We have MOVED!

IndieVolunteer now has its own .com so find us at www.indievolunteer.com ! Easier, isn't it ;)

The Girl Effect

One of the major reasons that I'm interested in working in NGOs that focus on women's education/services/financial development is because after reading Half the Sky, I realized that if I was born in poverty in a developing country, my future would be bleak. I would be an insignificant nobody, characterized by my sexual promise and procreational ability, enslaved to menial labor and perhaps never given the opportunity to realize my inner dreams. I would be in danger constantly. It's a frightening and stark reality that the majority of the world's women face, and it's our responsibility not only to fight for their rights as humans, but to allow them opportunities so that they can create a better world. Because it's clear that men are not doing a good job.

Here are some videos that illustrate this reality (girleffect.org).

It's important to become aware of what is going on. At the same time, we must guard hope and believe in  the possibility of change in order to work towards it.

I believe in the Girl Effect, n. The unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world. Research shows that support and services to girls ages 10-18 dramatically improve their lives and opportunities - and also results in significant benefits for society as a whole. Educated girls result in more stable families, more productive economic activity, improved health, less disease, and in general, better societies. Quoted from www.girleffect.org, If you want to end poverty and help the developing world, the best thing you can do is invest time, energy, and funding into adolescent girls. It's called the Girl Effect, because girls are uniquely capable of investing in their communities and making the world better. 


However, here are 10 things standing in their way. 


Ultimately, 


The futures of women and girls are tied together. Girls cannot advance without the advancement of women and no improvement in the lives of women will be sustained unless girls are given the tools and opportunity to reach their potential. For they are the women of tomorrow.
- Hillary Rodham Clinton

To which I respond to with a resounding AMEN.
This is what I believe in. This is what I'm working towards. What do you think?

Volunteering at the Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias

Hello Indie Volunteers!

 ¡ Los voluntarios !

I am in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, where I just finished volunteering for an amazing literary and arts festival called Hay Festival. It's an international cultural festival that invites authors, artists, musicians, and filmmakers to give lectures and converse with each other about current events, literature, or just life.

As a Green Room intern, I received the artists and acted as their personal assistants for the duration of their events. I must admit that it was the most rewarding volunteer experience I have ever had for a cultural festival. I was expecting to be given logistical work and no opportunity at all to meet the invitees, who are normally treated like VIP by people higher up the festival ladder. However, as a "Organizer" (lo que dice mi escarapela), I enjoyed the chance to meet the invitees and get to know them better outside of their public personalities.

La Casa del Socorro - por lo menos disfruté mi sancocho y la conversación :)

I worked with Bee Rowlatt, Philippe Claudel, Guadalupe Nettel, Hugo Chaparro, Senal Paz, Michelle Paver, and Joumana Haddad. As my authors/journalists ranged from British to French to Colombian to Arabic, I utlized my English, French and Spanish! I especially connected with Guadalupe, Hugo, Michelle and Joumana. I will never forget the hilarious dinner with Hugo and Senal at the Italiano Delizie... we talked and laughed until 1 in the morning, and the restuarant shut down but the Italian owner let us stay inside and talk until we absolutely couldn't anymore. Trying butifarra at the Palacio de Inquisicion with Philippe and Alessandro Baricco was similarly amusing. These two Europeans were starving and crowding the butifarra servers as if they had diamonds on their platters. Finally... I had dinner with Alessandro and Guadalupe the last day of the festival at La Casa del Socorro. We were trying to decide whether it was La Casa or La Cocina del Socorro that was the "original" seafood restaurant of Getsemaní and were getting mixed reports from people, but finally decided to go with what our taxi driver recommended. While La Casa's seafood was mediocre and expensive, our conversation was unforgettable and "valió la pena". We talked completely in French, and I only respected and liked the two writers more as the night progressed.

If you want to intern for Hay Festival, email admin@hayfestival.com. Specifically, Hay Festival Wales is coming up in May and Hay Festival Xalapa will be in October. Happy independent volunteering, people!

Much love,
Ani

Some interesting things I've read lately

One of the great and less scary things about not going to school is the opportunity I have to read again. I'm an avid reader - I devour everything, from contemporary fiction to nonfiction to essays to newspapers and so on - but it's near impossible to read while in school. I often found myself procrastinating on writing papers at USC by finishing M.F.K Fisher's The Gastronomical Me. Or staying up til 3 AM not studying for a test, but riveted by The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Now that I'm not in school, those guilty days are gone! 

Recently, I read an eye and heart opening book by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn called Half the Sky. It focuses on heartbreaking exploitation of the world's greatest untapped and unappreciated resource: women. The journalistic couple relay anecdotes from countries that they have visited and reported about to illustrate some hard statistics: more girls have been killed in the last 50 years, simply because they are girls, than men were killed in all of the wars in the twentieth century. Women own 1% of the world's wealth, receive 10% of global income and occupy 14% of leadership positions in the private and public sector. They produce half of the world's food but own 1% of its land. The journalistic couple points out that the barriers for women are multiple and hard to overcome because they are so insiduous: most are cultural and simply traditions passed down every generation. Repression and disempowerment of women is a cycle that many individuals and groups do not think they can or even should break. 

But the book shows some statistics and tells many stories to evidence that this is not true. When governments support women's opportunity to work, the GDP rises and the economy stabilizes. When women control the finances of the household, they spend more money on education, food, and healthcare. Children are healthier, and therefore, societies are healthier. A recent NYTimes blog post about the extremely effective cash-handout program reports that it works because "...The payments always go to women, as they are most likely to spend the money on their families... This is likely the most important government antipoverty program the world has ever seen... A family living in extreme poverty doubles its income when it gets the basic benefit... In Mexico, malnutrition and anemia have dropped, as have incidences of childhood and adult illnesses. Maternal and infant deaths have been reduced. Contraceptive use in rural areas has risen and teen pregnancy has declined. But the most dramatic results are visible in education. Children in Oportunidades repeat fewer grades and stay in school longer. Child labor has dropped. In rural areas, the percentage of children entering middle school has risen by 42%. High school inscription in rural areas has risen by a whopping 85%. The strongest effects on education are found in families where the mothers have the lowest schooling levels" (Rosenburg). 

I also read a fascinating book called Sex, Time, and Power about the evolution of human sexuality, patriarchal society and misogyny. It acts as an anthropological analysis of contemporary gender relations and certainly helped me to understand how we got to where we are today - a male-dominated society that represses, violates and exploits women. Of course, the congruence of evolution and culture is a powerful force, but not something that we cannot change. Humans of different colored skin evolved because of natural selection, and culture eventually dictated that some differently colored people were inferior but culture has changed. Natural selection selected for the different physical, psychological and sexual characteristics that women have and cultures around the world today consider women to be inferior, but culture can change again. It has, throughout the years, and it will again.

Some questions to consider: Is women's empowerment a seemingly obvious solution to ending extreme inequality and poverty? How can government and grassroots initiatives win cultural acceptance? When is right to invest in women and when is it right to give them cash payments? How can we end voluntary self-prostitution and promote instead professional self-advancement? How culturally accepted is it for women not to get a "real job"? How long will it take for women to be accepted in the workplace, let alone praised? (Research shows that subordinates are more dissatisfied with a female superior's performance even when she produced more results and was more objectively effective than her male peers) How can we connect the deepening female social advancement in the First World to the basic need for dignity and freedom of females in the Third World?

10 Reasons Why Volunteering is Better than Traveling - discussion

Here's a link to a provocative article on Matador.

My take on it: I agree that volunteering is better than traveling, for the most part. Volunteering is such a personal, spiritual, and culturally immersing activity that I will never regret the time that I spent rooted to one spot and grounded in a community, rather than traveling to as many places in as short a time as possible.

Yet I don't think that people should necessarily feel bad about their voyages (OK - most people don't. I refer to those who might feel bad about their travels after reading this article and this blog post). I think that people should instead examine their motives for traveling deeply, and ask themselves what they are after. Healing, inspiration, love, status, world domination, or just a break in the everyday routine - ask questions that only yourself can answer. I feel that interacting on a daily basis with members from a different community and attempting to understand their lives and problems deeply, aided by the passage of time, can not only fulfill many of those desires (save world domination and status but let's assume that these are goals that you good readers of this blog are not after) but in addition might truly help another person. At the very least, somebody will remember the time that you have gifted them, the curiosity and respect that you have shown for the world.

Let's not forget that the volunteering is tied to travel but traveling does not always involve volunteering. For example, whether I am in central Quito, South Los Angeles or the HousingWorks (an American nonprofit that fights for those who are homeless and who have AIDS) Bookstore Cafe in NYC, volunteering shows me and involves me in a different world. Poverty is a different culture and all that one knew for sure slowly crumbles away.

Of course, I will now throw you all a twist after having mostly espoused volunteering over traveling - I am considering a multi-country trip in 2011. Not once in my life have I done the multi-country trip; I've always stayed in the same country for a month or longer. Yet I feel that now is the time, while I am young, when I have taken a long break from school, to see as much of the world as I can. I'm doing it on my own terms, and with my own principles. My goal is still cultural immersion. My interest is still social justice. I see myself as a kind of cultural journalist - I have a gift for integrating myself into the heart of a different culture, and then being able to translate that experience in my writing. So whether I journey through South America or Asia, whether I volunteer the entire time or not, I know what I am after. I hold myself accountable to my goals. I'm not doing this to inspire envy amongst my friends or to check off countries on a list. I just hope that I will be able to learn more about the world in this relatively free time that I have, and in that way learn more about myself - it may not come now or in the near future, but I often wonder... what is my true métier? How will I engage in the world in the future and attempt to solve social problems? This is my goal not only when I volunteer, but also when I travel.

Comments, questions, feedback, criticism - all welcome below!

Colibrí Video Interviews and Updates

Quoi de neuf, indie volunteers? I have so much to write about!

Firstly, I've been on hiatus since I got back to NYC from Paris: working full-time and trying to figure out my immediate and future life plan will drive thoughts of updating a blog clear away. I can't not write about Paris though: living there for three months was an experience that changed my life. I am now hoping to go to a French university very soon, or at the very least study abroad in Paris. I fell in love with one of the most beautiful commonplace civilizations in the world - where discussion and eating is an art, where family and friends are valued more than work or money, where traveling is expected, and the list goes on. Remember that if you wish to visit Paris and you can't afford to pay for a place to stay, you can live as a writer-in-residence, or tumbleweed, in the Anglophone bookstore Shakespeare & Co.! Highly recommended, but make sure you're not looking to practice French, cause they're mostly English speaking Brits there ;)

While I enjoyed my time in Paris, I had written to you all about how anxious I was to get back to New York and work so that I could volunteer again. I was a bit restless with my life in Paris - mostly walking, eating, reading, and dancing (terrible, yes, I know) - but, my, how I had forgotten - you can volunteer anywhere! Paris is one of the richest cities in the world with a very high standard of living, but that does not mean that there are not people in need there. On my very last night, on the way to dinner with a friend in the ritzy 7ème arrondissement, I passed by a plain, small parc that held what seemed to be a celebration. A trailer was there, pulling out tables, lights were strung around it all, and lots of people were milling around. It wasn't a fancy party though, upon a second glance, and I saw that the trailer said "Les Restos du Coeur"  - restaurants of the heart. I stopped dead in my tracks and hit myself on the forehead. How amazing of an experience would it have been to get involved in something like that! I could have learned so much from the down-and-out-of-luck, just plain old working hard, or volunteering Parisians and enjoyed countless discussions. I did some research afterwards and have added some links for you all in the sidebar - so that the next time you're in Paris for an extended period of time, you will know about what you can do in your time there that will help somebody and also be an invaluable learning experience. Plus, I'm sure that the food they serve is WAY better than the food I've served in NY or Boston - it's Paris, after all ;) Il faut manger bien pour vivre bien! 

I'm back in New York now, and have been for nearly three months. Since I've been working full-time and switching my life plans almost everyday, I'm nowhere near close to finishing the video, but I've accomplished something in the meantime - a transcript of the Colibrí promotional video. For those of you who are new to this blog, I volunteered at a center for working and economically disadvantaged children in Cuzco, Peru from May to June of this year. My plan to volunteer at a community house in the more rural Chincha had fallen through, so I came to Cuzco without a plan and started asking around for meaningful and free places to volunteer. Another long-term traveller fluent in Spanish recommended Colibrí to me, and I knew from the moment I walked into the center that it was very much needed. The atmosphere was so warm and the faces there so happy - Colibrí is much more than a place for these kids to receive tutoring, to play fútbol, eat some food and get medical care. It's a second home for them, a place of safety and full of people who care for them. No matter how much people say that centers like these are a drop of water in the ocean of need out there, they are necessary because this is the most help that these children are getting right now.

I was especially impressed by the policemen who had started and continue to run the whole operation. They keep the center going with a small allowance from the Policia Nacional de Perú and donations from locals and foreigners. The promo video will be mostly interviews with them and montages of the daily scene at Colibrí.

Interview with Alcides, Director of Colibrí [translated from Spanish] 

Me: What is Colibri?

A: Colibrí is a program that works with children, specifically children who work on the streets here in the city of Cuzco, Peru.

Me: When and how did it begin?

A: Colibrí began in September 23, 1997 to aid the adolescents whom I saw working in the streets. I saw that they were in great need, working in the streets without protection and constantly in danger of being arrested or taken advantage of. Colibrí would bring some security to them.

Me: What do the children do here?

A: They come here to work on their school assignments,  or make some art and learn some English. They also come for the volunteers who always visit them.

Me: How do volunteers help?

A: Volunteers help them directly by teaching them things in their homework, and sharing with the children some of their own culture.

Me: Why is volunteering free at Colibrí?

A: Volunteering here should be free because we are not an organization that recruits volunteers and collects fees from them - we just hope that volunteers would help us with some things, and be of a useful presence to the kids here.

Me: What would you like to have at Cilobrí?

A: Oh, there is so much. We need more computer resources, chairs, hygienic services, a bathroom, running water.... Ultimately we need things that will be of use for the children.

Me: What do you ultimately hope for the children who come to Colibrí?

A: I hope that they will be changed, that they will be useful to society. We want improvement for them, a better life. I hope that they will be in a good place in the future, that they will be good people, that tomorrow they will be better off, and not participate in activities in the streets anymore. I want all of these kids to be good citizens.*

For the rest of the interviews with the policemen and volunteers, stay tuned for the Colibrí video! I'm working my darnedest, what with three college applications and all :)

My exciting update is that I am going to Cartagena, Colombia for a month in January! I have always wanted to go to Colombia, since I have met so many friendly Colombians around the world who are proud of their country and eager to have me visit. I chose the ciudad Cartagena de Indias because I have long read about this city in the fiction of Gabriel García Marquez and because it is reputedly a beautiful, romantic, and vibrant Carribbean city. Nonetheless - I do not take vacations - I go on cultural expeditions! We all know that volunteering can be an invaluable window into another culture and different daily life, so my search for a free and meaningful volunteer opportunity in or around Cartagena thus begins. I will be looking for something in the realm of education or healthcare, preferably the latter.

Finally - though this has nothing to do with volunteering abroad - I took notice of former Washington DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee's new campaign/nonprofit organization, Students First. Michelle Rhee is a leader in the education reform community, and has been celebrated as well as criticized for her rapid yet effective approach to changing the education system in Washington D.C. She resigned as Chancellor after her boss, incumbent DC mayor Adrian Fenty lost the mid-term 2010 election to the Republican candidate. Since then, she has launched her website, a Students First Facebook page and a Twitter. I have heard about Rhee's work and philosophy before, but after finding out about her nonprofit, I did some more research on her and am duly impressed. Michelle Rhee is indignant about the education most children in the United States receive and rightly so. If you are a child without money, you are a child without options, because the zoning and lottery system the US education system employs only has a few good public schools to dole out. Videos | StudentsFirst.org Before I tested into the Bronx High School of Science, I was zoned for Van Buren High School in Jamaica. I don't have any illusions about the education I would have received there, nor more importantly any about the academic atmosphere in which I would have been immersed. Rhee is an advocate for the kids without options, and demands better policies and better teachers stat. I'm with her. So please, check out her nonprofit, sign the pledge, make a donation if you can and join a local discussion group. What we're all doing here is taking baby steps that may pass by unnoticed and can be very frustrating at first, but I have no doubt that we're going to change things.

Involvement, and why I write this blog at all

I was reminded of the purpose of this blog when I read this quote from Confucius, "Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand." These words are really applicable to everything in life. Love, education, literature, film, all the ways that humans try to communicate with each other. For me, I immediately thought of my efforts through maintaining and writing this blog. It is my sincerest desire that I will involve readers in my personal journey. I don't just want to tell stories through words and show experiences through photos. I want to involve all my readers through the common thread that I believe connects us all - humanity and a desire to lessen the sufferings of others. I want my readers to imagine themselves in other people's lives, to ask themselves difficult questions, to take the risk of traveling somewhere they have never known and to want to help people that they have never met.

That is really my motivation behind the promotional video that I am working on for Colobri. Progress is achingly slow, especially because I do not have the right software and am currently agonizing over financing for my gap year, but I hope that the finished film will involve viewers through its narrative portrayal of policemen and volunteers from all over the world. These strangers come together to support children for no other fact than that they are children, they are disadvantaged, and they, like everybody else in the world, deserve opportunities and love.

Alas, it is not yet finished. I hope that I can finish it once I am back in New York and definitely before the New Year. Thus, I must leave you all with photos of my time in Colobri and hope that that will still involve you all :) As they say in France, a bientot!

Family portrait

Maté y queque

Estaba leyendo el texto mientras ella lo copía

Lindita

Vamos a la parque! 

Mi ultimo dia... vean uds la locura? 

I love them. I left a piece of my heart in Colobri.