7994: Re: 7987: Social Services (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Revrwn@aol.com


I don't know how much power Jesse had during the sexually permissive Clinton 
years but i do know PROFAMIL.  This Protestant, white, right wing, missionary 
tried to get family planning started and  the program  DID NOT MEET the 
Haitian women's needs.

1. First of all the tubal ligations didn't work- baby number 13 on the way. 
Vesectomies were worse-the one man I convinced walked like he had just got 
off a horse for at least 3 weeks afterwards and then his wife got preganant 
by HIM at least 2 more times.
2. The women desired planning but couldn't seem to remember their pill 
everyday or did not want their men to know so they chose the 3 month shot of 
Progesterone which had a lot of side effects, which was treated by the way 
with the pill they couldn't remember to take.  
3. They believed every rash and bout of diarrhea was the fault of the family 
planning and PROFAMIL would not pay for these aliments-explain that to a 
rural Haitian women.  
4. They provided no funding to help the women during their pregnancies or to 
provide education.  The time when women most often think about planning. 

As a result many women did not want "planning"  PROFAMIL wanted numbers and 
names-just make them up I heard.  I don't think Jesse had as much to do with 
it as much as the people providing the funding didn't understand the Haitian 
people and their needs.  I might add that they were unwilling to listen as 
well.

As for funding-Many protestant missionaries make the same claims you do about 
lack of funding.  Until recently, the policy of USAID was to fund the Haitian 
Government(which is how PROFAMIL worked) and then you got your funding from 
them-I have never seen so much paper work in my life and they are not 
reasonable I might add because they often do not care about the rural women. 

In my opinion the problem is that the ideas for funding are thought up by 
blancs in First world countries who really have no idea about AID work.  I 
have met some good feild workers-but doesn't do any good because they don't 
set policy they only uphold it.

Keep trying-recently USAID began working with NGO's again-for a short while 
anyway.

God Bless,
Kelli Nelson