Welcome Manna Interns!

Hello everyone!  My name is Ben and I’m one of the interns with Manna Project this summer. I am from Iowa and just graduated Iowa State last Friday with a primary major in Spanish, a secondary major in international studies, and a minor in music. I am very excited to work with Manna Project this summer to gain professional experience teaching English as a second language, improve my Spanish skills, and give back to a community. All of us interns have some big goals while working with Manna Project. 

We want to repaint the wall around the roof of the building with the beautiful mountain scenery around us. This is a community project, as students who visit the Manna Centro will join in the project. We currently have the base coat of paint completed, and will soon begin adding the mountains. The students can't wait to cover the wall with their handprints to show they helped with the project.

After completing the paint project, our next goal is to enhance Manna Project's Environmental Education and Nutrition programs by adding to the Green Roof garden. We want to add some flowers and plants to liven it up even more.

Our hope is to make more planter boxes where students can learn to plant and care for fruit, vegetables and grains. As they develop these skills and implement trial and error in the Manna garden, they can apply what they’ve learned to help their families grow healthy, low-cost food at home.

Other goals of the Session 1 interns are focused in the kitchen. We hope to paint, clean, and organize this high-traffic area to help simplify community life for the staff, and liven up the room. We’re striving to accomplish these goals in one short month here in Ecuador, but I think we can do it! 

Ladies!

    Before coming to Ecuador, I was obviously passionate about issues of gender inequality and sexism. Once arriving in this area and learning more about the culture of machismo and the numerous effects it can have on females, some of the Manna Program Directors felt like we wanted to do something to work with these issues. While we clearly cannot solve or end the issues of machismo ourselves, we tried to explore what we can do and what services we can provide. Beginning MPI Ecuador's Women's Initiative in January has been an exciting albeit rocky process.

           Firstly, we began working with a local partner organization that houses young and single mothers. We began by going weekly and tutoring. This was sometimes successful - sometimes not. My sixth grade math skills were not very impressive in English and definitely not very useful in Spanish. So we began to bring fun activities in addition to tutoring help.

Making smoothies, Earth Day cookies and painting pottery has allowed us to spend some quality time with these young women in a social and stress-free environment. While it is not as measurably productive as homework help, the girls seem to really enjoy it (although they are sometimes confused as to why there is a tall white woman telling them to make a vase out of homemade clay).

                Additionally, we began a series of discussions for women in our community center. Unfortunately at first, there was very low attendance.  We are now trying a new strategy: adding a weekly fun activity into the mix.  For our first "club" today, I left the house feeling tired and doubtful about our cooking night. At four o'clock, I sat with my co-worker, Kate McCaw (more commonly known as Kate the Great) and lamented that no one had shown up. Maybe we didn't advertise enough? Or maybe no one was interested? But in true Ecuadorian fashion, a woman did show up 15 minutes late. And then another. And then another!  We all prepared delicious Mexican food and chatted.  I was feeling awkward about bridging the conversation from guacamole into issues of gender inequality but the ladies brought it up themselves.  Excited to discuss their experiences and opinions on machismo, we sat talking (and eating tacos, of course) for over an hour.  It felt exactly as we had hoped (a feeling that can be rare in the community development world!) The women connected, had fun and were so open to sharing their thoughts.  While we can't "fix" the culture of machismo - we found that we can provide a fun outlet for a group of teen mothers, we can provide a space to talk about issues for local women and we can (and did) make delicious guacamole dip.  Although we are still figuring this program out, we are so excited to see were Manna's new Women's initiative goes!

Work Hard, Play Hard

  

   Last weekend, for our Third Quarter retreat, we traveled to a nearby and active Volcano, Cotopaxi.  Here we focused on exploring and evaluating our individual leadership styles while discussing how we have each grown as leaders through our time with Manna. It was refreshing and inspiring to focus on how we have grown both as individuals and as an organization. This retreat definitely gave us the inspiring break we needed to begin Quarter 4. With tons of new programs, projects and volunteers in the next few weeks, it was great to have this time to revive our group's outlook and energy level. Additionally, while staying here we were also able to have some exciting adventures. Some of us went horse back riding through the mountains (and are still sore 4 days later),  other hiked to the glacier line of the volcano (an amazing albeit cold hike) and others went jumping in a nearby waterfall.
  Staying in the Secret Garden Hostel, we had plenty of beautiful views, free coffee and jacuzzi time. Our leadership retreat was definitely one of our best so far and we are excited to see its impact as we begin our last quarter with Manna. 

April is the Month of Microfinance

April is the Month of Microfinance! 2015 is Manna Project's second year partnering with Month of Microfinance, a grassroots movement of student and professional organizations with a passion for microfinance and an intense commitment to learning.

Over at Monthofmicrofinance.org, you will find daily blog contributions from a range of organizations. Not sure what Microfinance is? Here is a 2 minute overview:

Find Month of Microfinance on Facebook
Find Month of Microfinance on Twitter
Find Month of Microfinance events in your area
Find out what people are saying and join the conversation - search #MoMF15!

Exploring Colombia

           












   Obviously one of the best things about volunteering abroad is the opportunity to travel around Latin America. This past week, some of us were able to travel to Colombia to celebrate Semana Santa (Holy Week).  We discovered that Bogota is huge and beautiful and has so much to do.

            We also discovered that Catholics take Easter VERY seriously which shouldn't really have been a surprise.  Additionally, we learned that the Colombian Peso system can be quite overwhelming.  Why are there so many zeros? After exploring Bogota and drinking a lot of delicious coffee, we flew to the Northern Colombian coast. We visited Tayrona National Park or, as I like to call it, the most beautiful place I've ever seen. It is absolutely unreal! 
        After hiking along the beach and spending the day reading Harry Potter in the sand (basically my ultimate dream), we were able to spent the night in hammocks on the beach before hiking back the next day.  Getting to see a new country and explore was amazing. We can't wait for our next trip (I'm thinking Brazil). It was definitely a pretty memorable Easter holiday. 

UNC Tarheel's Health Week

Our second week hosting Spring Break volunteers we had groups from the University of Georgia and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  The volunteers participated in two very exciting projects: building and renovating the existing green roof on top of the Manna Library center and a Health Week full of many different activities. Kate and I were leaders for the UNC-Chapel Hill group who explored the health of Ecuador through a variety of events.  

The UNC-Chapel Hill group fundraised an *incredible* amount of money that will first and foremost go towards revamping our Preventative Health Center and totally recreating this community program. (Thanks volunteers!!!!)  By equipping the new health room with the necessary resources, such as a scale, a desk, new blood pressure cuffs, and organized health books, we can now invite doctors and health professionals to come and put on events to serve our community and address current health needs. And thanks to the strapping, young UNC-Chapel Hill men, and their patience, we now have beautifully built desk! 

One of the main events was a Health Fair geared towards kids at the Manna Library. The volunteers constructed three stations: a hand-washing and teeth-brushing station, a nutrition station where they prepared a healthy salad, and an exercise station. Each child had to rotate through all three stations to receive a goody bag filled with toothbrushes, floss and other fun prizes! 

The volunteers also helped the Manna reestablish an old relationship with a local school and children's home for at-risk youth by giving health talks and demonstrations to several classes on the importance of having a balanced diet and overall good nutritional habits.  

To end the week they hosted a Sport's Day on the field across from the Manna center to prompt kids to get off the computers and get active! And the volunteers also  painted a beautiful nutritional mural at the local elementary school where the PDs teach nutrition classes. 

After a tiring but wonderful and fun week I was so impressed with what we had accomplished. It's a really cool experience as a PD to get to work with a group of passionate college students who want to spend their Spring Break serving the community and learning about a new culture (& even cooler when they're from your alma mater!). All of us here in Ecuador are so grateful for the hard work of both UNC-Chapel & UGA and the lasting changes and renovations made possible by their week of service! 

Women's Week! (Starring: University of Michigan!)

          I can't say enough about how amazing and dedicated this group of university volunteers was this past week. Apart from volunteering to spend their Spring Break here at the Manna site, they did an amazing job of hosting Manna's first ever Women's Week. The problems of gender inequality here in Ecuador are numerous and complex but we are all interested in working to improve this area.  While our Women's Initiative is very new, it was amazing to have the opportunity to discuss and experience these fresh perspectives.

         During their time here, we hosted several community events and introduced the volunteers to some of the opportunities within this field of work.  One of my favorite projects was working with and learning about NADENA's work, a fair-trade organization that empowers women by assisting them in the production and sale of goods made entirely from recycled materials. Aside from providing an extra income for these individuals, we hope that these workshops will provide both the skills and confidence to explore other markets.   Additionally, our volunteers planned and led a women's exercise class and well as participating in Zumba in the  park with local community members.  In Manna's community center we hosted a discussion featuring a sociologist and expert on the subject of inequality in Ecuador. With great attendance and great discussion, it was awesome to provide this event out of our Community Center and to learn more about these issues from our amazing guest speaker.  Likewise, we spent an afternoon preparing a lunch for the local young mother's shelter we volunteer with while bringing them an unimaginable amount of clothing donations gathered by our university volunteers.  This group of volunteers certainly got to experience Manna's holistic approach to development, whether that be tutoring United Nations Peacekeepers or farming at the nearby at-risk youth shelter. In addition to helping with our existing programs such as English classes or Children's Nutrition, I hope our volunteers got to explore some of Quito and experience some of the many things Ecuador has to offer.   

                As a Program Director, it was especially inspiring to meet and get to know this young group of volunteers.  Experiencing their enthusiasm and new ideas was refreshing and seeing their dedication to our work was definitely an excellent reminder of what Manna is here for. 

                        ~Sydney McKenney~