You Still Have A Choice!

At 7 am, it´s rush hour in Granada, but

the mode of transportation is walking to a bus rather than cars.

I have held ¨reunions¨ in three communities now: Santa Ana, Casa de Piedra and Manchon. In these reunions, I have presented my project and the goal of my project as I gave the parents who attended the permission slip. The permission slip I created for the parents contains all the information for my project and their rights as well. There still seemed be in disbelief about what was going on. I don’t think they completely understood they could refuse to participate in the study and never really probed me about the study. By recruiting with the details about my study and giving the community a period of time before having the meeting to sign the permission, I attempted to give them a clear option to participate and tell them you still have a choice! In contrast, if I had let the Children´s Wellness Fund arrange a reunion and explained my study and signed permission forms on the same day, the community members might have felt obligated to sign the forms. This step was also supposed to mitigate the problem with "perceived authority." For example, when these community members go to the doctor, they listen to their judgment, their advice and conclusions because a doctor has achieved a position of authority through his knowledge and expertise in medicine. We experience submission to authority in many instances in our lives as well. In regards to my project, the ¨perceived authority that community members feel could stem from the fact that I’m associated with the Children´s Wellness Fund or the fact that I’m from the U.S on a service project to help them. Thus, they believe I know what´s best for them, so they agree with whatever I say. Women and mothers, the people who usually attend these reunion since most are stay at home mothers, are especially susceptible to this because of the "machismo culture" prevalent in Nicaragua. Machismo is an extreme form of male chauvinism that restricts women to certain and roles and deems the "weak gender". This instills in them the feeling that they always need to be saved and take a subservient role. While not true of all women, it affects many women, especially in the farms. I’m afraid these women, even though I separated the step of recruitment and the signing of permission forms, are affected by "perceived authority" so don´t really think they have an option or it would be best for them to not participate.

The three wheeler, mototaxi, is often used for

transportation in many places

where buses don´t run, especially in rural communities.

The reunions took place in the school in either the “comedor” or in a classroom. The schools that I’m working with all have “comedors”. These “comedors” are cafeterias where food is cooked by mothers in the community who take turns to cook for all the children in the school. The comedor and the school are jointly funded by the Children’s Wellness Fund. Children’s Wellness Fund, in turn, is funded by donors in Miami. These donors fled during the Contra War when many fled from Nicaragua to avoid being drafted into the army. The Contra War was a series of rebellions against the Sandinista government that had overthrown the Somoza dictatorship in 1979, the result of the Revolutionary War. After a long revolutionary war, many Nicaraguans would have rather fled and left everything behind than fight again. The donors in Miami started Children’s Wellness Fund as a way of giving back and helping their country. The purpose of the “comedor” is to feed the children adequately because many have anemia from a lack of iron in their diet. The “comedor” focuses on providing rice the beans, the staple diet in Nicaragua, since many families cannot afford beans, the main source of protein and iron in the diet.

Due to a initiative called Hambre Cero by the Sandinistas, part of the ALBA program, many families were given cows, pigs and chickens. The goal of the program is to raise families from absolute poverty by giving them opportunity to start businesses with these animals, but many families, unfortunately eat the animals as soon as they get them. Pictured above is a pig that was provided by Hambre Cero.

The reunion to receive permissions went smoothly, but only 12 to 15 mothers attended each meeting. These parents attend charlas consistently and are dedicated to improving the lives of their family and genuinely interested in discovering new knowledge. Often times though, it’s the parents who don’t come that need the information conveyed in charlas the most. With my project, receiving the permission of parents who don’t come to charlas will be the most difficult. In order to obtain the permission of these parents, I’ll probably send the permission forms home with the children. I’m not sure how effective this method will be, but it’s the only other option since going house to house is nearly impossible as inhabitants live miles apart.

The reunion at the comedor in Santa Ana. People of all ages came, and I gave them brushes donated by Global Grins. As seen above, children also attend with mothers at times which severly affects the attention of mothers at charlas.

Also, coincidentally, Children’s Wellness Fund was also creating a project similar to mine which was aimed at identifying why children didn’t brush their teeth, albeit with different methods which I’m not familiar with. They are excited about seeing my results. I had also wanted to work with Children’s Wellness Fund during the interviews and focus groups, but this would have required them to take the human research ethics training according to the IRB. This could’ve taken weeks, so unfortunately, I had to make the decision to exclude them from the project. I’ll still share the final results with them and hopefully, receive regular feedback from them as well.