Where I Volunteered this Past Semester

For the past five months, I have been volunteering every Tuesday night at the Barrio Logan College Institute (BLCI) in Barrio Logan, which is a predominantly low-income Hispanic neighborhood in San Diego. This past Tuesday was my last night there, because I will be starting an internship this semester, so I wanted to write a post about the BLCI, because I greatly believe in what they do for children and youth.

The average family income in Barrio Logan is $19,000, and it has one of the lowest education rates in San Diego. All of the students who go to the BLCI will be first generation college graduates and 99% of them are Latino. Latinos are largely underrepresented in college campuses throughout the country. Among adult Latinos who are 25 years of age and older, only 10.9% are college graduates. The BLCI consists of after-school tutoring, classes to improve educational skills, extracurricular activities, assistance with applying to college and financial aid, and parent involvement. It also places these students in quality schools, such as highly ranked public or charter schools.

During my short time at the BLCI, I was able to meet some extremely promising youth who were very committed to going to college. They would tell me about other kids in their neighborhood who were involved with drugs or in gangs, but these students were dedicated to coming to the BLCI. Commitment for them meant some nights staying till 8:00 p.m., going to schools away from their neighborhood that were much more challenging academically, taking classes at the BLCI, and being tutored, all so they could have more opportunities than their parents did. It is a shame that there are not more programs like this throughout the country supported by government funding.

If you want to show your support to the Barrio Logan College Institute, sign up for their newsletter here: http://www.blci.org/. They raise all of their funds through private donations, so it attracts large donors if they have a lot of people on their newsletter list. It’s an easy way to support a good cause.

Doctors without Borders: The Top Ten Most Underreported Stories of 2007

This past weekend we went to the traveling Doctors without Borders Refugee Camp exhibit, which was in San Diego. There are 42 million people worldwide who have been displaced from their homes due to conflict of some kind. As we were leaving, they were giving away pamphlets and free posters, and one was about stories that haven't really made the news. So I did more research on their website and found a slideshow on the "Top Ten Most Underreported Humanitarian Stories of 2007." Do you know about these events?

Tens of thousands of Somalis are living in camps like this one north of the capital Mogadishu, suffering from a lack of water, food, and access to medical treatment. The violence in Somalia escalated this year to some of the worst levels in over 15 years, causing an unknown number of civilian casualties and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people from the capital.

Women collecting water from a spring outside the city of Harare, Zimbabwe. Rampant unemployment, skyrocketing inflation, food and water shortages, and political instability continued to wrack Zimbabwe in 2007. The national health-care system threatens to collapse under the weight of this political and economic turmoil with the most acute consequences potentially for the estimated 1.8 million Zimbabweans living with HIV/AIDS. Currently, less than one-fourth of the people in urgent need of life-extending antiretroviral (ARV) treatment receive it; this translates into an average of 3,000 deaths every week.

A doctor examines a tuberculosis (TB) patient in Thailand. In spite of the rising human toll due to TB, there have been no advances in treatment since the 1960s and the most commonly used diagnostic test was developed in 1882 and only detects TB in half of the cases. For those with multidrug-resistant TB or HIV/AIDS, the prospects for survival are even bleaker.

Mothers feed their children ready-to-eat food (RUF) product Plumpy'Doz at a mobile nutrition center in Niger. Five million children under the age of five die of malnutrition every year. Nutrient-dense ready-to-use foods (RUFs) can save the lives of acutely malnourished children and can even prevent children from becoming malnourished. But so far these products are only available to a tiny fraction of the severely malnourished children who need them.

A wounded woman and child receive treatment at a surgical program in Vavuniya, Sri Lanka, an area close to the frontlines of the ongoing conflict between government and rebel forces. Targeted bombings, suicide bombings, abductions, arbitrary arrests, and other violent acts make day-to-day life in Sri Lanka increasingly precarious. Hundreds of thousands of Sri Lankans in need of humanitarian assistance have been displaced since the resumption of major fighting in August 2006.

A displaced woman recovers after amputation surgery in a hospital in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Under constant threat of attack, hundreds of thousands of people in the DRC have fled their homes this year; many have been displaced multiple times. The rate of sexual violence is alarmingly high.

Graciela and her family are a few of the millions of Colombians who have had to flee their homes to escape ongoing violence spurred by the country's narcotics trade. Armed groups fighting for territorial control have a stranglehold on many rural areas of Colombia, forcing children into militias, and murdering those suspected of collaborating with rivals.

Parent and child wait to receive health care at a clinic in Myanmar. Faced with high malaria and HIV rates, the impoverished population is provided with little assistance—only 1.4 percent of the regime's budget supports health-care services. In spite of the overwhelming need, there are few humanitarian aid groups working in the country due to government restrictions and, for those on the ground, operating in an independent and impartial manner is difficult.

A mother sits with her child in Massabiou, Central African Republic (CAR), a village that was attacked by armed militia in April, causing thousands to flee. Those who have returned are now destitute, without food, water, or shelter. In 2007, villages in northeastern CAR were attacked, pillaged, and burned, forcing people into the surrounding inhospitable forest, and severely restricting their access to health care.

Mothers of kidnapped Chechans protest in park in Grozny. It has been four years since the intense fighting between the Russian government and rebel forces in Chechnya, yet the region remains highly volatile.

Click here to see the slideshow on their website, which includes more details. I'm sure they will come out with one for 2008 soon.

Social Justice Organizations

During our first week of school, we met various representatives of different organizations that work to promote social justice here in San Diego, nationally, and internationally. There are various things you could do with this information:
1) Read it to learn more about social justice issues and what people in the field are doing.
2) Click on the link to connect to their website to learn even more.
3) Sign up to receive a newsletter from an organization if it is something that interests you.
4) Volunteer if you are really feeling ambitious.

Here are some of the organizations we learned about:

Barrio Logan College Institute
In Barrio Logan, a neighborhood a little south of where I live, only 1.5% of adults over age 25 have a college degree. This means that many kids in the community lack role models who are college graduates. The BLCI tries to create a college going culture in the community through their program, which provides academic support through tutoring, a writing curriculum, and classes on college. The BLCI really wants people to sign up to receive their newsletter, because all their funding is through private donations, and the more people that receive the newsletter, the more likely private donors will keep giving money. They also need local volunteers as tutors.

Survivors of Torture
This organization specifically helps torture survivors in San Diego. They estimate that there are more than 11,000 survivors living in this city. They help torture victims work on their psychological and physical health, in addition to assisting with legal and social services.

International Rescue Committee
This organization helps victims of war and refugees. 80% of their work is done overseas, and they are involved in 30 countries. They have local programs in San Diego, which include an after school tutoring program in City Heights, English education classes, and a job placement program. They need local volunteers as tutors.

Catholic Relief Services
Five areas of work:
1) Relief work- refugee relief, emergency relief
2) Agriculture
3) Health- clean water, sanitation, AIDS
4) Economic development- microfinance, especially with women
5) Peacebuilding- education especially for women, teacher training, curriculum development
This organization is international and is involved in numerous countries abroad.

If you know of other organizations locally or globally that are working to promote social justice, please share them and I will add them to my list.