Oh the Impact!!!

Well, when we arrived here on January 26, just two weeks ago, little did we know what all would unfold before us. The group with whom we are staying and who is helping to organize our efforts on this side of the border is a tremendous group of caring, sincere, and kind-hearted individuals. They have nothing but our best interest, and the peoples’ best interest in mind. As we mentioned before, the municipal government has been excellent as far as helping to facilitate our project as well, even giving us access to government data sheets and vehicles for our own personal use. But that is just the tip of the iceberg! In the last two weeks, the municipal government has created a new bus line and taxi service… in honor of me!!! I have now seen buses with the initials up to, JR – 0034, starting from JR – 0001. The taxis are swarming all over town, each proudly boasting my initials on their sides, and on their bumpers. There is even a brand new gas station at the corner of one of the biggest intersections boasting my name in big letters across the front windows! I was hoping that we would be able to help the people, but this has been beyond my wildest dreams… Please see attached photos below. You may have to double-click the photos and zoom in to see the glittering letters “JR.”

Well, if you haven’t guessed, my mind is running away with fanciful dreams, or I am just plain having fun. It is true, the buses and the taxis, and even the gas stations carry my name. On first arrival I thought it a pretty cool coincidence that my name was on a smattering of buildings. But the more I looked, I realized it was everywhere! Then I actually kicked my mind into gear and took a brief moment to think about why this might be the case, and realized that we are staying in the municipal state of Juventino Rosas, and therefore any and all items associated with the government, as well as any building that wants to proudly proclaim its loyalty to the state, places the initials “JR” somewhere on its exterior. So sadly, our time here has not led to a new bus line, a new taxi service, or a fantastic gas station...

We have, however, in the last two weeks visited 23 communities (out of 61 total), generally talking with anywhere from 10-40 persons, meeting often in the chapel courtyard. Part of our purpose in these group meetings is to talk with the locals, build rapport, and determine the specific needs of each individual community – including health needs, economic needs, as well as daily needs such as food, water, shelter, etc. We have also tried to get a better understanding of how the families function when spouses or children have left to the United States. There are a large number of single women in these communities (often secondary to US immigration), and unfortunately, many of the jobs that the men obtain are seasonal, so there is never a steady influx of remittances to help pay for basic life necessities back in Mexico. Because of this, we have also talked with the women about possible skills and abilities that are either unique to their communities, or could be marketed on a small scale with some financial backing and instruction from experts at UNC as well as local help from the University in Celaya. We have delved into the possibilities of starting small microenterprises (ex: tortillas, tostadas, bed linens, clothing, cheese, yoghurt, etc) that might provide a source of jobs for these women that are otherwise stranded with multiple children, waiting for money that is slow to arrive.
We have been met with great enthusiasm in almost all of the communities. These women are strong in spirit and want to work for their livelihood and for their families. Hopefully this project will take off and be able to address these financial needs (with the longer goal of helping address the problems with depression as well). Of course, we are neither experts in business nor microfinance, but we are also helping to find communities in which a new group of volunteer medical students and physicians (about 20 in total) will be able to come and work this summer, providing free medical consults for the needy and underserved.

Two weeks have flown by, and we’ve only got two more to go. We still have a lot of work to do, especially here in town as far as discovering what current services are available for both general medical health and mental health. We hope to partner with psychologists in the area or even with psychology students to lay the foundation for a collaborative effort to provide support for these impoverished women who are known to have high levels of depression. The day awaits us, so I suppose we had better get back to it! Thank you for your support and prayers. We look forward to seeing you when we return.

The Next Adventure: Juventino Rosas, Guanajuato, Mexico

Itinerary:
January 26, 2008 – depart for Juventino Rosas, Guanajuato, Mexico
Conduct community visits, visit with the municipal government, gather background data
February 23, 2008 – return to Durham, NC

Well, after only 6 months at home in North Carolina, we are once again crossing the border, this time to Juventino Rosas, Mexico. While back in Durham/Chapel Hill we happened across an opportunity to work on a public health project here in Mexico and jumped at the opportunity. However, before giving you the details, let me give you a little background information:
Catholic Church in Juventino Rosas
Background:
There are about 600,000 Hispanic people living in North Carolina. Of those, about 75% are from Mexico. Within the Carrboro/Chapel Hill community, there are close to 50 families that attend Saint Thomas More Catholic Church who are all from the same small municipio in Mexico, Juventino Rosas. When it was discovered that so many people from the same community in Mexico were congregated in Carrboro/Chapel Hill, a brotherhood of sorts between the two church parishes began to form, and within this context, over the past five years, different groups from the UNC community have visited Juventino Rosas to try and support the local people there. More specifically, groups of physicians and medical students have traveled to Juventino Rosas to offer medical services; and this past October, a delegation from Juventino Rosas came out to Chapel Hill. While in Juventino Rosas, UNC medical students worked on a depression screen and found extremely high rates of depression, especially among single women.

Given the high rate of immigration from Mexico into the United States, there is an ever increasing number of single women who are left behind, who depend on remittances from their family members in the US. Many who leave to the US are able to send remittances back to their families when work is good; others, unfortunately, leave and never look back. It is these women, who are living alone in Juventino Rosas, without jobs, whom we primarily hope to serve. However, there is also a tremendous opportunity to work with the other side of the coin – the men who are living in North Carolina.

Landscape on the way to La Huerta, another small town outside of Juventino Rosas

With this background, we were asked to come to Juventino Rosas to live among the people, learn their stories and their life struggles, and to gather background information about the culture, economy, and health. Our overarching goal is to provide support for the rural poor here in Juventino Rosas, specifically those affected by immigration. The high rates of depression among the women are thought in large part to be secondary to the split family structure and the dependence on remittances. We also know that to implement change, these women need not only medical help, but the ability to be independent. Because of this, the long-term plan is to establish microenterprise ventures within some of the poorest communities to empower the women, improve their financial stability, and by doing this improve their mental and physical health. Our specific goals for the here and now, therefore, are to gather the needed background information which will help determine if and when a microenterprise project would be feasible, and what the product might be. We are also laying down inroads and helping to locate other communities which might benefit from medical consults this summer, when there are another 14 medical students and a few physicians from UNC coming down for 6 weeks.
Mesas de Acosta - a small outlying town

Hitting the Road:
We’ve been here for five days now, and boy are we tired! We have already met with the delegation that came to the United States in October, the municipal president and all of his department heads, and a group of professors from the nearby technical institute in Celaya to discuss microfinance opportunities in the region; and we have visited five outlying communities to chat with the people. No one here speaks English, so our Spanish has been tested (and hopefully improved) daily. The days are long, but the work is enjoyable. We hope to visit two communities a day for the next 3 weeks (not including the weekends). We’ll see if we can keep it up!

The people here are wonderful, incredibly generous, and exceptionally kind. The President has loaned us a car while we are here; one of the department heads, David, is helping us compile data regarding population statistics, economic status, and local resources pertaining to the communities; and another department head is collecting data on water. With each visit to a new community we are welcomed with open arms, offered food and drink, and invited to people’s homes. The generosity of the people, despite their economic well-being, offers a lesson to be learned for us all. These are people who earn perhaps $4 dollars a day and who can barely sustain their own families, and they open wide their doors for strangers to come and visit and eat. Their generosity and compassion are beautiful in their sincerity and simplicity. In many ways, life here is beautiful, simple.
Local well in Agua Zarca - this supplies water for about 50 people

We’ll write more, hopefully this weekend. Take care.