Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007 - (Page 21)

which closed several years ago, exemplifies what happens on a well-run volunteer team. e philosophy of Global Volunteers is to help a community with a project that the community decides is necessary. Working side by side with a person from a different culture is not only a good way to learn about that culture but also to make a close relationship. I have never been on a team that expected me to do anything for which I was physically unable. I was, however, offered the chance to learn new skills, like mixing cement and laying drain pipe. But in the end, it’s about making friendships and letting others get to know an American. Many people tell me I am not the American they expected. And I have learned that people all around the globe have the same needs and wants as we do. Laughter comes in all languages. Susan Surma is a licensed practical nurse in longterm acute respiratory care. She plans to complete credits to become a registered nurse and return to Global Volunteer projects. Letter from Catia La Mar MOUNTAINS OF RAIN In nature’s terrible path, a psychotherapist finds true suffering I by Catherine W. Davidson was a 57-year-old bi-lingual high school counselor living happily with my husband in Weaverville, California. Peace Corps in Panama was a long time ago and my children had become adults, so I pondered serving again. Be careful what you wish for, I thought, but my Panama days came back to me and my resistance to serving again in Latin America melted. I accepted a Peace Corps invitation to work on a youth development project with Crisis Corps. It was June, 2000 and the job was in Venezuela. In three days of December 1999, up to three feet of torrential rains washed away whole mountainsides and permanently transfigured Venezuela’s north coast range. e total rainfall for those three days was double one year’s rainfall and an estimated 15 million cubic meters of mud, rock and boulders–it could fill two Grand Coulee Dams–crashed into the Caribbean Sea. Avalanches of mud and water tore down the 4,000-foot high mountainsides like roller coasters out of control, pulling down car-sized boulders, giant tree trunks, houses, refrigerators and people. e death toll was estimated to be 50,000 people who drowned in the torrents or were buried in the mud and debris. More than 100,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged and 350,000 people lost all of their possessions and were forced to live in crowded shelters in the devastated areas. Many in Venezuela thought that this was the biblical final deluge, that the end of the world had come. Others simply called it la tragedia. e national government initiated the Flood Disaster Recovery Project to provide for the urgent needs of education, health, infrastructure repair and psychosocial support. Although the Peace Corps had left Venezuela more than 20 years before that, five months after the disaster, I joined a Crisis Corps team of four volunteers to help with Venezuela’s disaster recovery effort. My assignment as a youth development volunteer fell through even before I arrived, but uncertainty was an old Peace Corps friend. In the late 1960s, I had to find my own project in the middle of a remote agricultural area: sanitation projects and rural cooperatives for women. Not knowing what I would be doing in Venezuela was business as usual. I embraced the idea of facing the unknown. What I did know was that I would find blatant physical and psychological suffering of homeless people in the devastated areas. I armed myself with materials and techniques to address crisis intervention, depressive disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder gleaned from a career in mental health. e search for a project began. My Peace Corps partner, Shannon, and I started riding the bus each day to the coastal communities of La Guaira, Macuto, and Montesano to spend time with victims of the flooding and the slides. We began tagging along with members of Action Group for Alternative Research who offered environmental and social awareness programs in some of the homeless shelters. Shannon began talking about family health in some of the shelters. When I began hanging out with residents of Centro Lamas, a shelter in La Guaira, a curious phenomenon began to occur. I began to hear stories of the homeless people who lived in cramped, airless cubicles with one electric light bulb overhead, facing a daily battle for clean water and food for their families. I listened carefully to the tragic events that robbed the victims of their old lives, friends and loved ones, and their employment. en, I began to hear of the individual acts of heroism, new connections www.earthwatch.org. Encore! Service Corps International Former PCVs and PC staff match their professional skills with threeweek to three-month assignments around the world. Examples include construction projects, HIV/ AIDS education, computer training and health support. Volunteers pay their way, host sites often provide food, lodging and in-country transportation. www.encoreservicecorps.org. Engineers for a Sustainable World Engineers from all disciplines and skill levels join teams in developing countries, working directly with local organizations for 10-14 weeks in the summer. Most projects are in water supply & quality, information & communication technology education, renewable energy development and food processing & storage. Program fee covers training, travel, lodging, other program costs. www.eswusa.org Financial Services Volunteer Corps Experts with 10 or more years experience in banking, capital markets, financial reform & regulation, policy implementation and related fields promote market infrastructure in developing economies. One- to twoweek assignments usually involve leading workshops and consultations with international partners in eight nations. Benefits: airfare, in-country transportation, per diem, insurance, selected other expenses. www.fsvc.org. Foundation for Sustainable Development Pro Corps members have seven or more years experience in microenterprise, environment, health, youth & education, women’s empowerment, community development or human rights. Longterm volunteers (nine to 52 weeks) develop independent projects with partner organizations, while short-term volunteers (one to eight weeks) with less time and/or experience support existing projects WorldView 21 http://www.earthwatch.org http://www.encoreservicecorps.org http://www.eswusa.org http://www.fsvc.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007

Worldview - Fall 2007
Contents
Presiden'ts Note
Lafayette Park
Introduction
Interview
Commentary
Editor's Note
Letter from Rumbek, Sudan
Listings
Letter from Yekaterinburg, Russia
Letter from Codaesti, Romania
Letter from Catia La Mar, Venezuela
Letter from Gumare, Botswana
Letter from Ridder, Kazakhstan
Letter from Rincon, Cape Verde
Letter from Port Au Prince
Another Country
Community News
Giving Back
Opinion

Worldview Magazine - Fall 2007

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