Action for Health in the Americas

What has EPES been up to in 2013?

What a busy year 2013 has been! Take a look at the most recent EPES Update to learn more, but this past January, EPES graduated its 80th participant in the International Training Course on Popular Health. It seems like only yesterday that the EPES International Training School — developed in order to spread the methods and philosophy of EPES throughout and beyond Chile — was only a great idea. But 2013 marked the fourth year of this innovative activity. On top of that, EPES is hard at work planning its fifth International Training Course — which will take place in Kenya in early 2014. Who could have thought that when the first course was being developed that EPES would soon be crossing borders and physically spreading its methods on a whole new continent?!

Participants from the 2013 EPES International Training Course on Popular Health

Even with this global endeavor, EPES continues its ongoing work and is beginning new activities in Chile. One of the new initiatives should be of interest to AHA’s North American friends since it addresses a critical public health issue that we are well aware of in our communities — obesity. Did you know that as of this year, Chile has the 9th highest obesity rate among all countries in the world, according to the World Health Organization? To tackle this emerging obesity epidemic in the communities it partners with, EPES is implementing a nutrition and cooking workshop for women within the larger framework of gender and society. Given that obesity has continued to rise in other countries and communities despite efforts to counter it, we are very anxious to see if this approach proves more fruitful.

As you can see from the Update, EPES is constantly developing new ways to promote health and dignity in Chile and the world in an ever-changing environment. With the generous support of AHA supporters, this is possible!

Give the Gift of EPES

Give an EPES Gift this Holiday Season

This holiday season, give friends and family the gift of an EPES project. Make a donation
and your loved one will receive a card thanking them for the donation made in his or her
honor. He or she will be delighted that their gift helped to train a Chilean woman to teach
her community proper nutrition, created a mural – or whichever project you choose!

EPES Featured 2013 Projects
(Total Cost in US$ – donations can completely or partially support a project)

1. Printing of 500 pamphlets about importance of breast cancer screening ($60)

2. One day-long training session on a key health topic with 20 community health
promoters ($100)

3. Creation of a mural in a poor community that will raise awareness about good
nutrition, violence against women, HIV/AIDS, and other vital topics ($100)

4. Training program to prepare 20 community health and nutrition promoters
(12 sessions at $400 each = $4,800)

5. Scholarship for one woman to participate in nutrition promoter training ($250)

6. Scholarship to participate in 2013 EPES International Training School ($1,000 for
one Chilean student; $2,200 for one international student)

7. Two-week training in Kenya with the Hope African Women’s Foundation to train
community health promoters in rural Kenya ($15,000)

8. EPES General Fund (which supports the above as well as many other activities!)

To make a donation by regular mail:

1. Print out this Mail-in Donation Form.

2.Choose record the amount you would like to donate and which featured 2013 EPES project your donation will support (wholly or in part!) on the donation form
– If no project is selected, your donation will support the EPES general fund.

3. Provide the name of the person you are honoring.

4. Mail your donation enclosing the Donation form to AHA

5. Print out this Honor Card

6. fill out the gift card and send it to the person(s) you are honoring

To donate online* go to the AHA electronic donation page HERE

1. Choose a donation amount.

2. Use the “Comments” section on the donation page to specify the project (from the list above) and honoree name & address.

3. Email this e-card to the person you are honoring

Delegation from AHA Board Visits Chile

AHA_03_color — The Action for Health in the America's Board of directors visited Chile in March 2011

In March 2011, a delegation of the Action for Health in the Americas (AHA) board of directors spent four days in Santiago and Concepción visiting EPES and seeing the work they are doing. The delegation was made up of Sheila Dauer (New York) Melanie Nelson (Minnesota) Meghan Ochal (Washington, DC) and Dale Young (Miami), who are four of the 11 US-based members of AHA.

The most important part of our short visit (from March 23 to 27t), was the chance to see firsthand the wonderful work of EPES, especially its earthquake/tsunami recovery work, and to make a soul connection with EPES staff and those they work with.

EPES continues to work tirelessly in Santiago with health monitors. At the same time, it works intensively in Concepción with hundreds of families who lost everything in the tsunami that followed the February 2010 earthquake. It was thrilling to meet women who have become leaders in rebuilding their communities and livelihoods. They use EPES’ fundamental philosophy of finding ways to improve the situation through their own knowledge, ideas and efforts. Where they need more information, they are participating in workshops to add techniques and skills to their repertoire of products from the sea. But it was clear to us that full recovery is many years away.

dancingwithmural — The AHA delegation in Chile

The trip also gave the four of us the opportunity to meet and interact with each other and to spend valuable time with the EPES board and the staffs in Santiago and Concepción. We forged strong bonds that will help us communicate, collaborate and go forward, both within AHA, and between AHA and EPES

Seeing the work for ourselves and brainstorming together has given us plenty of ideas for how AHA can continue to (and increase) its support for EPES over the next few years. Our discussions of immediate options for fundraising and exciting ideas for celebrating the 30th anniversary of EPES in Chile and the U.S. in 2012 have energized us for the future! Stay tuned for more details.

A Letter from Lautaro Lopez, EPES Concepcion Director

Dear Friends of EPES, A year after the earthquake and tsunami that changed lives in southern Chile forever, once more I wish to express our gratitude for

your support, prayers and for keeping us company as we walk this difficult road to material and spiritual reconstruction of our communities. We have had twelve months of intense work, supporting families of the Penco coastal zone. We have helped these families improve their emergency housing and we have trained women in the emergency camps on health, first aid, and prevention of respiratory and digestive infections. Families who lost everything also appreciate the extensive psycho-emotional reparation work that EPES conducted with women, adolescents, and children in six municipalities of our region.

This year has witnessed much support for new organizations on issues of such importance as community leadership and mediation born in the wake of the emergency. We have made headway but many obstacles lie ahead. Rebuilding houses has been exceedingly slow, communities are not consulted as to their opinions and interests, natural and political aftershocks continue, while the lack of dignified housing is exacerbated by the lack of steady employment. On February 26, the Citizen Movement for Reconstruction with Justice and Dignity rallied in Concepción – with the participation of more than 400 earthquake victims — to express their indignation. It was heartening to see other communities hold vigils, candlelight services and other commemorative activities in

memory of missing family members, on February 27, the anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami. In Chile, the new school year has just begun. Many schools still need repair; children must spend yet another year in emergency housing or with relatives; communities continue to adapt to life without running water in their sharing outdoor bathrooms, and with no definitive date for permanent housing. In the year to come EPES will continue to work with the Penco emergency camps. We will provide support to more than 100 families, winterize their temporary dwellings, support their health and

environmental committees, strengthen leadership and build mediation capacity to improve quality of life. We deeply appreciate your ongoing interest and support which has been essential to helping so many women, children and families begin rebuilding their lives. We couldn´t do it without you! With fond regards and in gratitude, Dr. Lautaro Lopez Director, EPES Concepción Fundación EPES

Faith and Solidarity in Chile

By Kathryn Lawler

South America Coordinator, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

cerrotrimmed — Chile’s earthquake and the tsunami destroyed or severely damaged nearly 200,000 homes. Tens of thousands of families are living in provisional camps like this one

The earthquake and tsunami that struck Chile on February 27, 2010, highlighted deep social inequalities in a country often considered a Latin American development success story. Land tenancy issues and the lack of affordable housing and dignified work threaten to prolong the stay of approximately 50,000 displaced families living in “temporary” camps of wooden emergency houses with no heat or running water. As a community worker in one of the camps stated, “the history of temporary, emergency camps in Chile shows that people end up living there long-term because they have no where else to go.”

Such precarious living conditions are a recent memory for Villa Cordillera, a low-income community in Santiago that organized a remarkable campaign to collect food and clothing for earthquake and tsunami survivors. Less than four years ago, this community was living in Campamento Peñalolén, a shanty-town built over a landfill in Santiago. In their case, however, the cause of these precarious living conditions was not a natural disaster but rather chronic and structural poverty. Through a government relocation and low interest mortgage program, 365 families moved to Villa Cordillera in 2006 after 7 years in the camp. But life continues to be tough. Residents struggle to make ends meet with minimum wage jobs as garbage collectors, housekeepers, construction workers, and market vendors. Their own resource scarcity, however, did not keep them from sharing abundantly.

400 — With the truck carrying donations from Villa Cordillera in the background, Soledad Puebla (left) talks with leaders at a camp where the IELCH is providing emergency assistance and pastoral care near the coastal city of Coronel.

Villa Cordillera’s campaign to help earthquake survivors was the inspiration of Soledad Puebla, Director of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile (IELCH)’s El Sembrador Community and Day Care Center who says: “We could not just stand there with our arms crossed watching the news reports about the hardship of our brothers and sisters in the south. We had to step up and act in solidarity as others did for us when we were in a similar situation.” From their community office, part of which still operates out of the emergency plywood structure from Campamento Peñalolén, Soledad, neighborhood leaders, parents and staff from the day care center amassed the community’s donations. They walked through the streets with bullhorns, knocked on doors and left boxes to collect donations at local schools. The campaign closed on May 1 with a street festival of dance, music and community celebration. Soledad, her husband Tulio, and other communities leaders soon set off on the three hundred mile journey south in a large truck filled with the donated clothing, food, cleaning supplies, toys, and nylon covering for the emergency housing. Soledad recalls: “When we got to the camps we cried because we remembered our

own history. We urged camp leaders never to underestimate what they can do when they unite around a common cause. And what better way to remind ourselves of that message than the success of our community mobilization for this campaign!”