to add a picture of Alexandra.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Thank you: Anchorage, Alaska

A very big thank you goes out to Mr. Steven Dougherty and the people of Anchorage, AK.

On September 30, Steven and his cohort of fans, family and friends helped to put on a fundraiser for HBI and our partner organizations. The event was a huge success!

We are so proud to be aligned with people like Steven and the amazing network of caring, compassionate folks in Anchorage.

In 2011, Father Alex and I will be making the trip to Anchorage for the "Third Annual Connect Peru" event. Please consider joining us!

Lima's Mayoral Elections

Lima to have first female mayor ever

LIMA, Peru — A moderate leftist looked Sunday night to be headed by a narrow margin to becoming Lima's first elected female mayor.

A victory by Susana Villaran would give the left control of Peru's coastal capital — with 7 million people home to one in three of the Andean nation's inhabitants — for the first time in nearly three decades.

Villaran, a 61-year-old human rights advocate and former minister of social development and women's affairs, was leading pro-business candidate Lourdes Flores 38.9 percent to 37.2 percent, according to official results with 13 percent of the vote counted.

An unofficial quick count gave Villaran (Veeh-yah-RAHN) a slightly better than one-point victory over Flores, 50, as Peruvians chose mayors and governors across the country.

Flores has twice lost presidential races while Villaran was a fringe candidate in the 2006 election in which Flores finished third.

The Lima mayor's race was being watched closely as a barometer of presidential elections due in April. Villaran is not allied with the main leftist contender in that race, populist former military officer Ollanta Humala, though he endorsed her.

President Alan Garcia, who is constitutionally barred from running for re-election, defeated Humala in 2006 in a runoff.

An unorthodox candidate from the middle class who says she smoked marijuana in her youth, Villaran catapulted in popularity in the last few months of the campaign with a pro-environment message, promising to clean up a city with some of the world's most contaminated air.

She rejects what she has called "the authoritarian militarism" of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, saying she identifies more with the more moderate leftist leaders of Uruguay and El Salvador.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Sunflowers

Photo: Girasoles, a community in motion

I would like to tell you about a recent trip I made to the city of Ica. Unbeknownst to me, the bus ride to Ica (on a public transport bus) is 6-hours. Needless to say, this made for a long day. Long bus rides aside, my trip to Ica was predicated on a request from a long time partner of HBI’s - Mr. Billy Clark, Union Biblica's Director of Operations.

In the spring of 2010 Mr. Clark went to City of Ica to accompany a work team to the Girasoles Project. For a number of years Union Biblica has run a home for abandon boys just outside of the city center of Ica. While visiting the Girasoles home he was asked by the "house Father" (a delightful young man by the name of Augusto) to join him for a quick trip to an area just west of the Girasoles Center. What Billy saw in this area was extremely compelling to him. As he wrote in an email to me "the area is one of the poorest I have ever seen in Peru - and I have been everywhere in Peru. We must do something Wayne."

Well, as you all know, I could not turn down such an invitation. On Thursday my own eyes confirmed Billy's words. This was indeed one of the poorest areas I have ever been to in Peru (and I have been to a lot of places in Peru and a lot of places in developing countries). The community, ironically named Girasoles (Sunflower in English), is located at the end of a long dirt road. It was a resettlement area following the massive earthquakes in Ica in 2007. Not only did the government move this very poor community to the new area of Girasoles, they used the area to dump debris and waste from the various reconstruction sites around the area. It is an amazing place. Words are hard to generate that fully describe the desolation and seeming hopelessness. I have a small video (see below), but even this 90-second montage does not describe the need.

One woman (please see the photo above) truly helps to amplify my story. We met this young woman as we went around the area delivering water from a truck Union Biblica rented for the afternoon (a whopping S/200 Soles provides a truck, driver, and water for most of the community; S/200 is about $60). I should mention that Girasoles is a community of some 180 families and about 1,200 people. Anyway, as we walked around helping people get water back to their "homes," my eye caught a young woman with a baby on her back. She was methodically bringing out buckets (actually old plastic bins and buckets) for water and seemed to be very self-sufficient. All the while, a small baby dangled from her back in a cloth shall.

Of course I had to approach her to ask the age of her baby. As it turns out, he is 9-months old (the same age as our little Alex but giant in comparison). She is 23 years old, single and living alone in a shack made of black plastic sheets and woven rattan mats. She has no electricity, no water, no sewage disposal, and no work. She keeps a few ducks and chickens in her home for food and burns scavenged wood for her cooking and heat.

She did not ask me for anything. She was very thankful for my meager help in carrying a few buckets of water back to her home - but she was more than capable of taking care of herself. When we asked her about her life - she spoke without emotion or elaboration. She merely stated, "I am working for a better life, and I am looking toward the future."

HBI is committed to helping build opportunities for change. We do this by bridging resources to need. We will be taking a team to work in the community of Girasoles in the City of Ica in the summer of 2011. Please consider joining us. Let’s all work toward a better life for everyone. Thank you.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Piura: A Successful Health Care Training Conference

Photo: A pre-conference reception for the Piura speakers

Photo: HBI and Vida Peru Piura Conference

Imagine a city the size of Los Angeles that is constantly under construction. Okay wait, that is Los Angeles. Really, imagine that this city is in a developing country. A country that was, at one point, one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Well – that city is Lima.

I was back in my favorite city for less than 24-hours and the amount of change since my last trip (just 6 short weeks ago) startled me. Everywhere I looked things were under construction. From sidewalks to new boutique apartments, change was truly afoot.

One afternoon I went for a run to one of my favorite little parks (Ben will know this area fondly, “los Olivos”). This is one area of Lima where time stands still. Here is where you can go for a late afternoon run and see the old money of Lima out walking with their personal nurses, their dog walkers, their nannies – all in a continuous processional down a strip of side walk that runs right down the middle of an old olive grove. Los Olivos is an area where the magnitude of this constant change in Lima can be least understood and most understood.

The old money of Lima is a very private group. They are very wealthy. Their lives are split between the very privileged world of Lima (for the wealthy) and Europe, California and other large Latin America mega-cities. They have a great deal of privilege that comes from their financial clout. They are very removed from the change that is happening in the poorer sections of Lima.

In some of the poorest sections of Lima – San Juan de Miraflores, Via Espranza, and Carabayllo – life has been changing in the last couple of years, but not necessarily for the better. In fact, in a lot of areas around Lima-the poor appear to be getting poorer. The gap is widening to the point that it is getting hard to see anyway that we can close it.

There are, however, people who are working ever day to close the gap. When I was in Lima last week I met with Reverend Pat Blanchard. We met to talk about the Anglican Church’s work in some of the very poorest communities of Lima; areas where basic needs are still going greatly unmet. She told me of her fantastic project, the Shalom Center, and the work they are doing to get more assistance and advocacy for children suffering with disabilities. She is doing amazing work with only a shoestring budget. Yet, she told me of several areas in the massive city of Lima where there exists a real need for more programs like hers – but there is no money to start (or better, sustain) the programs.

One way that HBI is working to ensure programs like Reverend Pat’s are sustainable is through our continuing education trainings and conferences. We recently helped to conduct a conference in the Northern Peru city of Piura. Along with our Peruvian partners, Vida Peru and Tierra y Ser, we held one and a half days of instruction in “Diabetes Care and Management” for physicians and nurses working in the communities of Piura. We had over 350 participants in our nearly two days of training. Our speakers, a collection of U.S. professionals and Peruvian colleagues, were fantastic.

Our work is built on the premise that bridges of collaboration and support are the central tool to help ensure that sustainable models for change are available to all communities and people. The conference helped to bridge the gap in knowledge between research and practice. The outcome of the conference was a community committed to learning and growing together. HBI looks to make a difference through innovative approaches. The Piura Conference is one of these approaches.

Thank you for your continued support of HBI and our work to serve the people of Peru. PLEASE consider joining us for one of our Team Peru trips. To learn more about our Team Peru trips - please see: Outreach and Trips