Women of Vision

The Difference A Century Makes

Mary Gleason — Sun, 27 May 2012 14:01:47 +0000

Today we bring you a meditation from Cory Trenda, the Senior Director & Innovation Fund Team Lead for World Vision U.S. Major Donor Ministries. Cory writes beautifully about maternal and child health – a focus of our Strong Women, Strong World initiative.

Last evening, Janet and I watched an episode of the Ken Burns’ documentary “Baseball” which focused on Babe Ruth and the singular, unparalleled impact he has had on the game. One small factoid really jumped out at me: George Ruth (his given name) was born into a poor family in Baltimore in 1895, the oldest of nine children. Of the family’s subsequent eight children, seven did not survive infancy. How amazing and even miraculous that George lived to become arguably the greatest baseball player ever.

Today I was reading a World Vision annual update regarding our For Every Child initiative. The report included the story of Rose Mukarukundo, a Rwandan woman and single mother who fled that nation’s tragic genocide in
1994 and then married. Buried in the middle of the story was the sentence, “Four of her five children died as infants, and eventually Rose’s husband abandoned her.”

How similar those stories are, separated mainly by geography and one century. There was one other point of separation: my focus, which had shifted from the surviving child to the unspeakable heartache of a mother who has lost nearly every child she bore. Parenthetically, in our country it has become popular to say “No parent should have to bury their child” which—while true and empathetic—also speaks to our expectations of zero child mortality, a reflection of the incredible change in our reality over the past century.

Another part of this same report focused on malaria, the #1 child killer in much of Africa. Malaria. It seems so intractable and so pervasive in these countries, but completely absurd when imagined as a fearsome killer in America. Yet, until roughly 100 years ago, malaria was a major scourge in the Western hemisphere too, including the U.S., particularly the southern states.

Totally “unfixable” in Africa*, yet long ago totally “fixed” in America.

What a difference 100 years makes.

And yet, how many of us can tolerate such a long view and be faithful to do what we can do now in order to achieve results that simply will not be accomplished in our own lifetime? We have this vague sense that this would be poor stewardship, because we won’t “be there” to witness the final declaration of victory… that on the day of my death God will somehow hold me accountable to the final result of my efforts or prayers or donations, so I’d better stick to problems that will be “dead” before I am.

As I’ve noted previously, when I started in this work 30 years ago, over 45,000 children were estimated to be dying every day of preventable causes. Today that number has been reduced by half. Taken over the long view, the
progress is stunning. At the same time, it’s impossible to truly comprehend the vast numbers of children who still died needlessly each day over this same 30 years. The glass is both half full and half empty. But it’s certainly not stagnant, even if the change appears so sluggish and arduous that many people throw their hands up with impatience that “nothing is changing.” Some days the same thoughts creep into my head, days when my shoulders and chin sag and a sigh escapes involuntarily.

At times like that I’m comforted with a beautiful prayer-poem usually attributed to Salvadoran Bishop Oscar Romero, who was assassinated in 1980 while celebrating Mass in a cancer hospital in San Salvador…

It helps now and then to step back and take a long view; the Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.

No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
No pastoral visit brings wholeness.
No program accomplishes the church’s mission.
No set of goals and objectives includes everything,

This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.

We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
Amen.

Rose’s story of unimaginable grief as a mother is tragic. Yet the fact that the equivalent tragedy occurred in Babe Ruth’s family only 100 years earlier gives me great hope for the future of places like Rwanda. One hundred years from now, there will still be plenty of current social ills everywhere, crusaders aplenty for programs ministering mercy and justice
appropriate to that era.

Yet the infant mortality rate in urban Baltimore today is but a tiny fraction of the 77% that George Ruth’s mother endured. One hundred years from now, may that be the case in Rwanda, and Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, and in all of God’s world. Our offspring’s offspring may not be ready then to declare that God’s Kingdom has fully come, but may we then be in that great cloud of witnesses testifying that, compared to the way things were during our watch, God’s will is being more fully done on earth, as it is in heaven.

* Actually, major progress is happening regarding malaria deaths, thanks to a major scale-up in malaria programs over the past decade in Africa. A recent study, “estimates that 842,800 child deaths have been prevented across 43 malaria- endemic countries in Africa, compared to year 2000. The impact in 2010 is estimated to be biggest, with a 24.4% decrease in malaria- caused child deaths, compared to a scenario of no scale-up of prevention interventions beyond 2000 coverage levels.”

Helping my homeland: Why I sponsor a child in India

Mary Gleason — Sat, 26 May 2012 14:01:42 +0000

Aparna Sen and her husband, Ritwick Dhar, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, visit their sponsored child, Rebika, 12, in India. Photo: World Vision

We loved reading Aparna Sen’s inspiring story of sponsorship on the World Vision blog. A native of Calcutta, India, Aparna chose to sponsor a girl through World Vision in her home country after moving to the United States. Read her story here!

Congo’s maternal mortality rate exacerbated by poverty and ignorance

Mary Gleason — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:15:47 +0000

Our Strong Women, Strong World initiative includes a special project in the Democratic Republic of Congo – the Minova Women’s Association which provides assistance to women in this very tough country in which to be a woman.

Kavita Masenga, the lead obstetric nurse at Kinshasa general hospital. Lack of investment has undermined work at the facility. Photograph: Cindy Shiner/AllAfrica

From The Guardian:

Her eyes wide with fear and pain, Théthé – who is haemorrhaging and has a fever – groans and pushes as she lies on a brown vinyl mattress, slick with blood and amniotic fluid, in one of the worst places in the world to be a mother (pdf). After a final push, a nurse holds up a waxy baby girl by the feet. Her arms hang limp, her skin an opaque bluish-pink. “Stillborn,” says Kavita Masenga, the lead obstetric nurse.

Such outcomes are routine at Kinshasa general hospital, the main referral hospital in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The most serious obstetric cases in this traffic-clogged city of 10 million people are sent here.

Although conditions have improved in recent years, the hospital remains plagued by the country’s problems: power cuts, outdated equipment, poorly-paid staff and drug shortages. Years of corrupt leadership and low levels of investment in health have taken a toll.

Over her lifetime, a Congolese woman faces a one in 24 chance of dying from complications arising from pregnancy or childbirth. In several interviews with medical workers in Kinshasa, they all cited poverty as the main trigger of maternal deaths. Three-quarters of Congolese women who did not give birth in a health facility cited lack of funds to pay for services as the reason, according to a World Bank survey.

“In some places, when you arrive [for care] and you don’t have money, they just transfer you and transfer you. That is part of the reason we have such a high rate of maternal mortality in our country,” said Dr Blandine Aveledi, reproductive health manager for the New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Kinshasa. “The greatest problem is access to finances.”

Hard-pressed Congolese health professionals say the country should do better. It possesses vast quantities of diamonds, gold, copper, timber, rubber and other resources. But it ranks at the bottom of UN indicators for human development. According to the World Bank, Congo is one of only nine countries where life expectancy has fallen below 1970 levels.

“You cannot tell me my government is so poor, when I see [government] ministers and the number of cars they have, the numbers of villas. When I see that – you want to tell me that they don’t have money for the health problems in the country?” said an indignant Dr Mbwebwe Kabamba, head of the emergency department at Kinshasa general.

Health experts say that closely spaced pregnancies are one of the largest factors in both maternal and child deaths, regardless of whether a woman has access to healthcare. But only 6% of women use modern methods of contraception, according to Save the Children. For birth control, cost is not the major barrier. An intrauterine device, for example, costs between $1 and $2.50, and a contraceptive injection between 50 cents and $1.50. A larger problem is awareness and access, says Dr Leon Kintaudi of Sanru, a Kinshasa-based rural health programme.

The secretary general in the ministry of public health, Dr Pierre Lokadi Otete Opetha, said about 5% of the country’s budget last year was set aside for healthcare. This compares with between 15% and 20% for developed countries, and is well below the minimum figure agreed by the 2001 Abuja declaration, which committed African governments to allocate 15% of their national budgets to health.

But Opetha insisted his government is committed to improving maternal health in the DRC. He said expanding family planning services, which would save the lives of both mothers and babies, is a major focus.

“It’s a priority of the head of state [President Joseph Kabila],” he said. “I remember at many meetings that he comes back to that. As there is the high-level political will, and with our partners, I think from this year there will be a kicking off of family planning efforts.”

The average Congolese woman bears six children. For women who survive pregnancy and childbirth, each new baby increases her family’s struggle to feed and educate them.

At the Roi Baudouin hospital in a crowded suburb of Kinshasa, 33-year-old Olivie Kasongo has had her second set of twins. Now she has seven children, and the family lives on a policeman’s salary of about $30 a month.

“It is very difficult because the children – you must educate them, feed them,” she says. “I’ll come back to [the hospital] to do the family planning. I’m going to speak to my husband and he must accept it.”

The reality, doctors say, is he probably won’t. But until family planning becomes more widely available and more widely used in Congo, dangerous illegal abortions are likely to remain the leading method of birth control, according to health workers. Until then, they expect that Kinshasa general will continue to see a steady stream of mothers like Théthé.

Women of Vision Greater Seattle Walk for Water

Mary Gleason — Thu, 24 May 2012 14:10:15 +0000

How far have you walked for water today?

In developing countries women and girls often walk 4 miles a day to collect water for their families. They set out every morning in search of clean water. Once found, they then carry about five gallons of water, 42 pounds, on their backs or heads as they make the trek home!

On June 2nd the Women of Vision Greater Seattle chapter will be filling 5 gallon buckets and walking around Greenlake to raise awareness for this cause. Bring a bucket and join them in the walk! Register today!

Join Oscar winner Geena Davis for a livestream chat TODAY 3p CT/ 4p ET

Mary Gleason — Wed, 23 May 2012 17:52:40 +0000

Join Oscar winner Geena Davis for a livestream chat on her work empowering women & girls through media!

On Wednesday, May 23 at 3pm CT / 4pm ET — Women and Girls Lead advocate and Academy Award-winning actor Geena Davis will participate in a live social screening and chat about women’s empowerment. Nashville Public Television will produce the event, which will stream the War Redefined (narrated by Davis), an episode from the acclaimed series Women War and Peace. Follow this link to participate in Wednesday’s event with Geena Davis. (http://ovee.itvs.org/screenings/u4ovj)

Women of Vision Orange County Hear Father Boyle

Mary Gleason — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:17:23 +0000

Former gang member Hoang and Louie with Mary and Don Hendricks, Father Gregory Boyle and Jean Winder.

Congratulations Women of Vision Orange County on a wonderful “Faces of Courage” luncheon with speaker Father Gregory Boyle. We’re sharing a recent article from the Newport Beach Independent about your event!

From the Newport Beach Independent, by Cindy Trane Christeson:

“It’s the privilege of my life to have spent the last 25 years of my life with gangsters,” Father Gregory Boyle said at the Orange County Chapter of Women of Vision Faces of Courage fundraising event held recently at the Balboa Bay Club. “They have taught me so much.”

“I go way back with Women of Vision people,” he continued. “What brings us all here on a Saturday is that vision to make the world look differently than it presently looks.

“What we’re all called to do is inch our way out to the margins and hope the margins get erased. The folks in the margins just want attention. How do we stand against the thought that there just might be lives out there worth less than ours? How do we bridge the gap that divides us?”

Mary Hendricks, Newport resident and co-chair, with Jean Winder, of the Orange County Chapter of Women of Vision, welcomed the 450 men and women to the luncheon following the silent auction and spring boutique, and explained that Orange County was home of the very first chapter of Women of Vision, dating back to 1991.

“Our chapter was the first chapter, and now there are 40-plus around the world. We even have one in Bermuda and one in Singapore,” Mary said. “For our annual Faces of Courage Luncheon we decided to focus on the domestic ministry of World Vision. World Vision has 11 programs in the United States where poverty is present.”

Women of Vision is a volunteer partnership of World Vision, an international Christian humanitarian organization that has served the poor throughout the world since 1950 through emergency relief and long-term commitment to community-based outreach and development.

Mary explained that Father Boyle was chosen because he shares Women of Vision’s passion for providing interventions that tackle the causes of poverty and injustice in order to help children and their families reach their full potential. Father Boyle is a Jesuit priest and his compassion has transformed the drug and gang infested inner city neighborhoods of Los Angeles to a place where rival gang members work side by side. Father Boyle’s job training and placement program has grown from its simple beginnings with Homeboy Bakery in 1992 into the nonprofit economic development enterprise known as Homeboy Industries.

Homeboy Industries has become a national and international model and is recognized as the largest gang intervention and reentry program in the United States. Homeboy Industries, with more than 300 employees, is a living example of their Mission Statement, “Nothing Stops a Bullet like a Job.” Father Boyle has received numerous humanitarian awards, among them the California Peace Prize. His book, “Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion,” was named one of the best books in 2010 by Publishers Weekly, and he donates all net proceeds from the book to Homeboy Industries.

Before Father Boyle spoke, two of his Homeboys shared about their lives and the impact Father Boyle has had on them.

“In 2012 at the age of t30, because of prior arrests, I was offered 12 years in state prison,” Louie said. “Before the verdict was read, I had a one-on-one with God, I asked Him, if He gave me a second chance at life, I would change my ways. The verdict was read, ‘Not guilty’ – that’s why I’m here today. I’d heard about the transforming and changing they do at Homeboys, and in one year there, I accomplished more than I had in 15 years of crime. It is just a wonderful place that Father Boyle has designed for us. Homeboys is a place where everyone is accepted and given unconditional love. The only other place I know like that is heaven. Homeboy Industries, to me, is heaven on earth.”

Thirty-nine-year-old Hoang spoke about his descent into gangs and drug selling, and the dramatic difference Father Boyle made on his life by believing in him.

“Homeboy Industries gave me a vision I never saw before,” Hoang said. “I want to be a good dad. Now I’m taking parenting classes. I want to give young kids a future of hope, faith, and freedom; it’s delicious, better than drugs.”

Father Boyle told inspiring examples of how sharing God’s love and believing in those who can’t believe in themselves can change the entire trajectory of people’s lives.

“They used to shoot bullets at each other, now they shoot texts,” Father Boyle said. “The measure of our compassion is not in our level of service to those on the margins, but of kinship.”

WOV Conference Call “Child Protection: Prevent, Protect, Restore” TODAY!

Mary Gleason — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:00:08 +0000

You are invited to join today’s Women of Vision National Conference Call “Child Protection: Prevent, Protect, Restore” with World Vision International’s Bill Forbes, Director of Child Protection.

TODAY, Tuesday, May 22
4:00-5:00pm PST / 7:00-8:00pm EST

This call will be recorded for those who cannot make this time slot.

Women of Vision is delighted to announce our next conference call where you can dial in along with other women from all over the country. Friends are welcome!

More than one billion children live in poverty worldwide. A hundred and fifty million are street children. Almost two million kids are exploited in the global sex trade. Over a million boys and girls are trafficked annually for child labor. Trafficking is the use of fraud, force, or coercion to exploit a person for profit.

Reading these heart-wrenching statistics can be difficult. But Bill Forbes has devoted his life to championing World Vision’s response to the abuse and exploitation of children. Bill worked for World Vision in Cambodia for eight years, providing leadership to the Peace and Justice program. He studied at Fuller Theogical Seminary and Cornell University. Now based in Federal Way, WA, Bill’s current role includes monitoring programs which address child labor, street children, child trafficking, children affected by armed conflict and gender-based and domestic violence.

Join our host Angela Mason and listen to Bill’s inspiring and uplifting stories as he explains how World Vision is at the forefront of creating prevention strategies as well as restoring hope and happiness to many children.

Simply call our toll-free number at the scheduled time: 1-888-257-4733, Access # 627-372

Looking forward to joining you on the call!

Treat the mother – save the baby

Mary Gleason — Mon, 21 May 2012 14:00:58 +0000

We were excited to read this recent article at IRIN as maternal and child health is one of the five sectors of our Strong Women, Strong World initiative. Focusing on Afghanistan and Ethiopia, it’s our goal to help reduce maternal and infant deaths and decrease the number of women suffering from illness as a consequence of pregnancy and childbirth, by providing nutrition education and care to mothers and pregnant women and increasing access to critical medical services.

From IRIN: ”The past decade has seen great advances in child survival, but while toddlers and small children are benefiting, the death rate for new-born babies remains stubbornly high. Now a new report suggests that paying more attention to their mothers’ health, and focusing on certain damaging but treatable diseases, could be one key to tackling neonatal mortality… “It’s been established that universal coverage with preventive treatment for malaria would reduce neonatal mortality by a third,” says [research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Matthew] Chico. “So add to that an STI [sexually transmitted infection] and RTI [reproductive tract infection] component and the reduction could certainly be more than that.”…”

Read the full article.

Dream, pray, act for a HungerFree world!

Mary Gleason — Fri, 18 May 2012 14:13:31 +0000

This weekend, May 18-19, is the G8 and leaders of world’s eight largest economies are gathering at Camp David to discuss the globe’s most pressing issues. We are inviting you to speak up, advocate, and involve others to urge the G8 leaders to address the global hunger crisis during this weekend’s talks. Join us in asking them to prioritize nutrition and health interventions – especially for women and children in their fist 1,000 days of life – and to follow through on previous commitments to tackle these issues.

This weekend, and throughout the next week, we encourage you to dream, pray and act for a hunger-free world. Check out this guide – 8 Days of Prayer and Action – to help you do just that, and visit www.hungerfree.org.

Here’s what else you can do:

Tweet live to the President: Today you can tweet your #hungerfree questions and comments to President Obama that will be displayed live as he presents at the Chicago Council Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security in Washington DC! Be sure to include the hashtags #globalag and #hungerfree in these tweets! Here’s a sample tweet you can use:

#G8 agreed to solutions for world’s 1 billion hungry people. @BarackObama how will you act on those #HungerFree solutions? #globalag

Facebook photo project: Show your support via your Facebook profile photo! Your image will be part of the HungerFree book that will be printed for world leaders.

HungerFree art challenge: Create art that express your vision for a HungerFree world. Each inspiring work of art will be delivered via a photo book to the G20 leaders and featured in the HungerFree art exhibit in Mexico!

WOV Conference Call “Child Protection: Prevent, Protect, Restore” – Tuesday May 22nd

Mary Gleason — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:45:38 +0000

You are invited to join our upcoming Women of Vision National Conference Call “Child Protection: Prevent, Protect, Restore” with World Vision International’s Bill Forbes, Director of Child Protection.

Tuesday, May 22
4:00-5:00pm PST / 7:00-8:00pm EST

This call will be recorded for those who cannot make this time slot.

Women of Vision is delighted to announce our next conference call where you can dial in along with other women from all over the country. Friends are welcome!

Simply call our toll-free number at the scheduled time: 1-888-257-4733, Access # 627-372

Looking forward to joining you on the call!