All Together Now International
You Can Make A Difference, But Together We Can Make A Change
In this month's newsletter:
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Announcements and Activities: Welcome to our new volunteers & Event updates
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Snapshots: Shanti Sewa
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Greeting from Nepal: Interviews with Nyima and Jigmey
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Dilip's Ambitions
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Spotlight: India
Announcements and Activities from ATNI:
Welcome Jennifer Uhre and Erika Nyhus! Both women joined ATNI in January to assist with grantwriting!
ATNI's SPRING
FUNDRAISER is
taking shape thanks to the tremendous efforts made by Jeffrey Swager,
ATNI's event planner. A graduate from Western Washington
University, Jeffrey has a wide range of international volunteer
experience. As he writes, "I have passion and experience in
bringing together people through a universal language-Music; with a goal
of supporting our global community in need. With my past experience and
education I have decided to put my energy into International Health. I
will be attending the University of Colorado's graduate
program-MBA in International Health Management and Policy-with a
certificate in Public Health. I will begin my studies next January after
I gain in state residence. I am extremely committed to the vision of
international health aid for disadvantaged people in all regions of the
world."
Keep your calendars clear for May 2007!
SNAPSHOTS:
Sleeping children at Shanti Sewa. Visit the ATNI website for more pictures!
Greetings from Nepal! Interviews with Nyima and Jigmey
NYIMA
(age 25): "I went to my village Zhido a year ago. There is no
email there which is why I had no contact with Jennifer.
It was very
hard to go back to the village hospital – the
Zhido Tibetan Hospital, as we only ever
studied from books and this was my first practical experience. Tod diagnose
illnesses was the hardest. The doctors were all very nice to us and showed
and taught me many new things like different ways to check the pulse.
But in my village I saw that ONE doctor can do so many things and help
many people! First
he checked a pulse, then I did the same and he corrected me. In the 1st
month I helped to make medicines and in the second month I stayed with
the doctor to see the patients. So alternatively making powder and pills
from Tibetan herbs and assisting the doctor was my job.
In the summer
we’d walk to many different remote villages. For example, one day on the
truck and then walk and then stay there for a week, pick medical herbs
and flowers and see patients.
This
past year we studied the writings of earlier doctors and we’d ask the
friends who are still alive and their descendants and so we made 15 totally
new medicines – for arthritis, stomach, headache and migraine – one to
strengthen old people and liver medicine and especially the liver medicine
is very very good! These
medicines used to be made only by doctors from my hometown – other villages
didn’t have this so after digging out the old books we revived the knowledge.
The things I learnt this past year:
- How to diagnose patients by reading their pulse and urine, check the lungs via stethoscope.
- I can give different kinds of injections in different parts of the body now and I can give drips.
- In my village most sicknesses are arthritis and headache. The doctor there does a kind of acupuncture but injects Chinese medicines on the temples and the head and in the knees. That helps a lot. I saw this many times and think I could do this too. They also use the hot iron.
- I learnt to patiently interview the patent. For example, when did the illness start? How long have you had it? How did it happen? Have you eaten any medicine in the past? Did it help you?
At the end of my first year as a doctor I got 200 Yuan prize money. Now I hope to go back to my village and work with the doctor there but more independently. I will stay with friends – thus don’t have to pay rent. My mother lives in another village very far away, my father is dead.
I enjoyed this past year very much. In ten years from now I see myself as a very good doctor, married with one or two children in my village!
When I was in America Jennifer and her family and everyone there were all very nice to me and they all helped me so I cannot forget them and send them thousands of thanks and will do that throughout all my life! I would love to go back and see you all in the USA one day!"
JIGMEY
(age 19): "I am now in class 8 – the vocational training part
of the class (not the medical part). I will study here 2 more years. I
learn English, Tibetan and Chinese. After I finish I think I’m going to
be an English Teacher. I would love to teach in this very school. I don’t
want to be a doctor but I help the ROKPA – doctors from Canada who come
here every year . I translate for them. I would also like to be a translator.
I may have
to do further studies to be a Teacher. I
love this school – if I was not in school I would not learn anything –
but this way I learn what helps me now and in the future.
When I think
about my year in the USA I think I had a very great time there and everyone
helped me so much! I
would like to thank Jennifer who helped me so much and also all the Teachers
and doctors and all my friends at school and everywhere there. I had a
great time. I would love to go back to the USA and study more English
and when I come back I can help more people by teaching them English!"
Donate, Volunteer or Support...All Together Now welcomes your tax-deductible contributions, your time and skills, and your support! For information regarding donations, volunteer opportunities, ways in which you can support ATNI's upcoming events, or to be added to our mailing list, please visit us online at www.alltogether.org, e-mail us at info@alltogether.org or call us at 720 565 8777.
All Together Now International is looking for sponsors to help Dilip realize his dream of becoming a pilot. Read Dilip's gripping story below to learn about how he plans to overcome life's obstacles:
"Hi! I am Dilip and was born in a little village called Nampha in Nepal 18 years ago. My parents used to be farmers and had never been to school. My father never cared for my mother and didn't look after us and so my mother left her village with me and my little sister Durga and we came to Katmandu. I never saw my father again. At that time, I was about 6 years and my sister was about 3.
Then what? Struggle! Poverty! To feed us children my mother spun wool and went to clean other people's houses. But still we were hungry most of the time. As we lived near a Golf course in a small dark room with hardly any furniture in a very rough condition, I went off to the Golf course where I carried the heavy caddies for players in order to earn a little money which would help out at home.
It was at that time that my mother started to occasionally help out in the household of Mum Lea and thus she found out about ROKPA and its activities. By that time - I was 8 - I had already given up the idea of studying but when I heard from my mother about ROKPA and that Mum Lea was picking up children and was sending them to school my hope great that my wish to be educated might get fulfilled. At first she was willing to take my little sister only as she had already many boys but I still went with my mother to see Mum Lea and when she saw me she agreed to take me seeing my eager face and from that moment onwards I believed that miracles happen in real life and not only in stories!
Since then, this was 10 years ago, I have been part of ROKPA and have achieved an education that poor people like me can hardly dream of. I just can't express in words how great ROKPA has been for me as it has been helping all my family. It's a real miracle.
Since my childhood I have been wondering how it would be to fly in the sky - I mean airplanes - and since my childhood I was wanted to be a pilot. Sometimes I tell myself that I am dreaming very high but I can't help it! it's the greatest dream I ever had and the only thing I ever wanted to become I am just so interested in it and am waiting for another miracle to happen in my life.
In Nepal, the chance to get a training as a pilot is minute and thus I am hoping and praying to get a change to learn this profession in the USA. If there is a way you could help me I tell you from my heart that I wouldn't let anyone down because this is my ultimate destiny. Something in my heart tells me that I am asking something too much and I feel awkward to mention it, but if I don't put my effort then there is no possibility for sure, so I feel at least I can try and express my desires and look for a way to achieve my goal.
I have always been so fascinated with this idea of becoming a pilot. Being realistic, as I come from a very poor family there is no way I can afford the cost of becoming a pilot. Being a charity, ROKPA cannot invest such a huge amount for a single person. I really wish somebody out there would de a dream come true for me."
If you have ideas for how to make Dilip's dream come true, please contact Gwendoline at gvandoosselaere@alltogether.org.
Starving in the Midst of Plenty: Confronting the Problem of Hunger and Poverty in India
by Lindsay Mitchell
All
Together Now International
As I
walked through the hectic and bustling streets of New Delhi, I could not
help but be overwhelmed by what I saw. Whether it be an old man with no
legs on the side of the road, the young boy who pleaded for money while
pulling and pulling at my arm for nearly a block, or the starving mother
with her infant child who looked sadly into my eyes crying “baby,
baby,” the immense poverty that surrounded me every day in India was a
reality that I was certainly aware of, and yet I don’t think anything
could have fully prepared me to witness it with my eyes. I had come to
India to volunteer in an orphanage for street children. I wanted to make
a difference, even if only in a small way, in the lives of the children
who were born into such a destitute situation. And yet there were many
times that I felt so hopeless, wondering if there is indeed anything we
could ever do to improve
the lives of these people.
India is
a vast country with a complex history that has brought about even more
complex problems in the modern world. While the country has done
remarkably well in staving off famine since its independence in 1947, it
has shown little to no progress in solving the problem of endemic hunger
caused by poverty. As a result, “every eight years, more Indians die
as a direct result of hunger than Chinese died in the famine of
1958-1961” (Robbins, 2002: 176). The most difficult aspect to realize
in relation to this problem is that all of these people are starving to
death in the midst of a surplus of food. In fact, India has the largest
surplus of unused food stocks in the world, and yet its people are some
of the world’s most undernourished (Sen, 2005:213). Here we see one of
the most devastating consequences of our capitalist society: the concept
that the need for food does
not necessarily constitute the entitlement to food, as entitlement is now rooted in the ability to
pay for food. To understand how so many people go hungry in the midst of
plenty, we must understand how social, economic, and cultural factors
converge to produce this problem (Robbins, 2002:177).
One of
the most basic ways that developing countries can begin to break the
cycle of hunger and poverty is through education, as “increased
education opens up greater opportunities for upward mobility” and
therefore leads to greater income equality (Handelman, 2003:284). India
remains far behind in universal literacy rates. Less than 75% of adult
males and only about 50% of women in India are literate (Sen, 2005:195).
One of the largest barriers to progress in this sector is the lack of
quality primary education in India. As Amartya Sen points out, “there
are not enough schools and the facilities available in the ones that
exist are often very limited” (216).
In addition, major problems lie in the weak institutional
structure of many schools in India, as well as the issue that education
is not free.
Related
to the issue of education, as well as economic opportunity, is the
problem of discrimination. While the idea of caste in India has been
officially abolished for some time, members of lower castes are often
discriminated against when it comes to educational and employment
opportunities. In a study by Amartya Sen, it was observed that 75% of
schools studied that taught primarily members of lower castes had
significant problems of teacher absenteeism. This was not the case in
schools where less disadvantaged children were taught. Furthermore, the
BJP party, currently controlling the Indian government, supports the
caste system and believes it is unnecessary for poor Indians to be
literate (Handelman, 2003). These are political views that only
encourage discrimination and inhibit social and economic progress for
the country.
This
problem is further complicated when the issue of gender is added.
Worldwide, over 60% of people living in poverty are women (Robbins,
2002:190). Thus, one way to
alleviate hunger and poverty is to focus on programs that empower and
enable women. Women receive far less educational opportunities than men,
as education is often considered irrelevant for females in India,
especially if they come from lower castes. Women’s role in Indian
society is often seen as being subservient to their husbands, making
them unable to survive without male support. Assault on women is very
high in this country, and over 5,000 women are murdered every year in
India because their husbands are not satisfied with their dowries (Handelman,
2003:114).
Finally,
there is the important issue of health. The average life expectancy in
India is only 62 years, versus 77 years in the United States (Handelman,
2003:7). The rapid spread of HIV infection and AIDS in this region is
causing more and more unnecessary deaths each year, and yet “public
efforts to confront this new hazard are still extremely inadequate” (Sen,
2005:195) Another major problem lies in the lack of clean drinking water
available. In New Delhi, less than one-third of the population is served
by sewage systems; the rest must drink unsafe, polluted water.
The
issues mentioned above are only some of the many problems that need to
be addressed in India if it ever hopes to pull itself out of the
terribly immense poverty that so many live in today. Social, political,
and economic programs need to work together to address the significant
problems in education, discrimination, and health throughout the
country. But there is still hope. The Kala Raksha program that ATNI
supports is one example of how Indians are learning to use their
traditional knowledge to provide a living for themselves and their
families. More programs that aim to educate the poor, empower women, and
provide clean drinking water and basic health care to the masses are
desperately needed in order to create positive and lasting change in
India.
Handelman, Howard. 2003. The Challenge of Third World Development. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Robbins, Richard H. 2002. Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Sen, Amartya. 2005. The Argumentative Indian. London: Penguin Books Ltd.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Jennifer Cleary · President | Cynthia T. Kennedy, Esq. · Treasurer | Steven Harrison · Author | John Odom, MD · Orthopedic Surgeon | Wendell Wallach · Business Consultant | Joe Braidish · Business Management Consultant
ADVISORY COUNCIL
Margaret Cleary · Rehabilitation Nurse | Scott Dimetrosky · Executive Director International Mountain Explorers Connection | Dorje Dolma · Surgery Recipient | Tsering Dolma · Surgery Recipient | Rick Doty · Certified Public Accountant | Michael Friedenberg · Real Estate Broker | Eric Jamrich, MD · Orthopedic Surgeon | Jill Kamon, MD · Pediatrician | Jon Krakauer · Author | David Spiegel, MD · Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon
CONTACT INFORMATION
www.alltogether.org | +1 (720) 565 8777 | info@alltogether.org | PO Box 7111 · Boulder, CO 80306 · USA
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February 2007