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:

• Life is always better by the beach, and if there is a hammock and coconut water, that is called paradise.
• My energy and happiness are linked to the amount of daily sunshine I get. (Yup.  I am not the friendliest person in December and January…)
• Quality of life is measured by how much time you can spend with family and friends, eating good food, and dancing the night away.  (How good the rum is will be a big factor in whether the dancing becomes a full blown party.)

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

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.

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 handle a lot of “stuff” here, tubes and blades, gloves and gauze, large, heavy machinery and sutures so fine they are practically invisible. It was the effect of sending some of those very tiny sutures to a doctor working in Ethiopia that brought tears to the eyes of this particular staff member in the OR at UPMC Mercy. People far from Pittsburgh who had been blind could see – in a developing country, this is lifesaving.

We all have our vulnerable areas, photos or stories that bring tears to the eyes. I am notorious here at the office for crying at the slightest provocation, but honestly – a c-section that saves the lives of mother and baby? And what about those other children at home who, because their mother survived childbirth, are not orphaned? Some of us can’t stand to see the photos of babies having surgery, children with facial deformities, or devastating machete wounds. We weep at the knowledge that someone might die not because their condition is fatal, but simply because the clinic in their community, the only place they can go for care, lacks basic supplies.

At Global Links, we try to publicize the happy stories, the times when we’ve been able to make a difference, because throwing up our hands and weeping simply doesn’t help. It is optimism – knowing that someone can suddenly see again – that keeps us going. It helps hospital staff take the extra trouble to set aside things they know we need, and it enables volunteers to spend many hours sorting, counting and packing all that aforementioned “stuff” for shipment. And yet those victories, photos of a young woman smiling because her fistula has been repaired, or a boy able to return to school because his cardiac defect has been closed, bring on the tears as well.

Why cry? Was it Marx who stressed the importance of having an emotional connection to how one’s work could benefit humanity? Are these tears good, or pointless?

They’re only inevitable. We can’t turn off the emotional waterworks. They help us rise above the sea of “stuff” and focus on the effect of what we do, both good and inadequate. And when they don’t come too often, they’re even a little refreshing.

So go ahead, contemplate being blind in Ethiopia and having your sight restored. And have a little cry.

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.

Angelina shared with me how many of the people who came to their medical field clinics have the chance to see a doctor only one time per year when a medical brigade comes to the community.  She captured the challenge that many people around the world have in accessing medical care so well in the picture of the suitcase of medical supplies provided by the brigade.  She was also very impressed by how the elderly would walk four or five miles to reach them.  Can you imagine your grandparents doing the same to have their hypertension checked?

Angelina volunteered at the “parasite station,” where people who wanted it (and who were able to take it) were given anti-parasite medication to counteract unclean water and parasite infections from exposure to the dirt of the fields, road, and floors.  Their group additionally worked to fix a water purification system in the community.  Clean water and health are intricately linked together.

Because Angelina also knits, she made baby bags to pass out and you can see the picture of her holding one of the adorable babies with the a hat she had knitted as well as a picture of her with Dominican friends.  I think it’s great that a young person is so engaged in volunteering with international public health efforts here at Global Links and abroad.

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!