¡Abrazos! de Mulukukú, Spring, ’03

Due to heavy rains, the road to Rio Blanco was impassable by vehicle for several months. Dorothy wades through the Nicaraguan mud with a little help from her friends.

[–Photo by Martha Miller]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Congratulations to all our devoted supporters who dug deep and pulled us through.

Warmest greetings from your co-workers: the women of the clinic and cooperative and our male staff and supporters, in our joint efforts to walk with the campesinas, campesinos and their children on this little bit of earth which is Mulukukú, Nicaragua. You and we are blessed each time our work saves the life of a child, when we accompany a woman as she refuses to be a victim of violence any longer, when a little girl is placed in a safe environment where her father or stepfather can’t go to her bed in the night and violate her child’s body.

WOMEN’S CLINIC
REPORT 2002
PERSONS SERVED

Women
Children
Men
Dental
Wound care
TOTAL

5,047
2,984
1,021
695
411
10,158

Principal reasons for women’s visits were for family planning, pre-natal care, gynecologic infections and other reproductive system problems. 1,254 cervical Paps were done with required treatment. 1,307 women came for family planning, the majority (65.4%) choosing the 3-month injection, Depo-Provera. Respiratory infections, parasites and malaria were the main reasons for children’s visits. A weekly dental clinic relieves pain, treats dental infections, and fills cavities. Children under the age of 7 yrs in 13 grade schools have their teeth painted with fluoride every six months to retard caries. Men come with accidents and a variety of infections.

Your rapid and generous response to our appeal for help with the economic crises at the end of last year was more than we could have hoped. All staff are back on full-time, the soy kitchens are opening, we are again able to help all patients who do not have money to travel for further care, and there is a good start on this year’s budget. To receive a “thank you,” try to envision the eyes of a child as the light of life returns, a woman, who for the first time, holds her head high when saying “no more” to violence, the cautious smile of a little girl as the fear begins to loosen its hold.

FUNDRAISING IN NICARAGUA
    We have searched here for help among groups that support projects in Nicaragua and have had the following excellent results:
    Swiss Workers Aid (Ayuda Obrera Suiza), who has supported the Cooperative since its beginning in 1989, continues support for the Defense and Legal Aid Program for Women and Children and health education.
    Danida, of the Embassy of Denmark, will contribute support of our administrator, various parts of the Defense and Legal Program, a scholarship for a social worker, and a program for emotional recovery from violence for children and women.
    Central American Health Institute over the next two years will provide the equivalent in services and materials of $25,000 for the detection and treatment of pre-cancer and cervical-uterine cancer in 5,000 women ages 25 and older. American Jewish World Service (AJWS) (through the efforts of Jill Winegardner at WEN and a site visit to Mulukukú will provide this year’s salary for a nurse and physician, three health promoters, a natural medicine/acupuncture promoter, support for the Emotional Recovery Program, and support for transportation.
    Through a friend in Manauga, an anonymous donor will enable us to purchase a strong 4-wheel drive vehicle at a Peace Corps auction as well as contributing $18,000 to the clinic’s general expenses.

MINISTRY OF HEALTH RECOGNITION
The Ministry of Health (MINSA) has formally awarded our clinic legal recognition. We are now received cordially, invited to meetings and offered full cooperation from all departments of MINSA.

NICARAGUA TODAY
    Former President Arnoldo Alemán continues under house arrest despite efforts of his attorneys.
    Almost daily groups are on the streets of Managua protesting the strangulating effects of IMF pressures on the society. Coffee workers who require price protection, university students demanding their legal share of the national budget (they won the battle), mayors of cities and towns protesting lack of funds, and ex-Contras demanding that the broken promises of three Nicaraguan administrations be fulfilled.
    A demonstration of several hundred protested the threatened U.S. war on Iraq and coincided with the massive protests in the U.S and Britain.

U.N. REPORT
The U.N. Human Development Agency Report of 2002 states the following:

Maternal Mortality as 150 deaths for 100,000 live births.

Infant Mortality as 37 deaths for every 1,000 live births.

Deaths of children from 1 to 5 years as 45 per 1,000 live births.
These figures are far below the reality. MINSA itself estimates that there is a 51.1% sub-registry in infant deaths. The crisis created by the fall of coffee prices has provoked hunger and the death of many children. Mental illness grows as survival becomes more desperate. Suicides, alcoholism, depression and psychosis are all on the rise.

STAFF
Health Promoter Natalí Montoya, practitioner of natural medicine and acupuncture, is treating patients during the week and taking university classes weekends in her last year of psychology. Nurse Gloria Montenegro is finishing her last year (5th) of secondary school so she can study more advanced nursing.

Paul Fry-Miller with young patient.

[–Photo by Martha Miller]

Managua House Manager Roxana Montoya graduated in Social Work from the University of Central America and is now assisting with the organization and training of communities in Mulukukú. On weekends she is studying rural development in a master’s program.

MANCHESTER COLLEGE MEDICAL AND DENTAL DELEGATION’S 11TH YEAR
The nearly 40-member delegation of health practitioners, students and support people did magnificent work in Mulukukú and Santa Rita in their two-week annual visit. It was perhaps the happiest, most cohesive group we’ve ever hosted. A total of 2,234 people were served: 926 women, 531 children, 240 men, 502 dental, 35 tested for hearing and receiving hearing-aides, 1,697 wound care. 344 paps taken and 4 biopsy specimens. 26 patients are being sent for further care. Ed and Martha Miller came out of retirement to lead the group. As always with our medical delegations, the quality of health care was excellent.

AMERICAN JEWISH WORLD SERVICE
This organization, that is funding us beginning this year, brought 12 Jewish Canadian university students for a week of work and study. The young people worked extremely hard, 8 to 9 hours a day in the blazing sun, preparing earth for a new medicinal plant garden. They learned from the people of Mulukukú and shared their spirituality with us. From their own people’s history of suffering, the group instantly and deeply understood the suffering of the Nicaraguan people. In sharing their Shabbat service, we were all nurtured.

The news in this letter and in the world is sad and heavy. World War III may be about to start. What can we do?

Don’t allow an opportunity to pass when we can speak or act for justice. When there is justice, peace will come.

Work with others to change this brutal world economic system that sacrifices the poor for the benefit of the few.

Share your resources in supporting works such as ours which are alternative models as to how human beings can care for one another.

All strength to each of you in your work to make this a kinder, more gentle world where all God’s creatures will live in peace and joy.

        Why do so many of us keep up with the story of Mulukukú? Why do we make donations, join delegations, clip photos from the newsletter and display them in a prominent place?
        Margot Signer, a federal government retiree who practices folk art and weaving, shares that her involvement began on a delegation in the early 1990s. “I was probably 60 at the time,” she says, “And it’s not an easy place for an ‘old’ woman to be. We stayed with a family–a mother with three children–and I learned first-hand how little they had. Their home was one of the concrete block homes the women construct themselves, and my hostess made sure the door was locked at night, even though it was so hot. They live with a sense of danger, but the houses feel safe because they are bullet-proof.”
        Margot’s trip was led by David Belt of Kansas City, who told delegation members: “You're not going to Mulukukú to help people, necessarily, you're going there for you–to educate and inspire yourself.” Margot says that what she learned about living conditions and the political situation has stayed with her and inspires her to donate every year. “I know how much my donations can do there; I trust that when I send my money, it will go directly to services for the people I met.” She credits David Belt for his dedication over the years, educating all sorts of American volunteers and also developing sustainable personal bonds with the families of Mulukukú. “It’s not just a Christmas and Easter basket deal,” she says.
        One of her most vivid memories involves providing amateur massage skills to Dorothy, who had injured her neck and shoulder. Dorothy asked Margot to teach these hands-on nurturing skills to the women volunteering in the shelter for abuse victims, and she feels she made a permanent contribution. Also, when an interpreter joined her for a conversation with her hostess, she was asked if Americans actually throw away food. “That was the most embarrassing question I've ever had to answer,” she relates, for in telling the truth she had to admit that many Americans waste more in a day than her new Nicaraguan friends have.

If you would like to share your experiences in future newsletters, please contact Ellen Farmer at our email address.

The board at the Women's Empowerment Network and many additional volunteers in Santa Cruz send our heartfelt congratulations and thanks to all supporters. We raised $118,117 in the campaign, which covers more than half of the annual budget for the Maria Luisa Ortíz clinic. We hope to never be in such desperate straits again, and with your continued support, financial or otherwise, we can move toward long-time financial stability. This has been an especially heartening year as we took the time to talk with many of you on the phone. Your ideas have been fantastic! You may hear from us again as we begin a "donor dialogue" project this spring.

Dorothy will make a short tour of Albuquerque and the midwest in late April and early May, ending up in Chicago. In July she will make the keynote address at the Doctors for Global Health conference in Berkeley, California. It is hard for her to be away from Mulukukú for too long, but if you would like to invite her to your community, we will pass the message on to her. As you can imagine, it takes a great deal of money and planning to mount a large tour, so we feel these short trips might actually make more sense for Dorothy over the next few years.

We know many of you are organizing your own communities in opposition to the war. All of us attend as many marches, rallies, planning meetings, vigils, and spiritual gatherings as we can, believing our participation is making a difference. During this time of heightened awareness, we are proud of our allegiance to the women of Mulukukú, who are fearlessly confronting callous disregard for human suffering in Nicaragua. Our work with them proves that a small number of dedicated people can indeed improve the circumstances of many. Thanks for your participation!

Once again, we remind you that the needs of the poor never cease in the unbalanced world. If you choose to donate only once per year, we understand and do not mean to pressure you to donate beyond your means. Everyone is doing what they can, and we are deeply grateful. Below is our address and taxpayer ID number for your convenience. Also, you may use the Paypal link to donate online.

Another way you can help is to send us the addresses of people you know who might like to receive the newsletter in the mail. Please write to us at: wempowermentn@yahoo.com.

If This Soil Could Stop Bleeding: Nicaragua During and After the Contra War
by Worth Weller

A new book that features several chapters about Dorothy Granada and the Mulukukú Women’s Clinic has just been published by Dewitt Books. The author, Worth Weller, and his publisher are donating $2 for each directly ordered book to the Women’s Empowerment Network or other groups involved with the clinic. Details can be found by going to this website: BOOK.