“Yes”, said Carlos Celdran after hearing a run down of the reproductive health lessons that Ami and Lyn-Lyn have taught in Pulang Lupa – “Yes, but do you think the women are now empowered, ready to take things into their own hands, limit their pregnancies effectively on their own?”  Well, maybe not quite yet.

But in the context of Ugat’s Nutritional Supplement Program, Narcy Mikkelson of Aloha House, a local orphanage, remarked that the children in the area are so malnourished that this is something you just have to do, putting need before encouraging self sufficiency, providing them extra nourishment, to save them for the day their families will be able to take care of their nutritional needs themselves.

This of course is the old conundrum between giving a man a fish and feeding him for a day or teaching him to fish and feeding him for life.  Ideally we would take the latter alternative .  Even in face of terrible disasters such as the recent earthquake in Haiti, the idea is to get the people concerned to stand up, make the decisions, take action.

But teaching a man to fish is easy compared to teaching a woman to speak up and have her own voice in family matters, to limit her pregnancies when that seems desirable, to take responsibility for her actions.  And of course you can teach some things about feeding children in a manner that is both healthy and economical, but you can’t really teach families without money, without jobs, without a source of safe water, to prepare nutritious meals for their children.

We know education changes attitudes and empowers people: I suppose that is what keeps us teachers going year after year.  But we also know that it might take year after year, that it is rarely a quick fix, that the teacher may never know how much she has affected the student.

So what does this mean for us here at Ugat ng Kalusugan, and for our work in Pulang Lupa?  It is truly something we think about often and struggle with almost every day.  But we are working with some very young women who are engaged during classes and are quite open to new ideas.  And as we move forward from family planning and reproductive health to protecting themselves and their children from sexual abuse, to discussion of family life and raising and feeding children, there is much room for ‘reinforcement’, and further encouragement.  At the same time we are teaching the children as well, and they are even more open to changing attitudes.  We are especially hopeful that we will influence the young ladies on the verge of puberty, before they are pregnant at 14, before they give up on their own dreams.

In order to make this self sufficiency a reality we have plans related to small-scale agriculture, such as getting some people using ‘vertical gardens’ to grow safe and healthy food.  We have received a small grant that will serve to supply 20 families with these.  (A donation of P5000 or $100 will buy two of these systems.)

Our biggest wildest dreams include helping people access safe water, and doing something really productive in livelihood development.

Apart from grand plans, there are some everyday ways that almost anyone can afford to boost nutrition. One is using unpolished rice, another is throwing a handful of malunggay (moringa) leaves into everything.

We plan to continue our work in Pulang Lupa for many months to come. However, we do realize that the day will come when we may have to scale back some of our activities in order to begin the work we’re undertaking in another program site. We are already trying to put plans in place to make as many of our activities in the community as sustainable as possible so that if and when we do leave, they will continue on. We’d certainly welcome comments and suggestions from all our readers and supporters!