“You have to have children to be happy:” Exploring Beliefs About Reproduction with Burmese Refugee Women in the United States

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4154/

            During my lit review quest for sources, I came across this paper and automatically made the connection to an interview that I had the opportunity to sit in on that was conducted by KQED reporter, Shuka Kalantari, to physicians and navigators at Asian Health Service (same AHS mentioned in my previous post) in Oakland. This paper emphasizes how work done by scholars needs to be done in order to help service providers and communities share their needs with each other. With more collaboration, solutions to the many issues refugees face can be found. Today, there is little know about the various Burmese ethnic groups.

            However, in this blog post, I would like to talk about some of the topics that these interviews highlighted to me. I had read a lot about high rates of asthma in children and poor exposure to sex education in adults, but with all of these studies floating around, it was difficult for me to actually pinpoint what were the major concerns for Burmese refugees coming to America. Through listening in on this interview, I realized that through conversation and actual examples, my understanding of the major issues that these refugees face was sharpened.

            For the men, everyone talked about how almost all of the Burmese men they treated suffered from alcoholism. They believe that alcohol serves as a crutch to relieve these men from their anxieties of unemployed, living in unstable housing, and history of involvement in the army (many are anti-government). However, alcoholism is a problem in screening for Hep B and C, because testing for both cannot be monitored when alcohol is in the system.

            Women that were seen at AHS, typically about 50 years of age often classified themselves as “culturally old” and possessed a strong sense of being useless. When they were young, they had more tangible problems, because they actually lacked food on the table, but now their problems have progressed to worries about what will happen when their children move out and they lose their role as caregiver. Instead of taking care of the whole family, now, these women only needed to focus on themselves. Health Navigator, Kwee Say, says that many become hopeless that they can achieve much because of their low level of education, age and language barriers.

            Doctors also highlighted the difference between the refugees they treated and other patients. They said that many had chronic pain that could not be pinpointed, which was different, because much of the American-born population had pain that peaked at a high intensity, and then weaned. Also, the doctors all brought up how the refugee’s needs are not easy to fulfill. They talked about the different classifications of refugees they saw in the Bay Area. Those who came earlier in 1960s were typically educated and individualistic. Many were rebels/freedom fighters and required less assistance in terms of ESL classes. However, refugees from Malaysia were typically economic migrants and illiterate. The refugees that organizations like IRC work with today are from remote villages. Often, these individuals are from areas that lack a solid education system, so many are also illiterate and have to face major adjustments of them when they come (including the way they go about dealing with health conditions). Back in their villages, if they needed medicine for some illness, major or minor, they could go to a roadside stand and ask for anything the wanted and get a hold of it for low costs. However, in America, the insurance systems and prescription process is very confusing for many refugees. Thus, many do not refill their medicine on their own, but come back to their doctor, confused about the process.

            Many will come with the “American Dream” in mind, but are often faced with struggles as they assimilate into a place that is so different than their expectations of America. One of these factors that the staff at AHS brought up was the culture clash they face in the Bay Area. With a new exposure to ethnic diversity and English, relating to others is a struggle for many refugees. Even in English classes, they are discouraged as instructors, who are often volunteers, who do not know the refugee’s native tongue, teach classes. Thus, when they struggle to learn, clients lose their hope and feel incompetent. MD, Suzie Lim brought up one patient’s complaint about the different perspective on treating public space. Previously, they felt like the whole land in their village was theirs, as there were shared boundaries. However, in America, they feel a loss of freedom as they cannot roam the land as freely as before.

            With these many fragmented examples, I have been learning the importance of each individual’s story. As we have learned about survey methods and means of collecting accurate data, I can see how large-scale programs and projects require solid quantitative data for funding, but my experience at IRC has revealed to me the importance in personal interaction and the stories of each individual. As many of you are going off to your practice experiences, I would encourage you to think broadly about how you go about understanding the needs of the people. It is in each story that we, as outsiders, can come to know pieces to hopefully one day, fully understand the people we are working alongside.  

“In Oakland, Redefining Sex Trade Workers as Abuse Victims”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24oakland.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

            This article immediately caught my eye, because it reminded me of conversations I had with Karem, Vivian while we were brainstorming for our group project’s focus. For our group project, we worked on developing a coalition that would link Bay Area organizations devoted to freeing those involved in the sex trade in order to create a more synergistic, effective force to fighting the sex trade. As Karem came from a focus on human trafficking, Vivian on refugee second-generation children to refugee parents in the area, and I on health access for refugees in Alameda County, this article really hit topics from all three of our focuses. The sad reality is that 100,000 to 300,000 American-born children are sold for sex each year. These abusers could be anyone, including pimps or even family members who “recruit or kidnap girls from the streets and market them online through sites, where they are featured in pulsating ads for massage parlors, escort services, strip clubs, even acupuncturists.”

            Writer, Patricia Leight Brown, writes about Dr. Chang’s clinic at Asian Health Services and brings up this new “public health approach to treating American-born minors lured into the sex trade,” where doctors who interact closely with patients act as first responders.

            In the past, people who have been sex trafficked were treated as criminals and dispatched to juvenile centers, therefore, many of these individuals in fear would not seek help for themselves.  In juvenile detention centers, medical screenings would simply test communicable or life-threatening diseases, but did not consider reproductive health as something important enough to screen. Therefore, many youth who could have been rescued and supported were often neglected and punished. This new focus, with doctors acting as first responders, stresses the importance of early intervention and counseling to save children who would possibly be victims to child abuse.

            As I am concurrently interning at International Rescue Committee, which comes alongside refugees and lends assistance in the resettlement process, I have been thinking a lot about the background from which these refugees come from. So often, when I interact with clients, the most I can do is smile and say hello, so I feel like there is a huge barrier separating my understanding of their needs and them. Through research I’ve done as a Global Poverty minor, I have been learning that Asian-American girls, specifically Cambodian-American girls among the most vulnerable to the sex trade. One potential reason for this is because “immigrant Cambodian parents struggle with poverty compounded by the experience of genocide and its traumatic aftermath, depression.” These tumultuous and highly emotional experiences then trickle down and affect their children and generations to come. When they get involved and are in trouble, those who have experienced “historic violence and genocide” are fearful of reaching out for help, because they have a “fear of law enforcement.” Thus, recruiters specifically target these girls because they know they are “struggling with issues of cultural identity.” The example in this article mentions how many girls from Southeast Asian families come from households where parents do not ask “‘How was school today?’ or say ‘I love you.’” Thus, girls who are lured as they attempt to seek “Americanized relationships” that they are not familiar with.

            Time and time again, I am realizing the importance of fully understand one’s cultural, social and circumstantial background. As we’ve been realizing, many organizations have the right intentions to help those who are marginalized or wronged in one way or another, but often times they do more harm than help. Thus, it is essential to notice how society currently works and to find ways within our system to serve as flags for those who are trafficked for sex. As a person striving to become pediatrician, I find it interesting that doctors can also serve in this way. The themes brought up in this paper make me thing more about how a doctor isn’t simply a person to assess one’s physical health and discern proper treatment, but more so a person who is informed of their patient’s complete background and aware of the dangers that may be present in their community. As a majority of people see doctors over therapists or counselors, it is important for physicians to be trained so that they can detect these red flags and get their patient to safety.

Coca in Bolivia: More than a Drug

            My practice this summer will be in Cochabamba, Bolivia. I will be working with an HIV/AIDs prevention program in Cochabamba. However, I wanted to use this blog post to talk about another issue in Bolivia that has been getting more international attention: the growth of coca, the plant used to make cocaine. For a while now the U.S. has been working on a campaign to eradicate coca in South and Central America before it can be transported through Central America to the U.S. to sell as cocaine.            

            However, the indigenous peoples of Bolivia have been vehemently opposed to the U.S.’s efforts. To them, coca is not just an ingredient in cocaine; it is a central part of their culture and traditions. Chewing coca together is a the beginning of many rituals and social interactions in the country.  Beyond tradition, many rural farmers rely on coca for their livelihood. When Evo Morales, the current President, ran in 2005, part of his platform was protecting coca growers. He was able to use his connection to the coca farmer unions to run a grassroots campaign focused on indigenous rights and the right to grow coca that managed to get him elected. I recently watched a great documentary on this, "Cocalero" that shows his rise to power (which you can find on Netflix!)

I think this tale is the perfect example of the "danger of a single story." Growing up in the U.S., we usually only hear the tale of cocaine, and the drug lords, violence, and addiction that are associated with it. I never would have thought that the derivative of cocaine, coca, could be a source of community power and deep cultural value. This is not to say that everyone in Bolivia, or even all the indigenous folks in Bolivia, feel this way about coca, but just to point out that there is always more to the story than one simple narrative. I hope that I will get to learn more about this when I visit next week!

What Happens When an NGO Admits Failure?!

 Who loves TEDtalks? We ALL love TEDtalks!

Here is the TEDx talk I’d like to reflect upon…

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_damberger_what_happens_when_an_ngo_admits_failure.html

            Though there are no mind-blowing innovations in this talk, its simple, yet profound reminders stood out to me. This speaker is David Damberger, who worked with Engineers Without Borders for four years as the director of Southern African programs, where he consulted governments and nongovernmental organizations on “agriculture, sanitation and development.” He talks about how ten years ago, EWB’s mission was wrapped around how it’s unacceptable that 5 million do not have access to water and that they need to work on projects that matter and can fix this. In order to do this, him and his friends knew that that it was important to first understand the problems that exist, so they decided to “live like local Africans.” They stayed in the villages, learning the local language and taking public transportation. Even with good intentions, however, we must be wary…

            During his talk, he tells the audience about the conditions in Malawi and how over the past five years, millions have gained access to freshwater. As his powerpoint displays a picture of an ecstatic boy collecting water, he says, “This picture is a lie.

He details that though 80% now have “access” to freshwater sources, a report on these taps uncovered the reality that 81 of the 113 in the area are not functional, springing leaks and needing repairs. The thing is, though infrastructure was built, there was not much thought put into how these taps would be maintained. There was a focus on hardware and not software. Though people in the community had skills to repair them, they had no access to affordable spare parts. When he asked a local about another similar tap he noticed 30 feet away, the villager said, “that’s the American gravity system.” There, Damberger realized that a project that failed 10 years ago by a different American group, was recently rebuilt by EWB 10 years later, also failing from the same problems.

            He then reflects on power systems and why this might’ve happened. With a simple diagram, he shows how in public sector, constituents, whom decisions affect, have power to make change and in the private sector, customers, whom decisions affect, have power to make change; In the development sector, however, donors have the power to control decisions that will affect beneficiaries. With this reality, he says we should invest in private and public sectors, which already have infrastructure to hold people accountable. He encourages investing in businesses and government in Africa. In these sectors, if customers aren’t served, and if sectors do not innovate and change and adapt to their needs, customers will not continue to support.

            Another thing he suggests is fixing the development sector system, by making it more accountable, creative and transparent. He says that beneficiaries need to have the option of rating their projects, moving donors closer to beneficiaries (as only 20% of African staff are based in Africa).

            The most important takeaway I got was that people must be open to admitting failure so that then, people in the future will not make the same mistakes. He shares a story of his work in India, where he led and implemented a rainwater harvesting project. When he came home to Canada, people were inspired by him and praised him for his work. However, a year later, he found out that not a single one was operating and then, he felt like an imposter, so ashamed and disappointed in himself.

            The admirable thing is that he turned this situation around into something positive. Because of his effort, Engineer Without Borders is now more focused on the “softer” side of things, where staff members are working towards letting others know the successes and failures that are happening. In the last three years, a “Failure Report” has been published which reveals these disappointments. Of course, donors initially did not feel good that their contributions were not put to use, but once they started reading, they came to understand the power of sharing these things. He talked about how there are websites like admittingfailure.com out there, existing to share these things.

            Now I’m thinking, how does the International Rescue Committee discuss successes and failures? On their website and pamphlets, I see time and time again, pie charts of their successes in each department and how a majority of money is going directly to the refugees they serve. What I gather from this is that IRC takes a lot of pride in putting their clients first and making that know to donors. However, I am wondering if there are actually problems that run deep that are hard to admit it that the common citizen will never know. As I think about criticisms of the US Refugee Assistance Program, I see how many highlight the lack of an adequate information sharing system. This is important, because refugees who go through secondary migration after arrival are lost track of and then ineligible for certain government benefits. On the other hand, I see how it is hard to actually go out and be vulnerable in sharing failures in a world where funding is given based on quantitative data that proves success. Data on success allows donors to know that they are supporting a worthy cause. If an organization admits their faults, will it decrease the financial support they will receive? Perhaps our whole system that provides funding to organizations needs to restructure in ways that enforce better foundations. Foundations that are thoroughly informed on the work that has been done in past and required regular assessments are necessary to break the continual failures that organizations face. We, as people who are passionate to be catalysts for change, need to think about these things first, before we get out and take action! 

"The Revolutionary Optimists" and youth as powerful agents of change

By Vivian Nguyen

Sunday May 12, 2013

Last Wednesday, I took a study break and attended a free screening of "The Revolutionary Optimists," at Rialto Cinemas' Community Theater. A panel discussion took place after the documentary with one of the filmmakers, Nicole Newnham, and two other individuals including our very own 105 GSI, Hannah Sholder!

The film follows the story of Amlan Ganguly, an ex-lawyer turned activist and the children he empowers to become agents of change in the informal settlements of Kolkata, India. From the quietly determined 12-year old Kajal to the quick-witted 11-year old Salim, we get an intimate portrait of their daily lives as they educate themselves and work to put their community on the map in order to pressure policy-makers into providing their neighborhood with clean tap water.  

What stood out to me about this documentary was its focus on youth as agents of social change. For my PE at the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) in Oakland, I work with youth empowerment, particularly the empowerment of at-risk Cambodian teen girls. I found a lot of similarities between the thoughts that the children in the documentary had and the conversations that I regularly have with the young women at my PE. Both groups see the issues in their community and they can imagine real solutions. The problem comes with the pragmatics of implementing such solutions feasibly.

Many of the barriers that youth encounter include being written off as "too young" or being seen as too immature to overcome the hardships of enacting change. What a lot of institutional leaders and people at the top don't recognize is the value of youth insight and opinions. The young men and women of all communities often have very comprehensive perspectives on the issues of their community because they are, arguably, the most affected by societal burdens and gains. And while this sensitivity places them in an extremely vulnerable state, it also places them in a unique position to become agents of real change. As we've learned in 105, "good" and "effective" development projects integrate top-down and bottom-up approaches in a participatory manner. Youth are an untapped resource and incorporating them into development strategies can result in more effective solutions.

Both my personal experiences at CERI and this documentary are a testament to the fact that youth can be a valuable asset to any development and poverty-alleviation strategy. Moreover, the value of youth and mentorship programs needs to be recognized because it is through these very programs - such as Ganguly's work with Prayasam - that the talents and leadership of these young individuals can be developed.

Ultimately, youth don't need to be saved - they need to be empowered.

More on "The Revolutionary Optimist" can be found at the film's office website HERE.

Bangladesh Building Collapse: Damage done, BRAC's response, reforms for the future

I will be working with BRAC in Dhaka (Bangladesh) for my PE experience in the field of microfinance. Dhaka is currently undergoing severe unrest due to police clashes that has led to a death count of 37 so far. In addition, on April 28, a commercial building in Savar near Dhaka collapsed and led to the death of over 800 individuals, marking the largest industrial calamity the nation has seen. The reason for the collapse of the building is that the owner added three additional floors that were not approved. Bangladesh, in specific Dhaka has been the epicenter of many earthquakes in the past of magnitudes of over 5. This, complemented with weak building enforced by the Bangladesh National Building Code has made this threat even worse. To make matters worse, Dhaka is growing fast and is densely populated with 45,508 people per square kilometer. Due to this, any disaster, natural or man-made has an exponential effect in this region. Over 3000 individuals have been rescued so far with the collaborative efforts of the government, community and non-profits such as BRAC. The organization is not only providing immediate relief by rescuing those in the rubble but also working towards long term mitigation through their existing programs such as microfinance, health and nutrition and disaster programs. The organization is also providing psychological counseling for those who have been traumatized. Sir Fazle Abed's take on this incident is on a more institutional level wherein he asks for collective action amongst the workers through unions as well as at a policy level. He describes the issue about how the government is influenced by corrupt businessmen and employees who capitalize on weak policies in developing nations such as Bangladesh. He also discusses regulation issues regarding the garment industry and Westerners’ perspective on Bangladeshi products. He claims that Westerners who have inherent negative connotations about Bangladeshi (a former British colony) exports and render these products inferior. He argues that Westerners should not boycott these products or reduce margins but focus rather on better safety standards. In order to reform the mindset, one must unlearn standard colonial infraction to make room for new information. In specific, he argues that the government does not provide proportional resources to the garment industry in Bangladesh that employs 3 million people but only has 18 individuals that regulate it. This refers directly to the ‘capability approach’ that argues economic growth is simply a mean to human development, not an end. Besides income, HDI also accounts for life expectancy and education levels. This approach requires economic, political and as well as legal changes. As mirrored by Sir Abed, he too begs for longer-term paradigm shift as opposed to band-aids such as financial compensation for the victims and their families. Once the debris from this incident has been cleared, Bangladesh's government, corporations and municipalities should review not only the policies that currently exist but also assess current buildings to ensure that they are up to code (it is likely that several other contractors also indulge in illegal construction for profit). Lastly, it could also be effective to have more stringent policies regarding enforcement of building codes in such volatile regions. Through this incident, it is evident that Bangladesh has the instituions in place to address the aftermath of such an incident. As discussed previously, it would be worthwhile to work towards preventive measures. 

Original Article: http://blog.brac.net/2013/04/responding-to-the-tragedy-in-savar/

Earthquakes in Bangladesh: http://www.academia.edu/429823/Earthquakes_of_Dhaka

The photo above, entitled 'A Final Embrace' depicts a couple found in the rubble of the collapsed building. Original Link here.

Hannah Chan's Reflection on Interning at the International Rescue Committee

             As those in the Wednesday lecture know, I am concurrently doing my practice experience with the International Rescue Committee in Oakland, on 14^th and Broadway, with GPP 105. I am an intern with the Health Access Team. Though I have had some opportunity to share and relate some of the topics in class to what I’m observing and experiencing at my practice, I’d like to gather my thoughts in this blog posts to give you an idea of the things my mind is currently reflecting on!

            To give you some background, IRC is a NGO, international relief and development org that works with refugees from the time they arrange to leave a country ‘til the first eight months after their arrival in the US. The IRC has several departments, like resettlement, employment, immigration, etc. The Health Access Team was created during the summer of 2012 as IRC Oakland was realizing that there was a need for a huge need for a separate crew to take care of the health needs of clients, including accompaniment to health screenings, finding a health home, paying medical bills, finding specialists, finding medical equipment, finding caregivers, etc. You can imagine how all this health related work would be a lot for the two caseworkers to deal with!

            First, I would like to say that I was and am very impressed at the way that IRC welcomes new volunteers and interns. From the start, I was invited to a Health Access Team meeting, where I had the opportunity to meet the Northern California director, the Oakland director, the head interns and the other volunteers, both current and new. Though I knew nothing, from the start, I was given a detailed training packet about important things I needed to know, like the process health team goes through with each individual, which was created by more experienced volunteers.

            I initially thought I’d be doing less interactive work, as I intern every Thursday when the office is closed to appointments, but boy was I wrong. Each day, the routine is to come into the office and check the manila folder where volunteers write down the tasks that need to be done for the week. When a task is completed it is checked off the list and when something needs to be done, it is written down. My tasks often include calling up billing services to make sure that the clients’ MediCal information is on file so their bills would be covered, accompanying clients to Asian Health Services, the DMV, Social Services, etc. for appointments, checking out ReCares (medical equipment recycling program) to see if there is any medical equipment clients need, delivering equipment, visiting families at their houses, helping clients submit their MediCal Choice forms, speaking with clients who come in with paperwork they do not understand etc.

            Though these tasks may seem very tedious and boring to you, actually, they are not! Each day, I am learning more about how MediCal works, the health services our county has to offer, but more importantly, the disparities in our system and how our government fails to really support such a vulnerable population. As I try to help clients out through making phone calls and navigating such a complex system, as I face many difficulties and am put on hold for way too long, I can not even imagine how hard it would be for refugees who know little English to navigate and figure out these things independently. To tell you the truth, it is also really saddening to see how refugees expect a whole new world of opportunity and hope for a new life before they come to America, but when they come, they are often dissatisfied with their living conditions and are quite stunned by the culture shock they experience. As I say these things, I am thinking a lot about my role as an intern. The words I am saying seem so top-down to me. I believe that I need to think more about my approach in my work, because often, I think of myself as the more skilled or experienced member whom the refugees I work on depend on or would be helpless without. As I continue my practice this summer, I hope to think more of what it looks like for me to be a better listener who comes alongside the refugees, instead of coming as a dominant figure who can solve all the things I perceive to be “problems” for them. In my future blog posts, I hope to detail more of the specific encounters that I’ve had, but I’m realizing how talkative I can be…so I’ll end this post here. Thanks for reading! 

Costs and Benefits of Bilingual Education in Guatemala

My NGO, El Nahual Community Center, operates partially as a language school, so studying the effects of imposing bilingual education on developing countries is pertinent to my understanding of what I will be working with in Guatemala.  Harry Patrinos wrote one of the pieces I discussed in my literature review; he weighed the costs and benefits of bilingual education in Costs and Benefits of Bilingual Education in Guatemala: A Partial Analysis.  Patrinos addresses the potential loss of culture that comes with introducing a new language to a group of people, but he also reveals the benefits.  These benefits include taking steps towards globalization, which he argues helps speed up the pace of development.  He furthers this point by providing evidence that shows bilingual education as being extremely effective in disadvantaged communities in Guatemala, (Patrinos, 594).  El Nahual Community Center has been successful at reducing the number of students dropping out and repeating grades in the public schools.  According to Patrinos, this is most likely due to providing bilingual education for its community.  

Just keep on pitching: my 2nd take at water access in the Colonias

Last Tuesday, we pitched our group project proposals to alleviate poverty in an area of our choice. My group formulated a plan to increase water access in the Colonias settlements of Texas by building a community center that would build social power so the community could work towards addressing this issue through workshops and meetings. Come presentation day, we were essentially told that our project wouldn't work because of the bureaucracy in our country that would not allow for such a building to be built in a town that is not an official city. There was also an apparent disconnect between our community building activity and access to water. I initially thought that this was the worst possible thing that could ever happen in a group presentation. This brought to life my personal fears. But then things changed when I caught an idea that one of the GSI's said in passing. He told us that we should have done a rainwater collection system instead. I didnt have time to say this then, but I thought this was a simple yet genius plan that never crossed our minds. Maybe we were so caught up on trying to address every layer of this complicated issue that we didn't think of just harvesting natural water. His idea has been floating in my mind since then so I decided to look into it....

Rainwater harvesting from the WaterAid America website

The WaterAid America website explains this really well. The rainwater harvesting tank that this organization brings to impoverished communities around the world is a 12 by 12 cylinder that stands 5 feet high. It collects rainwater during wet seasons and filters it through a net. This system collects naturally filtered rainwater that is supposedly cleaner the tap water that is piped in to some of  these communities only on a sporadic basis. Some studies from the University of Arizona have shown that this system is effective in bringing down water costs and providing a sustainable water access alternative in the Colonias (although their study was done in Arizona rather than Texas. This solution makes so much sense especially since our research showed that the Colonias we chose did experience a lot of rain despite their lack of access to water. This would have also solved our issue of dealing with government bureaucracy or exploitation by big businesses.

How we completely missed this solution in our research is beyond me. Even if our proposal is done and submitted, I'm really glad that the criticisms we received allowed me to look at this issue from a different perspective. It is fitting that right before I wrote this blog post, I read Antonina's post on how cynicism can hinder us from growing. Since we've been taught so much about critically analyzing solutions to poverty, we may shoot down our own ideas before we even build it up. My groups experience has shown that the beauty of pitching an idea is that it allows these ideas to be seen with a fresh perspective. Whether the idea just came up from doodling in class or it has been built it into a 10 page paper, there will always be something to improve. It is a matter of sharing these ideas and motivating ourselves to follow through so that the best solutions can be found.

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side-note: this is our blog's 100th post! I think that's pretty cool :)

E-participation: A New Approach To Participatory Action

An interesting argument that I encountered when researching different approaches to increasing participation in urban slum community development is the idea of e-participation. E-participation is an interesting tool set up by the UN–Habitat’s Participatory Slum Upgrading Programme (PSUP) in collaboration with several other actors and organizations. This approach has the aim of developing innovative social-media tools for policy modeling and citizen participation.

The goal is to create an online tool for slum dwellers to voice their opinions of upgrading plans, prioritizing interventions, and monitoring as well as evaluating projects. This tool will allow community-based organizations and NGOs to better and more directly address the needs and concerns of community members. This would make community development much more transparent and increase the degree of accountability from organizations that work in slum development. E-participation thus allows for a better partnership between organizations and the people to create direct change that will greatly improve living conditions of many slum dwellers.

The organization I am working with, TECHO - Chile, does a lot of interactive work with the communities they partner with in order to address the specific needs of people living in slums. A major debate related to my organization that I have discovered is: What the most efficient way is to encourage and incorporate participation in community development programs, thus more efficiently benefiting communities that the organization works with. This leads me to ask, is e-participation a possibility of increasing participation in Chile?

The approach of e-participation, launched in Mtwapa, Kenya a few months ago trained participants to use social media tools such as Facebook, weblogs and email. This training allowed them the ability to share their opinions in order to ensure that upgrading projects are inclusive and address relevant problems. The approach was implemented but thus far the degree of success has not yet been reported. It was stated by UN-Habitat that the initial intervention workshop was received well by community members living in Mtwapa. For many who participated it was their first time working on a computer. Their responses were overwhelmingly positive toward the e-participation tool. Members of the slums recognized that this approach has the potential to allow for a higher level of participation while also exposing the poor to technology they never dreamed of being exposed to. It ultimately is a tool for empowerment.

This new form of participation is very interesting because it utilizes the development of technology in today’s society. By allowing people in poverty to access the Internet in order to voice their opinions, we are sharing the wealth of knowledge and technology with a population that otherwise would not be exposed to it. As technology continues to advance, I think that this form of participation may expand into more opportunities for the poor to share in the vast possibilities that technology and the Internet create.

E-participation has the potential for a great impact on the level of participation and collaboration between stakeholders in slums around the world. It also allows for greater documentation of progress communities are making. While there are many benefits that it may bring, there are also a large number of restrictions to this approach.

E-participation’s potential for success falls short when we consider the availability of this technology for most developing countries. How do we provide these communities with the computers necessary to voice their opinions? Is internet even available in many of these areas? In the future it may be possible that we increase the exposure of new technologies, but in our current society these resources aren’t nearly as plentiful as it would be necessary for this approach to be universal. This is an approach we should keep in mind for the future but as of now it may be more efficient to rely on direct interviews and surveys to assess the needs of community members and encourage participatory action. This method is much more feasible and cost effective.

Another limitation embedded in this approach is the time that it takes to teach individuals how to operate a computer. Our generation spends years learning how to type and spends many hours learning how to maneuver the Internet world. The time it would take to teach the impoverish how to operate this foreign technology would heavily outweigh the time it would take to simply verbally ask the people what they would like to be improved in their communities. Additionally, in order for people to type their opinions, we are making the major assumption that people are literate enough to do so.

While e-participation may be empowering to many people around the world, the restraints for effectiveness are rather high. This approach is an interesting advancement in participatory action that I think may potentially be very useful. Time will only tell if this is the new form of participation slum dwellers will be utilizing.

In Response to Vivian's Rethinking Abortion Debates

Reading Vivian's post about abortion debates really stood out to me.

For someone who is going to do their Practice Experience in a family planning non-profit organization, the talks of abortions and its casualties are very sound.

When doing my research for my literature review, I ran into a few statistics and some are kind of outrageous. 

In the Philippines, at least 500,000 women die yearly due to unsafe abortions. Another 300,000 women suffer from the repercussions of having unsafe abortions. That is a total of 800,000 women who are consistently affected by policies of the government. That is almost a million people.

 The Philippines is a very conservative country in which abortion laws are out of the question due to through the dominance of Catholicism. 

In Vivian's post, a line stood out that said " Women are dying because society has yet to decide that their lives are worth saving." That line is so relevant in every day society. Everyone gets so caught up in the policies coming from each end of the different realms that nobody actual considers the well-being of the women who have to resort to physically hurting themselves in order to fit into this society that consistently opposes them. In the Philippines, what bothers me the most, is that a lot of the policies that are getting established in regards to women are made by men. I'm sure that this is common in a lot of developing countries that lack proper policies for the safety of women. 

Women do end up getting abortions regardless of who agrees and disagrees. This is what is troublesome about the issue, that women have to resort to being unsafe because everyone believes they have a say in what happens to their body. There are so many casualties in regards to this issue world wide, and even though it has been decades and decades of talks; everyone remains in a stand-still. For example, the Reproductive Health Bill in the Philippines just passed in regards to making contraceptives more available and sexual education in the school system be implemented. There was a subsection in the bill in regards to abortion that had to be taken out because nobody could come to terms with the agreement. The reproductive health bill has had multiple drafts for the past 14 years. It's crazy to think that even after that many years, abortion is still an issue. 

Abortion debates do not only resonate within the developing countries, but still very apparent in the US as well. Even though the US is known to be a "melting pot" and have a diversity of different ethnicities and religions, the government still cannot come up with a policy that would be in regards to the safety of women. 

People of higher power have a lot of control over this issue, I only hope that they begin to truly recognize how their work affects these women and people in general.

Laws do not control whether women will continue with their abortions, laws only control HOW women can do it safely/unsafely

Who said politics couldn't kill?: rethinking abortion debates

By Vivian Nguyen

Pro-life versus pro-choice. 

I'm sure we've all heard the abortion debate framed like this many times. But after watching a TedxAmazonia Talk given by documentary film director Diana Whitten, I was inspired to see the issue in a different light.

Whitten begins her Talk with this powerful statement: "An Egyptian doctor named Mahmoud Fathalla once said, 'Women are not dying because of illnesses we cannot treat. Women are dying because society has yet to decide that their lives are worth saving'."

According to Whitten, millions of women from the world's poorest communities undergo illegal and risky abortions every year. And many of these women suffer from complications or in many cases, death, due to infections from botched operations. Their individual stories become clumped together into statistics and it becomes easy to assume that abortion itself must be a risky procedure. 

However, this assumption is incorrect. Due to the invention of vacuum aspiration in the 1960's, abortion is a clinically safe procedure today - if done by the right physician under the correct circumstances. Unfortunately, powerful bodies, such as government and religion, have rendered abortion illegal. And it is this illegality that pushes abortion underground where the lack of proper regulation results in the deaths of millions.

Contrary to the beliefs of many policy-makers, anti-abortion laws do not actually stop abortions from happening. As Whitten points out, "laws cannot control whether or not abortions happen. They can only control whether or not they happen safely."    

We have the scientific knowledge and medical tools to save these women, which means they aren't dying due to the 'risky' nature of abortions. These women are dying because of politics.

The complexities surrounding an issue such as this one highlight something that Professor Roy stressed in GPP 115 - what the world's most vulnerable individuals need is not charity but rather policy. By pushing for safe abortion laws, such as Ethiopia's 2005 progressive abortion law reform, one of the most disenfranchised groups can have access to the safe procedures they need and deserve. 

While the contentious debates around abortion will continue, they need to be imagined in a different way. They should not be framed around the questions of 'should women have control over their bodies?' and 'when does 'life' truly begin?.' While valid, these frames represent moral judgements. And although abortion is a very morally controversial, at its core, the debates encapsulate a value judgement. 

The real question that should be asked is this: do we, as a global society, value women enough to give them access to the tools that can save their lives and promote their health and well-being?

Until we can answer that, millions of mothers, girls, and daughters will continue to die.