• 01Mar

  Bogota February, 2011

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  A quick post…

  Had a quick trip to Bogota February 24-27, 2011.

  We had a meeting on Friday, February 25 with the American Women’s Club President. We wanted to learn what AWC did in Bogota – how they gave back to the community. We were thrilled to learn of their commitment to the community and we are looking forward to hearing about potential partnerships for Mango Tree Foundation with AWC in Bogota!

  We were also introduced to a new project that CED-Uniminuto is really excited about. Friday morning at 10 a.m. we got to meet the amazing women at Vencedoras de Batallas. These women are going to be participating in a capacity building training through CED-Uniminuto for the next 12 months. The capacity training will help the women to begin to organize themselves and to begin to work on projects that will allow them to move from prostitution to alternative income generating activities. CED has a comprehensive plan in place to train the 20-40 women who choose to participate. Padre Renee Rey brought this amazing group to CED looking for a way to help them in their decision to move into new lifestyles. Padre Renee is a part of Fundcaion Eudes and is the director of the mobile unit that goes out into the San Bernardo neighborhood of Bogota. They offer counseling, medical evaluations and HIV/AIDS testing. I can’t wait to hear what opportunities we may have to work with all three groups.

  Saturday I made a visit out to Yo Mujer. We weren’t really sure if anyone was going to be at the Hogar de Paso because we hadn’t been able to reach any of our contacts on our long bus ride out to Ciudad Bolivar. Needless to say, we were amazingly surprised when we arrived at Yo Mujer to find about 20 people waiting for us. Well, they were sort of waiting for us – several days a month Yo Mujer allows former participants to come and work on legal processes – having an opportunity to bring business proposals that will be presented to Accion Social for approval and funding. Teresa was also helping at least 30 families receive a hearing before the government to get funding that will allow them to pay rent, buy food and, hopefully send kids to school. Families are eligible for $500US over a three month period to be used to pay for their living expenses. That averages about $166.66US per month…figure that the average rent amount is $150US – doesn’t leave a whole heck of a lot of money after the rent is paid, does it?

  More later.

  nbb

• 21Jan

  Oops

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  When I was growing up, I remember purposely not writing down my thoughts for fear that someone else would read them. Not sure why I was so worried – it wasn’t like my thoughts were that wild, crazy, or even interesting. I say that because it appears I have a problem with blogging! Forgive me for not being on top of the blogging lately. I mean it’s only been since August!

  Needless to say, lots happened last year and, as we are looking forward to 2011, lots is going to happen.

  In Bogota, the vegetable garden is thriving – the women are able to use the vegetables that they grow and, when numbers allow, selling the extra vegetables. They don’t make a ton of money from the sale of the extra vegetables but some. Our friend Carlos from Uniminuto is still working with the ladies to help them with the rotation of the vegetables, growing cycles and little details required to have a garden.

  We are in the planning stages of a sewing project – reusable shopping bags – Bogota Bags. We are working on developing partnerships with some of the major sewing machine manufacturers for donated sewing machines and, hopefully, a seamstress who wants to donate her time to train the women at Yo Mujer. Our goal is to make reusable shopping bags, hopefully made of recycled/reclaimed clothing and to market those bags in Bogota. The market is just developing in Bogota and we feel like we have some interesting contacts and connections there who will be able to help us develop the markets.

  We are planning our events for the year. Pilatathon, tentatively scheduled for April 16 (new and brought to us by our friends at Pilates Tutor), Girls Night Out in early June, and, for the guys a golf outing in October! We’re even talking about a Latin Dance Lesson night!

  Stick around, we’ll be back soon!

  nbb

  Tags: Bogota, Girls Night Out, golf, Latin dance lessons, pilates, reusable shopping bags, Yo Mujer

• 06Aug

  Fleas

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  This time it was the fleas. More specifically, las picaduras de pulgas – flea bites. And, I know my translation is probably not accurate. But I wanted to make sure that I didn’t ever forget that phrase. Flea bites!

  Yo Mujer has a flea infestation in the residencia. They are in the mattresses, in the bed linens, biting the people who live there. Using the term bite here is relative – it’s more like an all out attack, a complete battalion assault.

  When I first saw Moise (he’s two years old) he was crying and scratching, holding his arms out to his Mom. I don’t know if he was telling her he was hurting or if he wanted her to scratch his arms but she pulled the long sleeves of his jacket down over his arms and rubbed them. I asked what was wrong. She said pulgas. (My Spanish is limited and I didn’t really know what pulgas were, so I found Carlos, he explained that they were flea bites.) Then she pulled up the sleeves of his jacket, the legs of his pants and showed me the bites, hundreds of them, all over this little guy.

  Then she raised the back of her shirt and showed me her bites. Again, hundreds…all over her. Amelia came over to show me her bites – hundreds – all over her arms, her back, her legs. Some of the bites had been scratched so much that they were open sores. Some had become infected. Slowly other women and children came over to show me how they had been bitten. Then they told me that the pulgas were in their beds, and everywhere, that there were so many they were picking them up off the beds and killing them with their finger nails.

  This was so disturbing to me – completely devastating. Poor people forced away from their homes, living in a place they don’t know, can’t afford, with no food, no medicine, no schools – and then fleas.

  I didn’t know what to do or say! Completely at a loss.

  My mind went into overdrive. How would I handle this if I were at home? What would I do?The next day I went to the drogueria/farmacia in Sierra Morena (the neighborhood of Ciudad Bolivar) where we are working and asked for an antibiotic creme. There was none. So, forget about stopping infections. There was Caladryl. I bought two bottles and took it out to Yo Mujer.

  When we arrived Moise, obviously becoming a little more comfortable with the strangers who had come to his temporary home, came up to me, crying as he pulled up the sleeves of his jacket. I gave the lotion to one of his aunts for her to put on his arms – I wasn’t sure he would trust me enough. She rubbed the lotion on his little arms, pulled his sleeves down. For a while he stopped crying, scratching. I tried to convince some of the others to use the lotion, a few did, a few were not willing to try it.

  On the way home we stopped at Exito (the WalMart of Bogota) for some things, among them antibiotic cream, perhaps a different type of anti-itching creme and maybe a bug bomb or spray to use in the residence. There was none. Nothing at all that I could find to eliminate the fleas in the house. Nothing I could do to make Moise’s bites go away and to prevent them from returning. Nothing.

  That sense of helplessness is something I don’t understand. Why is it that people who have already experienced such tragedy and such devastation must be assaulted again? When I even see an ant in my house, I call the bug guy and he comes over and takes care of it. My dog doesn’t have fleas because I have her treated at the vet. I have money for solutions, Moise and his family don’t.

  The images of the faces of these children and their bodies covered with bites will stay with me for a long time. I am still devastated.

• 19May

  MTF’s 2nd Annual Girls Night Out

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  Join us for our second annual girls night out. The event takes place June 21, 2010- 7pm to 10pm at the Paper Mill Grill, 305 Village Place- Marietta, GA.

  Join us again for a fabulous night out for a good cause. All proceeds benefit the Mango Tree Foundation, Inc. a 501 (c)3 organization.

  Your $20 donation includes appetizers, music, silent auction, prize drawings and a fun evening.

  To preregister, click below.

  

  For more infomation:

  nancy@mangotreefoundation.org/ 404-432-5790

• 13Dec

  Mango for Mujers: Gifts from Your Heart

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  There are so many of you who have supported Mango Tree and we are truly grateful.

  As winter holidays approach, please consider supporting our Mangos for Mujers fundraiser by making a tax deductible donation to support the food and rent assistance for the women and children of Yo Mujer.  Your gift of $20 will help provide food and shelter for many women and their children and will be giving the gift of sustenance and hope to those who have so little.

  In return, we are happy to send an e-card with your personal message to your gift recipient letting them know you have made a donation in their honor.  Your thoughtfulness and generosity will be a gift not only to your loved ones but to those who are in need of your help.

  If you wish to donate please click below. A receipt will be emailed to you after the transaction.  Thanks for your support!

  

• 09Sep

  Bogota Baby!

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  Mango Tree at Yo Mujer

  We’re back!  What an another amazing trip we had.   I’ve got bad news, good news and even better news x 2…which do you want first?  I’m always a bad news first person, then I can move on to happier topics.

  Bad news:  We were not able to put our project in place on this trip.  Good news:  We’re still working on the project!  Even better news:  We are also working on developing a much larger project that will provide income for the women of Yo Mujer.  Even more better news:  We have initiated conversations with several companies to discuss partnership opportunities!

  If you remember, our initial project had one primary goal – to address the issue of food security and food scarcity for the women and families of Yo Mujer.  We had planned on a rooftop vegetable garden and 150 laying hens to be placed on the top of that garden.  However,  our partner in Bogota, Centro de Educacion para el Desarrollo – CED at Uniminuto, did an analysis of having the chickens on the rooftop.  Unfortunately, their decision was that the rooftop option for chickens was not viable.  The rooftop vegetable garden is still a possibility.  So, we are currently in the process of securing space in a facility adjacent to Yo Mujer, called EcoParque, that will allow us to build a place for the chickens.

  Christian Hernandez, a student in the agro-ecology department atUniminuto also took the initiative to begin to explore the possibilities of a bigger project; a project that would be income generating!  Can you say tomatoes?  There is a huge market for tomatoes in Bogota – fresh tomatoes AND sun-dried tomatoes (solar drying stuff  should sound familiar).   By utilizing existing greenhouses (in dire need of repair) the women of Yo Mujer can begin to plant tomatoes.  Seeds will be planted in sections (A, B, C), all in a certain “timed planting schedule” that will allow Section A plants to grow, mature and produce, then Section B plants and finally Section C.  The goal is to have some section producing constantly!

  But, this potential project sends us back to the drawing board for building materials, seeds, soil, and some cash to take care of details for the project.  That leads to the more better news:  We had a great meeting with Nestle Colombia and will be submitting a proposal to them before the end of the month.  We are also planning to reach out to some new potential partners in Colombia and herein the Atlanta area as well as  nationally!

  It was great fun traveling with the Mango Tree partners and, this trip, we had the pleasure of Betsy Hance’s most excellent translation skills as well as her fantastic sense of humor (not to mention her newfound passion for the women and children of Yo Mujer).  Betsy is a Spanish professor at Kennesaw State University and she is working with Lynn on setting up the virtual classroom that will link students at KSU with students at Uniminuto.  But, Betsy was fabulous working and translating for us with Yo Mujer.  We were able to take a video of Dona Teresa explaining Yo Mujer – look for it to be posted here with Betsy’s translation, sometime soon!

  I’ll also be posting pictures from this trip – I don’t have too many.  I think I’ve finally figured out how to do it…it’s difficult being so technologically challenged.

  Look for an email from us through Constant Contact…it will have all our information and some upcoming event information for you!

  Thanks for your support…we couldn’t do what we do without you!

• 11Aug
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  As I walked this morning, with my Ipod in my hand and great music playing in my ears, I had some interesting thoughts.

  Our lives are so simple.  Think about it.  Take my morning for example…I got up early, made coffee, kissed my hubby good-bye, took the dog out, glanced at the paper and went for a 3 mile walk, came home to a very nice, comfortable, air conditioned home and got a big drink of  clean water straight from the faucet.  I’ll take a nice warm shower in a few minutes.  Later today I will jump in my 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid and make a run to the grocery store for some last minute supplies for the kids at home and get gas in the car so the kids can use my car if they need to while I am gone.  My daughter is going to drop me at the train station at 1 so I can take a train down to the airport to hop on a flight to Bogota.  I’m busy but I really don’t have to put a whole lot of effort into my daily life.

  My life is easy because my basic needs are met daily.  I have a place to live, food for my family, clean water to drink, to bathe in.  My kids go to school (even though at the collegiate level it doesn’t seem like they are in school nearly enough). I don’t have to spend the majority of my day walking for water, wondering if my family will be able to eat.  Instead I can think about taking a nice long walk, listening to music, updating the blog…Yeah, things are pretty simple here.

  Think though if I lived in a different area of the world.  Would my life be this simple?  You already know the answer…probably not!

  I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on anyone.  Guilt isn’t the point anymore.  A few years ago, I had an amazing shift in my thinking.  I was able to move away from the belief that I had an obligation to give out of guilt; that because we had some success in our lives I should feel guilty.  Yes, there is some ease and success in my daily life, we’ve worked hard.   But the transformation in my mind has been that I should embrace that success, not feel guilty about it; but realize that because of that success I have a very unique opportunity to participate in the world around me.  I have the chance to make a difference!

  We leave for Bogota today!  We will be working on finalizing plans for the rooftop vegetable garden, securing a facility to use for the laying hens, making arrangements for purchasing hens,  working out a deal for feed and discussing options for setting up a micro-finance opportunity for Yo Mujer.   Lynn will also be finishing up the details for the virtual class that is going to be taking place in the Spring between students at Kennesaw State University and students at Uniminuto.  Such a unique experience to be able to  utilize technology to bridge communication gaps and distance for college students to discuss theories of social change and to begin to implement change in their own communities. The future starts today!

  I have had success in bringing the Nestle corporation, in Bogota it is Nestle Colombia, in to talk and hopefully work with Dona Teresa and the women of Yo Mujer.  We are arranging a meeting with their representative in Bogota.  We will also be meeting with a representative from Avicola Colombiana to discuss laying hens.

  None of this would be happening without the support of our friends and families.  Your generosity at the Chicks for Chicks event was amazing.  We are taking that money and your commitment to this project with us today.

  It will be an extremely busy trip!  There will be meetings (in Spanish of course) but also the opportunity to reconnect with new friends in Bogota who share our very strong commitment to social justice.  We will have a translator with us but meetings in Spanish are still so challenging for me – listening in Spanish, translating to English, trying to remember Spanish words so I can actually respond in Spanish..my brain is so tired at the end of the day!

  But I am so excited about the possibility for success, and am determined to make a difference in the daily lives of these women.

  Stay tuned.  If I can get back online (remember my passwords, etc) I will try to update the blog from Bogota.

• 08Jul

  Nancy’s on ONE

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   http://ml.one.org/pipermail/everyone-8-3228aa/attachments/20090708/e2bab0e4/ONEInsiderandActionPackJuly2009-0001.pdf
  
  A link to a write-up I received today in the July Action Pack sent to ONE members in the USA!
  
  Pretty cool.  If I were extremely talented, I would take all that link gibberish out and put a cute title in for everyone to click and see...
  
  As it is, you'll have to click the above link anyway!

• 24Jun

  Wow!

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  I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I’m good at a lot of things, but blogging is not one of them!

  Thanks to the tremendous generosity of our supporters, A Girls Night Out – Chicks for Chicks was a huge success.  About 120 people attended,  we had 10 fantastic male volunteers, over thirty businesses and friends donated items for our silent auction and door prizes, Yewande Austin donated her time and amazing talent to entertain us…and, we were able to raise over $6,000!!!  (I don’t know if anyone mentioned this but our original goal for the event was that 50 women would attend and, cross our fingers, we would be able to raise $2,500. )

  Needless to say, we are incredibly humbled by you all.  Your generosity and willingness to share your limited resources, time and your great attitudes inspire us and motivate us.  Thank you for believing in us and for supporting this project.  We know that through efforts like this we can make great changes in the quality of life for the women of this community

  Lynn, Mark and I are traveling to Bogota on August 11 to install the project.  We will be building a rooftop vegetable garden (working with some folks on the design now), building a chicken coop (again working with some folks on the design for that so that we can utilize space and chicken poop) and buying chickens.  After consulting with veterinarian, Dr. Pedro Villegas (a vet at UGA who just happens to be from Bogota!) we will be purchasing 150 18-19 week old laying hens.  Buying older hens is a little more expensive but they are already laying, and the mortality rate is lower.

  I’m going to attempt to post pictures from the evening – courtesy of my friend and photographer, Sirpa Horstman.  The photos are awesome and a big thanks to Sirpa for her time and talent.

  Again, thanks for being there for us and for the women of Yo Mujer.  As always, please feel free to contact us with any questions about our work, who we are and ideas for projects, fundraisers.  Be patient with me as I work on blogging…

  You all rock!

• 21May

  Logistics Luncheon

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  Today Lynn, Kimmy and I had a logistics luncheon to begin our final preparations for the Chicks for Chicks fundraiser on June 1.

  We had lunch at Paper Mill Grill – the site for our event.  The food was great but the energy we created was even greater.  Fantastic ideas were flowing and, all I can say is this:  This fundraiser is going to be so much fun.  The passion and energy surrounding this is amazing.

  A couple of additions to our program and I know you’re going to absolutely, absolutely love them!

  We were talking about how we needed volunteers for our event – we need people at the door, people to monitor the silent auction, people to work the “chicks” table…and decided that we really wanted to include the men in our lives!  So, the fellas in our lives are being actively recruited to be our volunteers!  We think it’s pretty cool – especially when, so far, all have agreed.  We are so lucky to have men in our lives who support Mango Tree and our efforts.  Mark Patterson is such a valued and important part of Mango Tree.  Our website was created by Shane Peden – another valued volunteer.

  And, we are so pleased and proud to announce that Yewande Austin, a fantastic musician who calls Atlanta home, will be performing for us on June 1.

  Our PayPal donation button is in place and, we are now accepting your donations at our website!  Send us a note, make a donation…let us know how you want to be involved.

  

  Chicks for Chicks - Yewande Austin

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