thursday update

I got to do something very special today! Introduce computers to a group of kids who'd never touched a computer before. Their excitement was infectious! At first, they were really scared to touch the mouse and the keyboard, but after their 90 mins were up, they were brimming with confidence. As you know, I'm here to work on a family planning project, but this week I've done lots of computer teaching as we don't have any more volunteers.
I did have two Project Lifecycle meetings this morning, though. I met the Cabolutan bhws to talk about the upcoming training, and then zoomed over to Long Beach to do an introduction to SDM and Cycle Beads. The Long Beach meeting was a bit of a downer. In the 5 other barangays (villages) that we're introducing SDM to, the BHWs were so excited and interesting to get involved, and so eager to help the women and families in their community. The Long Beach BHWs were strangely quiet and didn't seem at all interested in what we were talking about. We left the meeting quite discouraged. Hopefully they'll be more upbeat and into it when training happens in early July. Mitos from Institute for Repro Health is coming down from Manila for 3 days to run 2 training seminars for all the BHWs from our 6 target barangays. The women will learn all about SDM and Cycle Beads and how to screen and teach people to use SDM. It'll be a big few days with lots of organising. Luckily, I love organizing! (especially other people. Organizing my bedroom? Not so much.) (But I still know where everything is, Mom.)

One last note: Project Lifecycle currently consists of just two people: Malcolm and I. We've both put our own money into the project because we think it's awesome. We're providing an alternative, cheap and natural family planning method to women who either can't afford modern contraceptives, or whose religion won't let them. (insert rant about the Catholic church here.) We are giving these women the ability to decide how many children they want - a basic human right that their government has failed to do. However, we've run out of money. All our money is gone. (training, cycle beads, photocopying surveys, conducting surveys.) If you (or anyone that you know) is interested in helping us out, please check out www.meaningfulvolunteer.org. Because we are determined to do things right, all our financial statements are available online. Feel free to copy and paste this info and send it to many many many of your friends. Meaningful Volunteer and the women of Poblacion, Cabolutan, Carmen, Sugod, Long Beach and Cawayan will be forever grateful. (and we'll paint your name on a wall to show that you helped out!)