Miscellany

So I clearly am not really used to having a blog yet, as evidenced by my sporadic posting. I’ve resolved to try harder to post more frequently!!

Thanks to all of you for all of the encouragement and support for Roots of Health. Even though my mom and I have been planning and talking about all this for months, it is all still daunting and it means a lot to have all your support!

Since quitting my job, I’ve had a lot more time to devote to ROH, although I still haven’t gotten as much done as I’d like. It’s amazing how busy I get! Because I’m working from home, I end up getting distracted by all the cleaning, sorting and packing I have to do, and I end up spending more time on that than on ROH. But on the plus side, I have accomplished a few things… I held an organizational meeting with the other two Directors listed on our articles of incorporation, and we approved the bylaws and our conflict of interest policy and we turned in an application to the IRS for nonprofit status. So things are moving!! I’m having our first Board meeting with our NY-based Board on June 10th, and we’ll elect our officers then and speak about and approve our program activities and a bunch of other things. I’m so excited!

Oh and I’ve already put together 4 balikbayan boxes to send off to Palawan. The majority of things in the boxes are the hundreds of books that Marcus and I have accumulated over the years. We’re not sending any of our furniture or much of our appliances but I couldn’t part with all our books!

Since I’ve been sorting through my stuff, I’ve found all these old photos from grade school, middle school, high school and college. And scarily, there are already some faces in the photos whose names I can’t remember! To be fair, they’re mostly from big group shots that include people I was probably never very close with. But it’s scary that the memory loss is already starting. Turning 30 in a couple weeks. When did I get so old?!

Anyway. Back to ROH. A few weeks ago, the Guttmacher Institute (very well respected think tank that specializes in sexual and reproductive health through research, public education and policy analysis) published a new study - "Meeting Women’s Contraceptive Needs in the Philippines". The report found that low levels of contraceptive use in the Philippines results in high rates of unintended pregnancy and numerous negative consequences for women, their families and the national health care system. From the press release highlighting the findings:

"Expanding access to contraception could result in 800,000 fewer unplanned births, 500,000 fewer induced abortions and 200,000 fewer miscarriages. What’s more, it could prevent as many as 2,100 maternal deaths each year—nearly half of all deaths from pregnancy-related causes. Better access to contraceptive services could also save 120,000 productive years of women’s lives, years that are currently lost to ill-health resulting from unintended pregnancies."

While the results are of course upsetting, they reinforce the importance of the work that Roots of Health will be doing in Palawan. By providing women and girls with information and knowledge about their bodies and their health, we’ll be empowering women to plan their pregnancies, and hopefully help reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies in the province.

What else?
It’s been a busy few weeks with friends and family in town. My ate Sara and oldest nephew, Matthew were in town and we had a fantastic time. We did lots of sight seeing and hanging out, and also had visits from Kavi (visiting from London!), cousins Mai and Rhoda and one of Sara’s oldest friends, Karen. It was a fabulous few weeks!! Next up on the horizon is a visit from one of my brother’s good friends, Gerry, then a trip to Charleston, South Carolina this weekend for the wedding of dear friends from grad school, Ann and Cody. So very excited to see them and also be reunited with other Columbia friends. And then we get back and my parents come into town for a couple weeks. Exciting and fun times! ☺

One Day More...

Only one more day and it will be my last day at work!
Time has just flown by since I gave my 4 weeks notice at AKA.
I am so excited for the time off, especially since my sister and oldest nephew are flying in from the Philippines tonight.

This morning Marcus and I were talking about my nearing last day and Marcus played "One Day More" from Les Mis. Most of you know that Les Mis is my absolute favorite musical of all time, and I know all the words to all the songs. It's been fun rocking out to Les Mis this morning. Shout out to John Pamintuan and all my Brent friends - it was so awesome to put that on in 9th grade. What an awesome musical.

Happy Thursday everyone!

New Beginnings

I've contemplated starting a blog for ages but have just never gotten around to actually doing it. Now seems like the right time -- lots of change is coming to my life in the very near future, and I think a blog will be a great way to have a record of everything, and will also be an easy way to share developments with friends and family.

Some of you may wonder about the name of this blog: Team Swangelista. This is a term for me and Marcus that my friend Ranjit coined around the time Marcus and I got married. I hadn't yet decided to take Marcus' name, and Ranjit joked that we should just create a new last name from our two names, and suggested Swangelista. It stuck, and for Valentine's Day a couple years ago I got us shirts that say "Team Swangelista". Since this blog will chronicle the goings-on in our lives, I thought it would be an appropriate name. :)

So... the changes coming up.

The biggest news is that Marcus and I will be leaving New York City this summer and will be moving to Puerto Princesa, Palawan. The biggest reason behind the move is wanting to be closer to family. We'll be back in the Philippines, where all of my immediate family lives, and will be around a 5-10 minute drive from where my parents live. My siblings will be a bit further away, in Manila, but will be an easy 45 minute flight away rather than the current 20+ hour journey from NYC. Palawan is probably about as far away from Cape Town as New York is, but flights to South Africa from the Philippines cost half of what they cost from the US, so we are hoping to make it to Cape Town regularly to visit Marcus' family and friends.

The second biggest reason for the move is the amazing professional opportunity awaiting me. In September of 2008, my mom and I together started our own nonprofit organization called Roots of Health (Ugat ng Kalusugan in Tagalog). Roots of Health (ROH) is a community health organization focused on providing reproductive health care and education to disadvantaged women and girls in Puerto Princesa. My mom has always wanted to have her own organization, and my technical background (I recently completed a dual Masters degree program in international affairs and public health) is the perfect match to help my mom run this organization.

We've already identified the first community we'll be working in, and plan to really start our work this summer. We'll be providing women and girls information about their bodies and their health, with a goal of preventing unwanted pregnancies, which is a problem in the area. We will also provide prenatal care for pregnant participants in our programs in order to help women have healthy pregnancies and ultimately healthy babies. Because these women are poor, most of them don't have adequate prenatal care and have a lot of low birth weight babies. Low birth weight is known to increase the risk for major disabilities such as cerebral palsy and mental retardation and may also contribute to difficulties in motor skills and in cognitive abilities (thinking, learning and memory). So it is really important that women have good care while they're pregnant! We're also going to implement a feeding program for malnourished or underweight infants and toddlers within the community. My background is also in human rights and our outreach work will be human rights-based. A lot of women in the area are in abusive relationships so we have to figure out a way to provide them, and their spouses/partners information about basic human rights. We are going to have a lot of work to do, and I am so excited to get started!

Marcus hasn't decided yet if he wants to continue teaching in Palawan. He will definitely be working with us on ROH, and may also try to get involved in environmental conservation, which is huge in Palawan. There's a Masters program in environmental sciences at Palawan State University and Marcus may apply to that program. My mom has told a lot of her friends at the University about him and they want him to teach there as well! My mom really thinks that we're going to have way more possibilities for work and things to do than we can possibly handle. So exciting! :)

Of course it's going to be really hard to leave our friends and family in NYC and the US, but we're hoping that everyone will come and visit us. Also, this upcoming week is my last week at work, so I will have some time to pack us up and enjoy the city without the stress of working. Of course there is already a lot to do for ROH, but I'm hoping it will be pretty manageable. I'm really looking forward to the free time.

Another exciting upcoming event is a visit from my ate Sara and my oldest nephew, Matthew. They're coming to NYC this Thursday and I can't wait to see them.

I have tons to get done today and tomorrow so I think I'll end my first ever blog post here. Enjoy the weekend, everyone!