Since my last entry in November 2010, I have attempted to re-frame the question “What is the meaning of life?” to “How to live one’s life with meaning?”! It’s been a good stint of self-reflection and opportunities to help friends and loved ones dealing with their transitions with moving, marriage, illness, and death. It has been a time to widen my horizons and keep my aging brain stimulated with more learning. I have been a participant in The Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma hprt-cambridge.org, obtained Wilderness First Responder certification wildmed.com and attended the Summer Institute training at the Dougy Center, The National Center for Grieving Children & Families dougy.org in Portland, Oregon.
A “Healing Environments” video assignment for the Harvard program was particularly challenging, but ultimately provided me with a sense of fulfillment as I was able to synthesize some of my overseas work experiences to date. Reviewing thousands of photos of my own and my colleagues, brought back many memories and stories, but most of all cemented the reality that it has been an absolute privilege to embrace the humanity and uniqueness of many extraordinary individuals and communities across the globe. Here’s the video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPGeobEV5qY. It’s about seven minutes.
I am departing for Kigali, Rwanda on October 5th to work with an organization called Gardens for Health International gardensforhealth.org. (The new and updated website is to be launched by mid-October.) I will be there for about two months and then return to Australia. To quote the website, “The Gardens for Health program is designed to enhance long-term food security, decrease malnutrition, foster economic development, and support effective HIV/AIDS care, and treatment.” The program comprises four integrated components: (1) Cooperative formation & land advocacy. (2) Inputs for community & home gardens. (3) Agriculture & nutrition training. (4) Income generation through agribusiness. Some of my roles which have been outlined in advance of my arrival are to assist with curriculum development …training the trainers; protocol development to integrate home based agricultural assistance into the prevention and treatment of malnutrition; integrating psychological first aid practices and other staff trainings.
Congratulations to Emma Clippinger, 25, co-Founder and Executive Director of Gardens for Health International based in Boston, who has recently been named a Bluhm/Helfand Social Innovation Fellow and will be a speaker at the Chicago Ideas Week chicagoideas.com on October 10th. Over the past three years Gardens for Health International has received numerous accolades, including an Echoing Green Fellowship, and the grand prize in the Dell Social Innovation Competition, JP Morgan Good Venture Competition and Ashoka/Staples Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition. I am very excited anticipating the opportunity to work with a very dynamic and motivated group of under 30s from the USA including nurse extraordinaire Brad Snyder, whom I worked with in Burundi. Most of all I feel honored to be working with Rwandans who have undoubtedly endured so much in their lives. As Richard Mollica MD, the Director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma writes in his book Healing Invisible Wounds, the goal is to help the individual create a new story, and that “The new story that emerges is no longer a story about powerlessness about losing the world and being totally dominated by someone else’s reality … it becomes a story … of survival and recovery.”
Postcript:
Cultivate Hope.
Please consider a donation to Gardens for Health through the website: http://www.gardensforhealth.org/support.php
Thank you so much, Helen
Gardens for Health Rwanda Staff
Helen & Emma in Boston
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