WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH

(Published in the Northern California Psychiatric Society Newsletter, May 2004)


This adventure occurred only one year ago, but it had its roots more than 20 years in the past, as you will see. It was in May of 2003 that my wife, my daughter and I traveled to Peru to visit two remote areas—one in the High Andes and the other in the Amazon Basin. These are not areas that tourists tend to visit. In fact, in the Amazon, we visited two communities never before contacted by a group from North America. We were 7000 miles away from the Bay Area as part of a delegation of 15 people from the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). We were in Peru to observe the work of two non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) as they furthered the cause of empowering women to better control their health and their finances.

In part, this is a family tale, as my daughter works in international public health and was one of the leaders of the trip. The beginnings of this trip really trace back some 20 years, when our children were fairly young (ages 14,12, and 8). My wife and I decided then to begin to invest some of our resources in foreign travel as a family. We recognized that raising children in the Bay Area suburbs was not a sufficiently broad experience. We felt that the kind of family trips we were taking like camping and going to Yosemite should be supplemented with international travel experiences. This venture to Peru was but one of a myriad of international experiences that members of my family have participated in during these following two decades; but this trip, in particular, seems to have been a direct consequence of encouraging such experiences as a family 20 years earlier.

But back to Peru, which is a country located in what is now called “The Global South,” to be politically correct, as opposed to the more outdated terms such as the “developing world” or the “third world.” Peru is a land of beautiful mountains and captivating sites and people, but also a country with grinding poverty that leaves some children with only rags for clothes, no bed to sleep in, and no shoes to wear. Their runny noses just run—there’s nothing like a handkerchief or a tissue in such circumstances. Giving them a single colored pencil doesn’t just make their day, it makes their whole week! How could the local NGO’s help raise the standard of living in these remote areas, and how could AJWS help?

There were several challenges on this trip, not the least of which were medical in nature. I was not the trip doctor, but since I was the only physician in the group, I had prepared myself with knowledge and medicines to help my fellow travelers if they got into trouble with altitude sickness in the High Andes, or other maladies in the searing heat of the remote Amazon Basin. Suffice it to say, the Diamox, dexamethasone, and Cipro that I brought with me were put to good use! Fortunately, despite the severe environments we encountered, no one took seriously ill and had to leave the trip.

In the city of Puno in the Andes, we observed social workers and group therapists from the NGO “Pro Mujer” (“For Women”) provide services that would make any county public health department in this country proud. These workers built women’s self-esteem with workshops expertly conceived and conducted; they provided “micro-credit” to help start or stabilize women’s small businesses to establish greater financial independence; and they provided medical clinics for all health matters, including reproductive health. Pro Mujer also ran a radio station, which transmitted daily educational “soap operas” which cleverly depict characters having family or health problems that were illustratively solved within the context of the radio show.

The women clients of Pro Mujer, hundreds and hundreds strong, were gradually learning to take control of their lives. They could better stand up to the abuse they often encountered at home, and they could begin to use their financial resources from their succeeding businesses to help their children and themselves. They were already politicking for day care centers for their children so that the children would have a safe place to be during the day while the women attended to their shops in the open marketplace on the streets. In short, the women were learning to break the cycle of poverty and dysfunction that had previously characterized their lives. This NGO seemed to be “heaven sent’ for these women, and our delegation knew that they deserved the technical, financial, and volunteer assistance that our organization (AJWS) was prepared to provide.

In the Amazon, we visited with the leaders from the NGO “Minga Peru” (“Collectives for Peru”). We began by staying overnight in the large city of Iquitos, some 400,000 strong and the largest city in the world not accessible by car (one has to travel there by plane or boat). The following day, we went by motorized canoe some 80-100 miles up the Maranon River, a feeder river into the Amazon, which begins in Iquitos. This river area is three times the size of California, but populated by just 900,000 people. There are 492 communities of indigenous peoples living in the river areas, comprising some 40 different ethnic tribes. Most of the people live in very small, impoverished communities, and some speak only their tribal dialect and no Spanish. They provide their own subsistence, their own health care, and travel about the river by canoes. Infant mortality is high as is death during childbirth. Public Health nurses travel 600 miles up river to visit each of these communities by motorized canoe bringing in health supplies and medical knowledge during their occasional month long trips.

Minga Peru provides amazing services to these remote and impoverished people. We observed childbirth classes utilizing the most modern methods of instruction for the community members who provide these services. Engineers are sent into these communities to help them construct fishponds to be able to grow and harvest fish to sell in the markets along the river. Agricultural experts are sent to teach how to plant the land to raise agricultural products. Minga also runs a radio station in Iquitos with educational soap operas broadcast to the river communities by radio tower transmission that plays on the radio station at 5:00 am over load speakers for all to hear as they start their day. (The communities have no electricity or running water or personal radios).

American Jewish World Service supports community based projects of grassroots NGO’s in an attempt to help groups lift themselves out of poverty a step at a time. AJWS is an independent, not-for-profit organization founded in 1985 to help alleviate poverty, hunger and disease among the people of the world regardless of race, religion or nationality. Their projects involve health, education, sustainable agriculture, economic development, emergency relief and reconstruction, women’s empowerment, and the building of civil societies. They are active in over 50 countries with over 100 projects. The premise of the particular project of women’s empowerment, which we observed, is based in part on studies that show that if women are given funds and supportive services, that they tend to utilize these resources for the benefit of the family. When similar resources are given to men, these monies tend not to be spent for the welfare of the family and are often misused.

Traveling, particularly to countries which are not yet industrialized, has a very broadening effect on one’s psyche. One appreciates more the economic advantage and freedom that we take for granted here in the United States. But even more importantly, one develops empathy and understanding for people around the world and not just from a nationalistic perspective. This is the concept that President Kennedy recognized when he conceived of the Peace Corps originally in 1960.

One never knows what experiences have an impact on children growing up. Twenty years ago, I never imagined that taking family trips abroad could eventuate in a trip to remote river communities in the Amazon Basin. This article has not been about child rearing practices; but it is of more than passing interest to me as a psychiatrist to observe retrospectively how what I thought was a simple way to expose my children to more than just the community they lived in, actually helped shape their careers, their personalities, and their political views of the world. Each of them has become someone more than just an American citizen; they are really global citizens and their psychological sense of themselves has stretched them well beyond the typical boundaries of who they are as individuals.

In these troubled times, it is heartening to know that there are still places to go and activities to pursue, that have nothing to do with national defense or fighting wars. There is a world of poverty, hunger, and despair all around the globe, but there is also a world of opportunity to do something about it.


Hugh R. Winig, M.D.