on November 24, 2014, 2:57 pm, in reply to "Re: Why is Activos gym the beneficiary of the tree party?"187.148.172.216
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As a past program director of a WORLD WIDE NGO called Engineers Without Borders (Boulder, Colorado) I certainly know, not believe, that I have a deeper perspective than most on issues surrounding foreign involvement with and solutions to problems in communities throughout the world. We have not dozens, not hundreds, but tens of thousands of members who have taken on projects around the globe to benefit humankind. And lest anyone think that just because the term "Engineers" resides in the name, it is a misnomer. By that I mean that while the solutions provided by EWB do have an engineering component within them, BY FAR and I emphasize, BY FAR, the biggest component of any project undertaken by EWB is, at the core and at the end a health project. For example, we lift and filter water (through engineering design) in a Latin American from a low stream up to a high village in order to provide a cleaner source of water to help with health. As a side-light, it also removes the burden from the village's girls who had to lug it instead of going to school. We bring light (through engineering design) to a birthing room in an African village in order to make nighttime births easier to facilitate which lowers infant mortality which is a health metric. I could go on and on with hundreds and hundreds of these projects that EWB has done successfully. It could be called Madonna without Borders as long as the end result is a health improvement to the community. Around the world, there seems to be a shared belief or goal or desire to have our children's lives be better than those we had and that is usually summed up in the comment, "Can they live longer and healthier than we did"? Pretty simple, pretty tough to deny if you ask me. We are changing lives for the better at EWB and we have the modus operendi to prove it and the contributors who absorb the data metrics and know we are helping with health. Gates Foundation, Clinton Foundation, partners with Doctors w/o Borders, the fraternity and partnerships are is un-matched and un-challenged. So, with that personal background perspective in my career and the exposure I have gained, I look at the gym here in LM with the experience of nearly a decade of living here and see it as one of the most significant benefactors of human health ever instituted here. Lives are changed, and not only for those that come to the gym. Come to the fun run and get run over and mowed down by the kids of those who are at the gym. These kids, the future of La Manzanilla, are inspired to be healthier. Come lift weights and watch the parade of parents bringing their kids to Zumba and see how inspired these kids are to exercise. Listen as young girls from 6 to 15 yell across the streets when they see the class instructors and they wonder when the next class is at. The 'movement' is organized, it is cathartic, it is contagious. Come and witness the gym staff work with many of the village's boys through boxing skills that build healthy bodies and imbue them with the knowledge of healthier eating choices and ridding themselves of unhealthy habits. If you look around and listen and open your eyes, you can not help but see it. Schools are also important, I do not discount that. EWB strengthens tons of schools in the high Andes of Ecuador where seismic events hold court. Many of the LM fund raisers in the past did go to the schools and that is good, was good, could be good again. Lastly, let's not fall prey to the thinking that good is the enemy of perfect. |
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