Action for Health in the Americas

The Summer 2014 EPES Update is here!

Read the June 2014 EPES Update (many of you will be receiving the Update in the mail this week – if you’d like to be on AHA’s Mailing List, please let us know by emailing AHABoard@gmail.com!)

Dear Friend,

As you look forward to summer vacation, it is fall in Chile and EPES’ plate is decidedly brimming over.

EPES’ 5th International Training Course on Popular Health proved that language and culture are not barriers when it comes to the yearning for change. The six women from Kenya and one from Uganda who traveled to Chile in January with the Hope Foundation for African Women (HFAW) acquired the tools for applying the EPES model for empowerment in health in their communities.

They also formed bonds of friendship with the Chilean health promoters who traveled the same road years ago. Ever since she participated in the first health education training school in 2010, HFAW director Dr. Grace Mose had dreamed of bringing the EPES methodology to Kenya. As you will see in the inspiring photos of the first training sessions in Kenya, EPES has truly crossed an ocean and a continent.

On April 12th, a fierce fire devastated low-income neighborhoods of the hilly port city of Valparaíso, reducing 3,000 houses to ashes and leaving 12,000 people homeless. On Cerro Las Cañas—the area hardest hit by the blaze—a community center, run by an EPES Popular Health Training course graduate, is one of few buildings left standing, and has become the hub of emergency response activity. Within days, EPES staff was on the scene and determined that the situation called for the post-disaster program pioneered in Concepción in response to the earthquake four years ago. EPES pledged to help improve 300 emergency houses (the government is issuing the same leaky wood-frame dwellings it gave people in Concepción) and set in motion the Comfort for Kids psychosocial program to enable children to overcome trauma, while empowering women as leaders with the capacity to advocate for their rights.

A year after Chile became a smoke-free nation (March 1, 2013), the Inter American Heart Foundation awarded the Chile Libre de Tabaco (Tobacco Free Chile) coalition, spearheaded by EPES, for its exemplary work organizing the lobbying efforts that won passage of the landmark tobacco law. EPES health promoters are keeping track of tobacco law compliance, and at least in Concepción, they were heartened to find 75% compliance. The law represents a major breakthrough for public health of future generations in this country where 40% are smokers.

We hope you enjoy reading details about these and other activities in the enclosed Update. We are so grateful for your continuing support which is an investment in real, concrete change in the lives of so many people and communities.

With Peace and Hope,

Christina Mills, MD FRCPC

President, Action for Health in the Americas

To give to EPES, donate online or send your tax-deductible contribution to:

Action for Health in the Americas

c/o Prince of Peace Lutheran Church

4 Northcrest Drive

Clifton Park, NY 12065-2744

Make checks payable to “Action for Health in the Americas”

One Month After the Devastating Fires in Valparaiso

One Month After the Devastating Fires in Valparaiso: Community Organizations Play a Leading Role in Recovery

Note from AHA: Mauricio, director of the community center mentioned below, was a participant in EPES’ 3rd International Training Course on Popular Education and Health. You can read more about EPES’ response and recovery plans via the ACT Alliance.

By Isabel Diaz, EPES

One month after the giant fire ravaged the hills of Valparaiso, the residents who were left homeless continue their precarious existence, living on their former property in tents or shacks of corrugated tin and boards rescued from the fire. The first emergency dwellings have already confirmed their absolute lack of waterproofing. As the winter cold and rains set in, the now bare hillsides, lacking any vegetation to contain the soil, also face threat of landslides. In addition, the lack of running water, poor nutrition, and cold weather heighten the susceptibility to illness.

People who live in land occupations in the ravines are even more vulnerable. These communities live in constant fear of being evicted from the place or not receive the same benefits as those who have deeds to their properties.

In the aftermath of the fire that destroyed 2,900 houses, caused 15 fatalities and left 12,500 people homeless, thousands of volunteers and community organizations from throughout the country responded to the emergency. Volunteers were fundamental for clearing a great amount of debris from the houses destroyed by the fire. Volunteers organized solidarity drives to collect food, clothing, personal hygiene items and other basic, urgently needed supplies. Today, few of the 15,000 volunteers who worked in the initial weeks after the fire are to be seen. Yet the families still need support to prepare the ground for installing the emergency dwellings. Trucks do not go up the hills, so the pre-fab wooden panels for the emergency housing units must be brought up in any way people can.

The community of people who lost their homes complains that government officials are absent on the damaged hillside neighborhoods and have not solved the most pressing problems. Moreover, there is no information regarding how to apply for the promised emergency assistance funds. This situation reveals an operational failure of the municipal and central government response to the disaster.

In light of this state of affairs, community organization will be fundamental in fighting for their urgent demands.

The EPES Foundation responded to the emergency by initiating work in coordination with the Las Cañas Community Center, which serves as an aid distribution site, community dining hall that serves 300 lunches each day, place for holding meetings and for organizing efforts.

Common to many neighbors is a sense of powerlessness because they say the fire and the deaths could have been prevented. The deadly fire of this past April 12 is not the first to ravage the area. In February 2013 fire destroyed 105 houses, affecting 1200 people. Last year experts issued reports warning that the district was at risk to a major fire. Government officials simply ignored these warnings.

This week Cerro Las Cañas neighbors held a candlelight ceremony to remember the people who died, reflect about what they have lived through and think about the future. They envision a participatory reconstruction process that restores dignity to their lives and community.

A great way to honor mothers this year!

Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 11th! EPES, and its new partner, the Hope Foundation for African Women (HFAW), are committed to supporting and empowering the mothers and families in the communities they serve. A donation to AHA this Mother’s Day can honor the mothers, grandmothers and other special women in your life as well as support the mothers of the poorest communities of Chile and Kenya. This year, please consider a donation in honor of someone special – in lieu of or in addition to flowers!

Your gift will go even farther if you donate by May 30th, 2014 – a generous EPES supporter, inspired by the work of EPES and HFAW, has committed to matching all Mother’s Day donations up to a total of $10,000! Please spread the word and help us meet this match!

You can donate online and specify “Mother’s Day” in the Comments Field.
You can donate via check to Action for Health in the Americas and mail to 4 Northcrest Drive, Clifton Park, NY 12065. Note “Mother’s Day” in For line of the check.
Online or via check, you may also note the name and email or mailing address of someone you’d like to honor with your donation and AHA will send her a card in her honor.
Or, you may print off the card and give directly!

As always, thank you for supporting the great work of EPES in Chile and the spreading of the EPES model across the world!

Attending EPES’ Fifth International Training Course

– Guest Post from Action for Health in the Americas (AHA) Board Member Sheila Dauer –

Attending the 5^th Escuela Internacional was one of the best experiences of my life! And I owe it to the generosity of Melanie Nelson (fellow AHA Board member), the welcoming warmth of the EPES staff and health promoters and the 7 East African women with whom I attended the course. Melanie made it possible for 6 Kenyans and 1 Ugandan woman to attend the Escuela. I learned so much and am so impressed with the ability of EPES staff and health promoters to communicate how popular education works to women from thousands of miles away and different cultures.

HFAW and EPES participating in a community action to raise awareness about violence against women — See more photos at https://www.facebook.com/fundacion.epes/photos_albums!

Grace Mose is the Founder and Executive Secretary of HFAW (Hope for African Women) and a Professor at Kenyatta University. She is brilliant and full of joyful energy. She has a team of 6 Kenyan women who are dedicated and truly amazing people.

She and her co-founder, Hellen Njoroge, have been traveling from Nairobi to Abagusii and Maasai villages west and south of that capital city using their own resources and linking with Joyce Amoyi and Nellie Koyo, each of whom lives in a village and is an HFAW volunteer leader. They are supported by Mary Were, also a professor at Kenyatta University and Lisper Bundi, who just graduated from the School of Social Work at Kenyatta University.

Grace attended the 1^st Escuela Internacional in 2010 and was convinced that EPES’ popular education philosophy and methods were a powerful tool for organizing to economically empower women and to raise awareness that their access to health is a human right, as EPES says, and not a privilege. Members of the HFAW team come from the communities in which they work and as a result have more credibility and access than other development teams.

Despite the lack of resources, HFAW have organized income-generating activities for women in both areas – making school bags for children, and beautiful jewelry and tote bags for women. While women work together on their economic projects, HFAW is able to stimulate discussions about lack of health care and specifically the issue of female genital mutilation, which is practiced both in Gusii and Maasai societies. HFAW has succeeded in facilitating the commitment of 27 women not to have their daughters undergo FGM (the World Health Organization has found the most successful abandonment of this practice comes when the community itself makes the decision).

A 7^th East African woman at the training was Generous Turinawe from Muko Sub-district in Uganda. Generous is the Executive Director of ACT (Agape Community Transformation). She came to the Escuela through a connection with Melanie Nelson’s family and Melanie also made her trip possible. ACT currently has 3 programs: Muko Hope through which almost 100 orphans receive a sponsor and a stable home, the Muko Empowerment program, which brought income generating skills to women for support of their families, and HANDS Muko Agricultural program, which will introduce more productive farming methods through pilot projects in the area.

ACT is supported by 5 Church partners in Midland and other cities in Michigan. But there is so much that needs to be done to work against gender-based violence in the community and for women’s reproductive health care (these communities do not practice FGM). Generous is an important leader in her sub-district. She too wanted to learn the popular education methods for organizing the communities with which she works.

The training involved workshops on participatory community assessments, learn-by-playing techniques, strategic planning and creative evaluation methods. It was amazing and moving see how community health promoters from the El Bosque neighborhood in Santiago were able to teach the Kenyans and Ugandan how to plan a public action – this one aimed at the local street market – to raise awareness about violence against women.

This is one of the main problems the African women aim to end and they were excited to see that women from poor communities like their own know how to pull off such actions. In addition, when we got to the free market, the Africans were amazed to find a market environment that very much resembled those in their own communities. They gave out fliers, talked to men as well as women and used a megaphone to relay messages of solidarity from Kenya and Uganda to Chile. They had never thought of having an action in their own markets and were so energized by the experience of carrying it out. They became determined to organize such actions when they returned home.

Women from the two countries ended the training by producing a detailed action plan to train health promoters and to organize actions in the community. We all see that popular education can generate awareness in our communities about our problems and can ensure widespread participation in developing solutions. Another important learning for all of us is that popular education is a process of long-term commitment that is needed to ensure that poverty is steadily reduced and that gender equality becomes a permanent part of our societies.

The 5^th Escuela was an exciting new project for EPES, which not only organized, hosted and led the 2-week training, but also provided support and technical assistance before, during and after the training. A great deal of time and resources were devoted to helping organize the team to get to Chile, translating all materials to English, and interpretation during the course. EPES, thanks to Melanie’s contribution, financially supported HFAW to cover expenses to bring the women to Chile. This period is considered Phase I of HFAW’s formation. Carrying out the Action Plan is Phase II.

EPES continues to mentor the new organization as they carry out the Action Plan they developed during the Escuela. This will include communications via email and skype, possible future visits and other material support. The women of HFAW face tremendous challenges.

You can help support EPES to continue this tremendous accomplishment and expand their work in the future by donating to AHA now. Thank you for your support!