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! ☺