ANSA International Program Blog

The ANSA program is now just over a year old, but the last three weeks have held some of the most exciting highlights.  In the last 18 days I've had meetings or receptions with folks from MAC AIDS Fund, the World Bank, APCO Worldwide, Congressional Hunger Center, NASTAD and the staff, boards of directors, and volunteers  of four non-profits on both U.S. coasts.  I met with all of these folks while "touring" with our African partners agency leaders.  Together we had 14 meetings, receptions and presentations, and all went extremely well.  But these weren't the biggest highlights.  

Helen Lieberman and Ishrene Davids, the founder and CEO, respectively, of Ikamva Labantu, and Patricia Sola, the founder of Hope Initiatives were able to attend the 15th annual ANSA conference held this year in Philadelphia.  On June 14 they received the ANSA Honors award for the courage and compassion they have shown as our first international partners.  All three leaders had an opportunity to speak to the conference attendees, and finally a ballroom full of American leaders in the field of nutrition and health had a chance to see the collective wisdom and compassion that is guiding the way to change in southern African communities.  Helen, Ishrene and Patricia were each brilliant, funny, and gracious beyond compare.  It was the most humbling moment of my professional life to be in the presence of these leaders as they spoke about the difference the ANSA partnerships have made in their work and in their communities.  The fact that Helen Lieberman admitted publicly that she had fallen in love with me really put the icing on the cake. 

(Pictured are top: Helen Lieberman (left) with MANNA board chair Barbara Kaplan; center: Ishrene Davids (right) with ANSA Program Director Maria Staunton; and bottom: Patricia Sola (right) with ANSA board chair Artrese Morrison.)

It was a genuine honor to be in New York, Philadelphia, DC, San Francisco and Sonoma County with these leaders.   It was a special treat to experience the U.S. through the eyes of first time visitors Ishrene and Patricia, and Helen made sure they got the real American experience by taking them to WalMart.  Patricia braved her first ever pedicure as a just reward for a successful meeting in San Francisco (pictured), then hopped in a car to cross the Golden Gate bridge right as the fog nestled under bridge for a fantastic made-for-the-movies view.  I'm afraid Ishrene left a little disappointed because I couldn't get her into the White House or introduce her to John Travolta, the only two things she eagerly hoped for in her visit here.  She will be back, though, so needless to say I will be doing more advanced social calendar planning next time.

ANSA members MANNA and Open Arms of Minnesota made it possible for Ishrene and Patricia to attend the ANSA conference and members Food for Thought and Project Open Hand San Francisco made it possible for Patricia to make the trip out west.  Helen Lieberman generously donated her time and costs to come for the visit.   On behalf of all of the entire ANSA family I thank all who made these visits happen and for making it possible for us to learn so much in person from our dear African friends.  Next time, we'll aim to learn alongside John Travolta at the White House.

Peace to all...Mary

One of the most fascinating things about working in Africa, other than the wonderful people, is that you must always address complex issues in a complex environment.  To be successful, programs need to take into consideration a wide array of issues and design programs that give individuals and communities a chance at development versus a life of dependency.  Such is the work of Ikamva Labantu and hence, the work of ANSA.

The most recent team visit included an opportunity to work with renowned agronomists, farmers, dieticians, chefs and organizational development specialists to begin to integrate nutrition into the wider continuum of program services provided by Ikamva Labantu.  It was tough drudgery to sort through a lot complex concerns, but it was absolutely necessary to identify strategies to overcome deeply engrained cultural concerns and logistical challenges.  We examined ways to overcome the negative apartheid-era connotations of "garden" work to build agri-business skills building and opportunities for youth, and looked at ways to introduce healthy, new "multi-purpose" products such as pomegranites into the market that could provide not only food but also income-generating juices, oils and lotions.  Our work spanned the range of concerns from youth basketball snacks to senior meal recipes, from upgraded fertilizers to enriched food, and from shortterm individual needs to longterm community plans.  It's truly profound what innovative nutrition programs can cover.

In the end, we carved out three pilot projects that will in some way impact all age and at-risk groups served by Ikamva Labantu.  We'll scale up as we learn and prepare the broader range of staff and community members for the programs which include revised food parcels for foster homes, revised growing and harvesting methods at community and seniors centers, and nutrition-based incentives for HIV-specific life skills curricula for at-risk youth.

The search for funding partners has begun so that we can ensure the program can be supported in full.  We are incredibly excited about the potential results; if all goes well we could be seeing a lot more development and a lot less dependency in Western Cape townships soon.  If will is half the battle, then we are well on our way.

Big thanks to ANSA team members Kelly, Patrick, Rosario and Ben (left, getting an eager start to their morning) as well as the Ikamva Labantu team of Helen, Ishrene, Mala, Barbara, Johanna, Christelle,  Bridgette, Lynn, Zanele, Ntsika, Monica, Mattheus et al for their awesome work.

Peace to all...Mary 

The recent rains in Namibia brought a whole new look to the Hope Initiatives communities in the center of the country.  Lush green hillsides accented with seams of yellow and purple flowers  made it difficult to visualize the skeletal shadows that usually linger in the dust when the sun glares over the dry acacia tree branches.  The rains had wreaked havoc on rural villages and dams, especially in the north, but the colorful new look provided a little respite from the usual vastly brown savannah canvas. 

The colorful landscape was a perfect backdrop for the cooking classes, nutrition workshops and outdoor meetings the ANSA team participated in with the staff and community members in the squatter settlements of Okahandje Park and Kilimanjaro.  Dieticians Margie and Sapna, from California and Washington, DC, respectively, worked with Hope Initiatives staff Eugenia and Faith as well as Namibian dieticians Samantha and Celeste to put together a year-long workplan to address the comprehensive nutrition needs of the orphans, at-risk youth, caregivers and HIV+ adults.  Nutrition workshops were held for the caregivers and HIV+ support groups, and each class was packed!  Especially fun was the cooking class with a group of girls 12 - 18 years old where they made mahangu, mixed salad and game stew (plus something else I could not catch the name of!). 

Special thanks to Ron Karp of Sonoma County's Food for Thought for his insightful leadership in addressing technology and accounting upgrades as well as his input for board development and fundraising potential.  Between the workshops, classes and capacity building activities, this was an action-packed visit for the ANSA team and one that was a catalyst for work that will continue in full swing with the great leadership of the Hope Initiatives staff and volunteers.  From home in the U.S. the ANSA team will now follow up on upgrading their technology and accounting capabilities so they can spend more time working with their programs and less on their computer frustrations!

Big thanks to the Hope Initiatives crew for all their great work while we were there -- as always, it was an honor to work with you.  And special thanks to the playgroup for letting me join their Saturday morning "exercise" group.  That was a real workout!

Peace to all...Mary

According to a 1996 UN report, more than 250,000 women were raped and intentionally infected with HIV as part of the campaign of societal destruction during the Rwandan genocide in 1994.  (Genocide museum's memorial garden pictured.) Today, the Women's Equity in Access to Care and Treatment (www.we-actx.org) provides medical and psychosocial services to thousands of these women survivors and their children at three clinics in and around Kigali.  WE-ACTx was successful at finally getting ARVs for the women - while the men in prison for raping and killing were already receiving ARVs -but they now face a significant challenge in getting nutrition support for the women to be able to take their drugs, stay strong enough to walk to their follow-up clinic appointments, and take care of themselves and their dependents.

I met Dr. Mardge Cohen, a volunteer physician with WE-ACTx, at the ANSA conference in August 2007.  She gave a moving presentation on her work in Rwanda, and mentioned that nutrition was their biggest need now and they were looking for sustainable solutions to this problem, not temporary handouts.

Two months later I met Bob Patterson, a fiesty longtimer with the UN's Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), at the Partners in Health conference on food insecurity, nutrition and health.  Bob gave a presentation on The Growing Connection, a very cool low-cost, sustainable agriculture and education program currently in schools all around the U.S. and abroad, and showcased at the Google Foundation.  He showed off a little box, talked about its big benefits and said, "This is an ideal way to support health service programs.  Someone have a conversation with us about it."  So I did.  And then together we had a conversation with Mardge Cohen.  And a few weeks later the three of us met in Rwanda.

As it turns out, Bob used to live in Rwanda in the 1980's.  Everyone he knew was murdered in the genocide, so this trip was a bitter-sweet return for him.  Mardge hosted us at the WE-ACTx group house in Kigali, a house like thousands of others with a yard lush and green and tropical banana trees that laze over a wall lined with speared shards of glass. 

Despite its brutal recent history and the ubiquitous verbal and visual reminders of grief and guilt, the country of Rwanda has a shockingly warm and inviting feel.  This is due in part to the people, who range from shy to friendly to comfortably familiar, and in part to laws meant to keep the country clean and environmentally responsible.  Eating outdoors is prohibited, so littered to-go cups and pesky critters are nowhere in sight.  Plastic bags are also verboten, so you won't find these trashing up roadsides.  And, perhaps most interesting of all, the country has national clean-up day the last Saturday of every month.  Everyone, even visitors, are expected to roll up their sleeves and pick up trash, sweep, or do whatever else is needed to beautify the country.  It all works; the country is gorgeous.

To get oriented to area services, the WE-ACTx folks took me to visit several programs, including the Partners in Health site at Rwinkwavu Hospital, two hours outside Kigali.  In this beautifully refurbished hospital, PIH provides everything from surgeries and baby deliveries to malnutrition clinics (young patient pictured) and community gardening programs.  While there we were learned a great deal about the challenges PIH faces in developing a sustainable response to the significant nutrition challenges of their patients.  Like many others, including WE-ACTx, PIH is feeling the painful impact of the World Food Program's recent dramatic cutbacks in the amount of rations they will provide.  Yet another reminder of the urgent need to find community-developed, community-owned responses to nutrition concerns.

Our goal on this trip was to set up a small pilot project using only three Earthboxes, small fabulously simple containers designed by a tomato farmer looking to increase yields and decrease maintenance on his crops.  To tell you all the cool things about this box would take too many words; easier to go here: www.thegrowingconnection.org.  The idea was that these boxes could be set up at WE-ACTx clinics and planted, tended and harvested by the patients. They can grow food to eat or to sell or both.  (Children at a deaf school in Ghana grow nothing but basil, which they sell to restaurants and all the money comes back into the school.)  The women and children also get access to computers to research seeds or which foods would be best for them to eat, and to get connected to others who are doing the same program around the world. 

After meetings with the country's premier organic farmer, the country director for FAO, officials with the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Mining and Energy, agronomists from Kenya and Australia, and the staff and women of WE-ACTx, the right fertilizer and substrate were identified and the location where the boxes would be maintained was confirmed.  On February 19, the seeds of this pilot project were planted in three little plastic containers.  With great anticipation, the water resevoirs were filled and everyone crossed their fingers in hopes that a simple, sustainable community-based solution would soon be emerging before their eyes. 

Stay tuned!

Peace to all...Mary

                     I met Linda over a cup of tea at a local cafe in March 2007.  We talked for three hours about her dreams of training teachers, health promoters and village leaders on nutrition and HIV/health in Namibia...if only she could find the funding.  And with just a little more funding, she was sure could put together the first ever National Nutrition Awareness Week so people all over Namibia could begin to realize the link between nutrition and health. 

This certainly seemed like a good investment for ANSA.

Three months and $2500 later, Linda had a 68-page Train the Trainers manual written and a 32-page Participant's Guide to go along with it.  She held the first of three regional week-long trainings on nutrition and HIV/health in July and within another month over 210 health promoters in northern Namibia had been trained.  In October, Namibia had its first National Nutrition Awareness Week; national politicians and local community leaders alike showed up to promote awareness and education at 13 centers around the country as radio spots promoted healthy eating messages over the airways. 

Linda had a tremendous compassion for all people and worked with a spirited desire to affect change.  Today, an overwhelming number of non-profits in Namibia and bordering countries use Linda's trainings to teach clients, staff and community about nutrition and health.  Her legacy reaches far and wide.

Linda died last week following a horseback riding accident in Uganda, where she had gone to work for the World Food Program.  She was 29 years old.  Penduka, one of the many non-profits impacted by Linda's work, has already named their community garden in her honor.  A fitting remembrance, and likely not the last one we'll see. 

It was an privilege to know Linda and to support her tireless efforts.  We honor her memory as we continue her work advancing good health and nutrition in Namibia and throughout Africa.

Peace to all...Mary