Yup- you got it. I am heading to Guatemala again. This time with Highland Support Project (HSP) http://www.highlandsupportproject.org/ with their Partners in Service program! I am super excited as this trip will involve traveling to the highlands and learning from the midwives. You all may or may not know that I have taken a doula training and am so excited about all of the opportunities that lay ahead for me in this area of maternal and child health!
It's late and I have CenteringPregnancy groups to run tomorrow. Glad a new friend got me reacquainted with blogspot again though! So more on doula's later!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Update
So there has been some action taken since we have gotten back from Guatemala. We are going to have a few of our members go on a local radio program DefendersLIVE on WRIR.
I am also visiting a VCU School of Social Work BSW policy class to speak about the radio project and start a letter writing campaign to garner support for the community radio stations in Guatemala.
Gladys Monterroso will be visiting VCU in October keep checking for updated information.
We are also available to present/and or speak at any of your functions just send me or any of the other RIC members a message!
p.s. I also have managed to get a full-time job in the midst of all my volunteer work! It is a great program and I am super excited, I am working with Planned Parenthood of Virginia and evaluating a prenatal program! Wish me luck!
More later!
I am also visiting a VCU School of Social Work BSW policy class to speak about the radio project and start a letter writing campaign to garner support for the community radio stations in Guatemala.
Gladys Monterroso will be visiting VCU in October keep checking for updated information.
We are also available to present/and or speak at any of your functions just send me or any of the other RIC members a message!
p.s. I also have managed to get a full-time job in the midst of all my volunteer work! It is a great program and I am super excited, I am working with Planned Parenthood of Virginia and evaluating a prenatal program! Wish me luck!
More later!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Gladys Monterroso's Story
Sunday August 2, 2009 6pm
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Gladys came to meet us today and to share her unbelievable story with us. Gladys is a lawyer, professor and wife to Sergio Morales, Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman.
On the morning of March 25, 2009 she was scheduled to meet colleagues for a work-group breakfast which is common among her colleagues. She had received a call inquiring about her textbooks which are sold on consignment. She told the caller she was busy but would be able to step out of the breakfast to meet and discuss the textbooks.
She retold the story in such vivid details with tears in her eyes and at times unable to continue it was as though it happened yesterday, the pain is still raw.
She recalls walking out of the restaurant to meet the girl who called about the textbooks, after that meeting she was walking back to the restaurant and remembers seeing men in hoods. She did not think anything of it as it was Holy Week and college students usually don hoods and ask for money during this time as it is a ritual.
She was then thrown into the floor well of an SUV, and she asked why they were doing this? They put a gun to her head and were screaming obscenities. She says she remembers driving around for a while and then they fed her pills. They made her drink liquor. She felt woozy, she was burned with cigarettes and brutally raped and beaten. She was raped, beaten,and burned. This ordeal lasted about 12 hours. She was then taken somewhere and thrown out of the truck.
She heard a man's voice and was terrified that she would be raped again. She realized that she had no clothing on and that the man was trying to help her. She asked to use a phone, the man wanted to call the police, she just wanted to call home. She said she spoke with her daughters but they were so upset that they got the address wrong of where she was. She waited a long time and then called again. Finally someone came to get her.
This is where the debacle that is the investigative system in Guatemala begins. To this day there has been no successful progress in her case. What has occurred is shameful. There has been no investigation into the only real lead in her case. The license plate of the SUV that the men used to take her belongs to the mother of one person who is known to be part of a group of kidnappers. Why has this person not been apprehended? The Office of Crimes Against Women still has no information about her case....but it happened in March? How long does it take to drive the information across town?
Gladys has been interrogated by the police, her phones and her families phones have been tapped. Her case has been transferred. The ONLY witness who was smart enough to look at the car that dumped her on the side of the road is now being protected. As is Gladys, she travels everywhere with 2 men who are there to protect her. Her freedom is gone.
Meanwhile she has had to travel to the US to get HIV, STD testing because the Guatemalan system is unreliable. She is "privileged" and she realizes that and that is part of the reason why she is speaking out. Every person should see justice when they are violated. Proper procedures should be followed. That is an unheard of concept in Guatemala as there is no proper training and women are highly disregarded.
In June of this year the CICIG (see my initial post) released all of the details on Gladys' case including information about her medical testing and her genitalia. How is that a part of the process? How can that help her case? She is mortified, but determined that her kidnappers will be brought to justice. We can support her by contacting the International Commission on Human Rights and demanding justice.
Guatemala City, Guatemala
Gladys came to meet us today and to share her unbelievable story with us. Gladys is a lawyer, professor and wife to Sergio Morales, Guatemala's Human Rights Ombudsman.
On the morning of March 25, 2009 she was scheduled to meet colleagues for a work-group breakfast which is common among her colleagues. She had received a call inquiring about her textbooks which are sold on consignment. She told the caller she was busy but would be able to step out of the breakfast to meet and discuss the textbooks.
She retold the story in such vivid details with tears in her eyes and at times unable to continue it was as though it happened yesterday, the pain is still raw.
She recalls walking out of the restaurant to meet the girl who called about the textbooks, after that meeting she was walking back to the restaurant and remembers seeing men in hoods. She did not think anything of it as it was Holy Week and college students usually don hoods and ask for money during this time as it is a ritual.
She was then thrown into the floor well of an SUV, and she asked why they were doing this? They put a gun to her head and were screaming obscenities. She says she remembers driving around for a while and then they fed her pills. They made her drink liquor. She felt woozy, she was burned with cigarettes and brutally raped and beaten. She was raped, beaten,and burned. This ordeal lasted about 12 hours. She was then taken somewhere and thrown out of the truck.
She heard a man's voice and was terrified that she would be raped again. She realized that she had no clothing on and that the man was trying to help her. She asked to use a phone, the man wanted to call the police, she just wanted to call home. She said she spoke with her daughters but they were so upset that they got the address wrong of where she was. She waited a long time and then called again. Finally someone came to get her.
This is where the debacle that is the investigative system in Guatemala begins. To this day there has been no successful progress in her case. What has occurred is shameful. There has been no investigation into the only real lead in her case. The license plate of the SUV that the men used to take her belongs to the mother of one person who is known to be part of a group of kidnappers. Why has this person not been apprehended? The Office of Crimes Against Women still has no information about her case....but it happened in March? How long does it take to drive the information across town?
Gladys has been interrogated by the police, her phones and her families phones have been tapped. Her case has been transferred. The ONLY witness who was smart enough to look at the car that dumped her on the side of the road is now being protected. As is Gladys, she travels everywhere with 2 men who are there to protect her. Her freedom is gone.
Meanwhile she has had to travel to the US to get HIV, STD testing because the Guatemalan system is unreliable. She is "privileged" and she realizes that and that is part of the reason why she is speaking out. Every person should see justice when they are violated. Proper procedures should be followed. That is an unheard of concept in Guatemala as there is no proper training and women are highly disregarded.
In June of this year the CICIG (see my initial post) released all of the details on Gladys' case including information about her medical testing and her genitalia. How is that a part of the process? How can that help her case? She is mortified, but determined that her kidnappers will be brought to justice. We can support her by contacting the International Commission on Human Rights and demanding justice.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Calling Hillary Clinton's Office
So, no one was available to speak with me.
I left a "comment". I just asked if someone could please explain to me how it was that $20 for counternarcotic activities was being approved...and only $500,000 had been previously approved for the past 3 years for violence agains women when Guatemala has a 99.9% domestic/sexual/violence against women rate....
Does anyone think they will call me back?
Public Communication Division:
PA/PL, Rm. 2206
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
202-647-6575
To e-mail the U.S. Department of State, please visit the following website:
http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.
I left a "comment". I just asked if someone could please explain to me how it was that $20 for counternarcotic activities was being approved...and only $500,000 had been previously approved for the past 3 years for violence agains women when Guatemala has a 99.9% domestic/sexual/violence against women rate....
Does anyone think they will call me back?
Public Communication Division:
PA/PL, Rm. 2206
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
202-647-6575
To e-mail the U.S. Department of State, please visit the following website:
http://contact-us.state.gov/cgi-bin/state.
U. S. and our priorities
While in Guatemala we were shocked when Amanda told us how much money is given to Guatemala for private helicopters....I think it was something like 18 MILLION DOLLARS...well then we got to go speak with the US Embassy...and they told us that the amount of USAID money that had been earmarked for the violence against women was ONLY $500,000 and that it was actually going to be a "little less this year". Um excuse me? Last year alone there were over 700 women murdered and by all accounts that we have heard and all the reports we have read that number is expected to go UP this year.
Oh so the point is today we got an announcement that the US plans to give 20 Million to the DR and Guatemala for helicopters.
Why? and Why? WHY DO THEY NEED MONEY FOR HELICOPTERS?
I just cannot understand the logic. I think I am going to call the White House and ask.....be right back.....
Oh so the point is today we got an announcement that the US plans to give 20 Million to the DR and Guatemala for helicopters.
Why? and Why? WHY DO THEY NEED MONEY FOR HELICOPTERS?
I just cannot understand the logic. I think I am going to call the White House and ask.....be right back.....
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
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