When Program Officer Marisol Valentin traveled to Guyana last summer, she found the healthcare system undergoing a lot of changes. Read about her trip – and see her photos – in this latest field report.
Dear Friends:
Many of you know me as the Program Officer for Global Links’ programs in the Caribbean. However, many of you might not know me or my love for the Caribbean.
Life is always better by the beach, and if there is a hammock and coconut water, I call that paradise.
I am a half Kenyan, half Puerto Rican that grew up in Puerto Rico. While at this point in my life, I have lived in Pittsburgh longer than I lived in Puerto Rico, my life is still lived and enjoyed by Caribbean standards:
As a Caribbean girl living “up in the North”, I have tried to keep my ties to my culture. In college, I was part of an afro-Caribbean dance ensemble. After college I was active in the Latin American Cultural Union. And my home church is St. Benedict the Moor where a lot of Africans and Caribbeans living in Pittsburgh are members. Professionally, my working experiences have been in international business and marketing. While my career began in the for-profit world, I decided to join the non-profit world in 2004. So being the Program Officer for the Caribbean Region for Global Links is the perfect blend of my personal life with my professional life.
When we launched our blog earlier this year, I was not sure what I wanted to blog about. My voice was silent. But as I started journaling my thoughts during my most recent trips to Haiti and Guyana, I felt my observations could be something I could voice. This is how this column – Caribbean Voice – was born.
I hope to share with you my experiences, frustrations, and joys in managing Global Links projects in the Caribbean. Filled with self reflections, Caribbean Voice will not only be a column about our work, but also about my journey experiencing the complexities and beauties of the vast cultures and nations that make up the Caribbean region. I hope you will make the column complete with your comments. I also invite you to follow my work through our program updates and field reports.
Best regards,
Marisol
Join us for a discussion about healthcare challenges and successes in the Garifuna communities in Honduras, and hear how graduates of the Latin American Medical School in Cuba are changing the face of healthcare along the Mosquito coast.
Wed., Sept. 21, 6:00 to 7:00 pm
4809 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15224
RSVP by Sept. 20 to Jennifer Novelli
412.361.3424, ext. 204
Earthquakes yesterday shook Americans around the entire country — in the East, Midwest and West — and united us as awed spectators of Mother Nature. “I hope everyone’s okay” trumped all other afternoon priorities. Pittsburghers even called to check on family and friends in Baltimore, which says a lot for humanity only weeks away from the Steeler’s season opener against the Ravens.
We felt the earthquake on Penn Avenue and its uniting qualities, too. We thought of Haitians, who, even after a year and a half, are far from full recovery after the 2010 earthquake. There is an article in the Los Angeles Times today about Haiti and the long road ahead.
Haitian children walk to school.
For more information about Haiti and how to help, visit our website.
Sarah Laskow, reporter for GOOD.com, covered the story and outlined three ways to prioritize your commitment to greener operations. She speaks specifically to schools, but the advice is applicable to any organization. Making it official, listening to our community and sharing with others will continue the virtuous cycle.
Rolf Rosenkranz, editor of Devex.com, wrote a frightening update about the challenges that some international nonprofit organizations are facing in the countries that they serve. The article discusses difficulties in several Global Links regions, including Latin America and Ethiopia, a country that recently received suture from us.
We have not had any trouble recently and don’t plan on it. Global Links works with governments and non-governmental organizations so we are sure to provide the right supplies to the right people.
You can read Rolf Rosenkranz’s story here.
Tonita Cervantes (c) 2011
“You made me cry,” wrote one of the many medical personnel who see to it that Global Links receives good quality surplus medical materials. She had just read the most recent update from the Suture Donation program, Restoring Sight in Ethiopia. “Oh I’m so glad,” I wrote back. “We cry a lot at Global Links.”
We work tirelessly to support mothers and infants in Latin America and the Caribbean because no child should be endangered by where and when they are born.
Angelina is one of our dedicated student volunteers who sorts and packs life saving medical supplies everyweek at our sorting center. She traveled in February with Hope to Hispaniola to the Dominican Republic, bringing healthcare and other support to villages of Dominicans and Haitians working in the sugar cane fields near the town of La Higuero. Global Links staff packed several boxes of medical supplies to be hand carried to the D.R. and used in the clinics set up by the doctor and several nurses traveling on this particular trip.
Cobija, Capital of Pando – the northernmost department in the Bolivian Amazon region, is a city which is only a bridge away from Brazil. Last October, Global Links sent medical materials to the Roberto Galindo Hospital, which serves more than 50,000 people- Bolivians as well as Brazilians. The shipment reached the hospital during a visit of President Evo Morales who was present when the medical staff received Global Links’ donations.
During my first trip to Bolivia on Global Links’ behalf last month, I met the director and the administrator of the hospital, who were absolutely enthusiastic about the support they had received. They said it was a huge support which they needed so much. Among many other things I remember when the director, very spontaneously, mentioned how amazing they found the way the materials were packed: everything carefully boxed, clearly labeled, with contents adequately described. They made me understand how people there perceived what a thoughtful process was behind the donation… and I confirmed it. Yes, Global Links shipments entail a long and thoughtful process involving many thoughtful people… donors, Global Links staff, Bolivian government partners, and volunteers, yes, especially volunteers: AmeriCorps, student supply sorters, groups, individuals, regular, occasional…
I stop here. This is just a note. Thank you Global Links volunteers, you are amazing!
