Blog FeedSelf-help heroes
That was my voice you heard on the Philippines podcast. I was interviewing Nolie Estocado, a micro-entrepreneur whose life has clearly changed because of microfinance. Meeting Nolie (and women like her) is the kind of experience that lives with me every day. She has transformed her life by her own hard work and determination. She is a self-help hero. Freedom from Hunger Day celebrates women like Nolie. And there are many more women just like her! I hope that her life sparks action in your own. When I’m not traveling to meet women like Nolie, I am working hard to spread the word to the greater public about Freedom from Hunger’s work. Freedom from Hunger Day itself was created to raise awareness of the lives of women like Nolie. What do you want to know about the self-help heroes we are here today to celebrate?
3 Responses to “Self-help heroes”
Barbara C | 09-28-07
After learning about Freedom from Hunger one day on the radio, I became a volunteer for last year’s Freedom from Hunger Day and was very impressed with the organization’s thoughtful and empowering approach to breaking the cycle of poverty, hunger and disease. Theirs is a sustainable way to end global poverty by providing training and technical expertise to local organizations who then train women in the developing world giving them the tools of microloans coupled with crucial health and business education to help themselves. I was able to see the organization’s impact on the ground when I went on a Social Justice trip to the Philippines, and met the young, committed staff at CARD, the local microfinance institution that has been providing services to urban and rural poor women and receiving Freedom from Hunger’s technical help since 2000. Most impressionable were my visits with the women themselves. What totally stands out in my memories from talking to women and watching them in their groups is that first, like all mothers everywhere they want the best for their children. They all speak of their gratefulness to CARD for giving them the wherewithal to be able to contribute to their family’s finances, health and wellbeing. Because of Credit with Education programs there is an obvious change in their attitude and their lives. They now can believe in a better future and in the fulfillment of their dreams with the possibility of education and bright futures for their children. They convey a sense of confidence and belief in themselves, and I personally saw the pride that their husbands, children, parents, sister group members and neighbors have in their successes. One woman I met had started a cottage industry making embossed decorative butterflies that has involved and uplifted her entire community. It is a very ennobling, empowering and transformative insight, that if women are given the tools they need to change their condition, the entire family and village will benefit and become self-sustaining. Onward, Freedom from Hunger!!!
Emily Ordas | 09-28-07
I am an employee at Freedom from Hunger. As a matter of fact, the author of this blog, Amber Stott, happens to be my boss. I must say, I have never worked with someone more personally committed to their job. She reminds me daily about the overall mission of the organization and who we are really working for: our women clients who are our heroes and inspire us daily to work as hard as we do.
Amber is living proof of the passion that goes on behind the scenes at this organization. Her undying commitment and zealous work ethic are fueled by her belief in the work the organization carries out world wide.
I am inspired by her passion to end hunger and her stories of the women clients who Freedom from Hunger is so positively impacting day to day.
Ben Mueller | 09-28-07
I work for the University of Illinois and am involved in programs to address the issues of health disparities for immigrant families in rural Midwestern communities. Our group includes a cultural psychologist and physician both from Colombia who are part of our Community Outreach Core at the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC)and a UIC faculty member from the School of Public Health. We are engaged in a partnership approach, community based participatory action research,in ten communities in Illinois that develops evidence based interventions with Hispanic and African American community leaders and their advocates to address the health problems of Latino/a and African American families. We also produce a nationally distributed radio program in Spanish, Nuevos Horizontes, and provide health education and immigrant rights workshops in Midwestern communities.
Most recently we have become involved with populations in the Amazona and Coastal regions of Colombia many of whom are living in extreme poverty and suffering from substandard health conditions that make these families extremely vulnerable. Seventeen years later I revisited these same rural communities where I worked in the 90s and reacquainted myself with these same families I worked with to find children now young adults struggling to survive and their parents elderly and frail, worn down from hunger and deprivation. This is not just poverty it is misery. Here and in Latin America there is a benign neglect of rural and urban underserved populations of a very different nature but resulting in a incredibly unnecessary degree of misery and suffering– some of it physical some of it psychological as factors of personal stress and environmental degradation converge to create conditions that destroy these families’ very vitality for life and weaken their spirit almost as a daily occurrence. And yet these people live their lives in dignity and without rancor for the conditions that have been forced upon them. It is all so unnecessary and unforgivable. Thanks to people like Amber and the organizations like Freedom from Hunger for making a difference. On this day and every day I am proud to have worked with Amber. You are a bright star and a golden wave of self realization toward social justice.