X-Ray 9 on Maternal Health and MDG 5

X-Ray 9 are currently undertaking a project which supports the development of a health centre and the delivery of health services in the Conte Burika Indigenous Territory. Before this health post the community in this remote area had to walk up to 8 hours to receive medical support. 

X-Ray 9 interviewed 3 generations of one family in their community of La Carona, her is what Anastasia 56, Joclene 27 and Daisy 11 said:

In the indigenous community of La Carona, Conte Burika 200 women live an 8 hour walk away from the nearest available healthcare, the majority of the babies are delivered by their grandmothers and pregnancy care is only available once every two months.

This blog was written by Fay pictured with help from PM Medic Marisa and X-Ray 9

Anastasia, 56, mother of 7 children says;
I was born in Conte Burika in a village close to the border with Panama. This is where I grew up, got married and had my first child at the age of 15. During my pregnancy and the delivery of my children there was no medical care for me or my family. We had to walk 8 hours to the nearest clinic or wait for the doctor to come out. The doctors visits were unpredictable and often only happened a few times a year.In total I had seven children, two children died in their infancy. When I was 26 I moved to La Corona. I have lived here taking care of my family ever since.

Indigenous dress is worn by the Ngobe ladies. They speak their own language alongside Spanish

Jocelene, 27, mother of 5 children and daughter of Anastasia says;
I was born in La Corona. I went to school in a village called Alto Guyami which was a three hour walk away there and back every day till the age of 14 when I left school to get married to a man from the village. During all my pregnancies health care was unavailable, the only person that helped me was my mother. I beleive that the healthpost is very important for the women of this village, for this generation and the next. I hope it will give them the help and support that I wish I had received.
 
Daisy, 11, daughter of Joclene says;
Just like my brothers and sisters I was born in La Carona. Every day I wake at 5am to help my mother clean the house and prepare breakfast. At 7am I leave for school which, now, is only a 10 minute walk away thanks to the new school building built by Raleigh. In the afternoon I help my mother with my younger brothers and sisters. When I finish school here I want to go to the big city to become a doctor so that when I come back home I can help my mum and everyone in the village in the medical centre.

Raleigh and Health

X-Ray: PM Denise, Sebastian, Akalia, Katy and Fay working hard to complete the health post

Millennium Development Goal 5 calls for improvement to Maternal Health. Women will often take the role of primary caregivers in families. This can mean that lack of healthcare of medical facilities often has far great an impact on the women in a household. Maternal mortality is a particular problem and the effects are felt all the more in poor and rural areas. ‘About 800 women die from pregnancy- or childbirth-related complications around the world every day. In 2010, 287 000 women died during and following pregnancy and childbirth. Almost all of these deaths occurred in low-resource settings, and most could have been prevented.’ (WHO-http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs348/en/index.html) Raleigh's project in Conte Burika is positively contributing to MDG 5.

These women were interviewed by Fay Koster who then spent thirty painstaking minutes dictating the interview five words at a time to Fieldbase over the radio, in order to bring these amazing stories to you on International Women's Day.

Find out more about the UN and their actions to support IWD >

Protecting the Environment and Unbelievable Treckers

Our guest bloggers have told you all about their PPVs for the community phases but today Clive, Louise, Sarah and Clare will tell you about planning projects in Carara, San Lucas Island, The Treks and Cabo Blanco.

Guest Blogger Louise - Alpha 4 Carara National Park

Carara means place of the crocodiles

We left cloudy Turrialba and greeted sunny hot Carara National Park. We were met by Osvaldo who is the park's administyrator. Osvaldo speaks no English, so our group turned to our wonderful multi-talented Marisa who is not only a great doctor but great at speaking Spanish. She expertly asked our multitude of questions, poor Osvaldo wasn’t quite prepared for this super keen group of ladies and his main answer was ‘tranquilo, tranquilo’, (turns out this means be calm), another word to add to our ever increasing Spanish vocabulary!

Beautiful rainforest, our trail will be running underneath this incredible canopy

PM Emma illustrating one of the trails that Alpha 4 will be working on

He took us to our accommodation for the first phase - a disused former ranger station - where we will be falling asleep to the sounds of the rainforest, pretty exciting! However, for our visit, we spent two nights in Osvaldo’s house, what a lucky man! Whilst sitting outside the house we were amazed to see a huge iguana happily strolling along a branch and a white faced capuchin monkey swinging from tree to tree. We thought it couldn't get any better, but we were wrong...

We were taken into the rainforest to wander around the trails that the Alpha 4 will be improving in Phase 1. As we wandered Osvaldo would stop to point out ants busy carrying leaves at least 5 times their size, an agouti sat chilling out in the undergrowth and a scarlet macaw up in a hollow in a tree guarding the egg it had laid. Later on we even saw an anteater scaling a tree, even David Attenborough isn’t that lucky in a day!

Another beautiful illustration from Emma

We are really excited about meeting our Venturers, sharing this stunning place with them and improving the trails so that the visitors can access this magical place too, bringing in much needed economy to the park to sustain the rangers, protect the park from poachers and ensure the loss of biodivesity is reduced. Pura vida!

Guest Blogger Clare - Alpha 5 San Lucas Island

A derelict prison on an uninhabited island might not be everyone's first choice of accommodation  but nevertheless myself and PMs Sally, Paul and Kate rocked up to San Lucas Island on Monday for a project planning visit. Within minutes of arrival by boat (the only way to get to San Lucas) we began to realise just how exciting a Raleigh project this was going to be. 

Clearing and cleaning San Lucas for Alpha 5

Until 1992 San Lucas person housed some of the most notorious criminals in Costa Rica. As well as the prison a small community farmed on the island and the wives and children of some of the inmates, low security prisoners and ex-prisoners who despite having been released preferred to remain on the island rather than attempt to assimilate back into society. The island is now being transformed into a wildlife refuge, but despite the jungles' attempts to reclaim many of the abandoned buildings, litter, rusted metal, barbed wire and debris create significant hazards for the wildlife. Furthermore the rangers also hope to turn San Lucas into a tourist attraction in order to provide an income to maintain this unique environment and educate about bio-diversity.

San Lucas journey

Half an hour into our visit we had already seen flying fish and pelicans over the surrounding seas. A few hours more and we had seen a troop of howler monkeys, lizards and a snake slithering off into the undergrowth (non-venomous our ranger assured us). Inspired, we set about visiting and planning some of the projects Raleigh would be undertaking. Our project teams will be continuing some of the cleaning work that was started by previous expeditions, removing years worth of scrap and litter and recycling where possible. Another significant problem the island has is poaching, currently rangers struggle to move quickly to different parts of the island if they suspect a poaching vessel has landed. Expedition 13A will be building an access trail through the jungle from one beach to another to help the rangers tackle this threat more effectively.

Paul, Sally and Clare setting up comms

Talking of beaches, San Lucas boasts numerous sandy shores (risk assessing these was a particularly arduous task which we bravely undertook). Crabs, hermit crabs and monkeys in the coconut palms lining the beach added to our fast growing list of wildlife sightings. That evening we sat on the jetty and watched the sun set over the sea, a beautiful aspect which our teams will have every evening. After a good nights sleep, only partially disturbed by the monkeys echoing through the jungle, we left the isolation of San Lucas to return to Fieldbase. 

Risk assessing, tough work

Sunset in San Lucas

The history of the island, the cells with decades of prisoners graffiti, the array of flora & fauna which Raleigh will be helping to conserve makes San Lucas a truly fascinating project. Bring on 13A!

Guest Blogger Clive - Alpha 6 Cabo Blanco 

Sunset at Cabo Blanco

After a day of travelling we finally arrived at the beautiful nature reserve of Cabo Blanco at the tip of the Nicoya Peninsula. There we were greeted by Francisco (or Chico) the Head Ranger of the park. Cabo Blanco is an absolute reserve and only a limited number of tourists are allowed in. This means that the majority of the reserve is untouched and the wildlife is truly abundant in this beautiful place. Almost too abundant, during dinner that evening we shared the dining room at the Ranger Lodge with a 2m boa constrictor which was chased from the room with a broom. 

Liz beautiful photography

A well deserved rest for Clive and Zoe

During the day we saw and heard howler monkeys, saw iguanas fighting and a coati patrolling around the lodge. The project is to construct a circular path through the jungle to allow better access for tourists. This will mean a lot of hard work, or “trabajo muy muy duro” as Chico put it, to move the raw materials up from the beach. We are very lucky to have been granted permission to build our own “luxury” accommodation in the form a of a jungle camp in this very special place. That will be our first job when we return with our group of venturers in a weeks time.

Calling Fieldbase to share their experience

Guest Blogger Sarah - Unbelievable Treckers 

The infamous Don Martin dropped us off early evening in Barbilla enough time to organise a place to camp on the edge of the National Park and a guide for the following day (courtesy of Marco) thankfully Scottish Colin, our honorary Spanish translator successfully negotiated a place to stay and a guide. Minor issues over prices were smoothed over with a quick call to trusty Fieldbase and Alphas 1 to 3 learn to always read the small-print first in their trip notes.

Sarah, Colin, James and Gemma

Alpha Girls set up the tent in the community centre to perfect our tent erecting technique while the alpha boys made a delicious dinner of rice and pork (flavouring!) and frijoles, finished off with a delicious and well deserved hot chocolate. Logistical aspects like purifying water were sorted and lights were out at 8pm (rock stars). A 4am wake up call and a splendid nights sleep were met by Marco at the Escuela as we all understood but The bringing back of the key was lost in translation but Alpha 3’s James happily walked back to the community centre to sort the problem out – what a guy.

James, Sarah and Gemma

Our first day of “proper” walking was lead by Roberto, a quiet local guide, a 27 year old who wore wellies (we are sure his patience began to wane after shoe change two of our river crossing) and carrying a tiny bag without any water or food to our knowledge. We had our whale sized hump backs, map and  enthusiasm to boot, not sure that Roberto was that convinced we were going to make the 2 day trek in 1!

As daylight crept in at 6am, we used the satphone then off right into the jungle, like 4 oblivious ants carrying their homes into what felt like the wilderness. Thick mud, steep climbs and descents kept us entertained and challenged us. Our aim was to fit 2 days into 1 so 11am was lunchtime and we had thankfully reached Ernestos house, a welcome opening into the jungle. Here at the small dwelling we filled up on water, sat down in the big green space for refried bean paste and crackers – delicious, no shortage of nuts and fruit and biscuits either.

The legends of Alpha 1

The second half of the day a.k.a day 2 – was more exhausting uphill back into the jungle. The sun breaking through the enormous trees and shafts of light making it through the leaves, it was relentless uphill, slippery and boggy, mud like we had never seen before each hour broken up with energizing nuts and biscuit stops. Fuelled to the top we made it to the clearing, the trees parted and we got more views of the jungle canopy more importantly we were overlooking the indigenous village of Valle Escondido (which means hidden valley), where we saw in the distance Casa Anquilla- where we were camping for the night. By 3pm all Alphas were very proudly catching 40 winks on La Plaza. Dinner was the piece de la resistance – salty cheesey pasta with veg, chickpeas and tomato sauce. A splendid hot chocolate to end, a fantastic feeling of utter achievement with two days done in the time of one. And another world record… bed time of 7pm – marvellous.

 2 days of trekking in one - a well deserved rest for Alpha 3

Late start of 6.30am, our goal today was to reach Rio Pacuare where Don Martin was to pick us up. Another tough uphiller, meandering rivers and slippery downhiller in the glorious Costa Rican sunshine we made or target fifteen minutes early. The corner shop of Bajo Pachare provided Alphas 1 and 3 with the best coca cola we’d had for a long time.  Muchos achievement all round. Bring on the trekking proper!

An amazing 5 days out on PPV (Project Planning Visit) for all. I hope you have enjoyed our guest bloggers - more from them and their project communications officers during phase. Thank you so much to everyone who has been reading the blog so far, for your support of our team and all that we are trying to achieve. Venturers arrive on Tuesday - here we go!

Water, education and housing - simples

Over the last week the PMs and members of the Fieldbase team have been travelling throughout Costa Rica and Nicaragua to visit all of the projects that will be undertaken over Expedition 13A. Every PM team has written a blog about their experience and I think you will be able to tell how incredibly excited we are about the projects we are going to be undertaking. 

Alpha 7: Matapalo, Achuapa, Water Project

Lena, Antonio and I visited Raleigh's water project in Matapalo, a remote village which is a 45 minute bus and 6km walk from the local town Achuapa. Upon arrival we met with Brigido, the head of the Cooperativa Juan Francisco Paz Silva, who expressed how grateful he was to Raleigh for undertaking this project. After incredible Nicaraguan coffee, sesame seeds and delicious honey, all grown by the Cooperativas farmers, we met with Norberto the Vice-President. It is Norberto's village Matapalo that will be benefitting from the gravity water feed system which Alpha 7 will be installing and his home that Lena and Antonio will become a part of. 

Antonio and Lena visiting the Cooperativa

Norberto and his family, alongside 4 other homes in Matapalo, don't have access to safe and clean water, at the moment Norbertos family walk down a steep hill to collect water from a river below their house 3 to 4 times a day to use for cooking, to clean, to drink, to water their crops and to give to their animals, it is such a basic human right that we don't even think about turning the facet but for the beneficiaries, this will be the first time they have had access to safe water just outside their front door. 

Gabby and Lena in the kitchen

The families hospitality was humbling, Grandma cooked beans, rice and tortilla for us and welcoming us into their home when they had one candle for light ad 3 rooms: a kitchen with a fire burning stove (which you can tell is affecting their respiratory health) then two rooms for the family of 4 children, parents, Grandma and Uncle to live in, we were really overcome by their generosity.

This project will encompass digging 3km of trenches and installing a water tank filtration system, the ground is hard and the work will be tough but working with the community leaders to install this system, educating the community on health and the benefits of safe clean water will hopefully leave an positive legacy for Matapalo.

Sunset with Lena and Antonio in the river running alongside Matapalo

5am sunrise walk out of Matapalo

Guest Blogger Marie from Alpha 8: Siares, San Ramon, Pre-school 

For anyone who has spent anytime in a room with child aged 3-5, you know how distracting it can be. Now imagine there are 15 alongside a younger class of pre-school children being taught in the same room, you are trying to listen to your teacher in order to pass your exams and get into secondary school. Sounds quite chaotic doesn't it?

Coffee beans farmed by the community of Siares

Well it is for this reason that Alpha 8, led by PMs Dav, Denise and Marie, will be undertaking a building project in Siares, San Ramon, Nicaragua, installing a pre-school. This small coffee producing community is part of a co-operative managed by UCA San Ramon. A stipulation of the Fairtrade agreement and the premium earned was to collectively be used to support the educational supplies for the new pre-school and the building is being built by Raleigh with funds from the Myles Robinson Trust, who are great supporters of Raleigh and work to support charities whom facilitate young British people to travel overseas to either teach children or to help develop educational facilities in the poorest of developing countries.

Meeting the community to discuss the project

It is a human right for every child to receive a primary school education, this Raleigh project is one of many focused on working towards the UN Millenium Development Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education. Over the course of this 3 phase project 45 volunteers will have the opportunity to gain leadership and management skills, improve their Spanish, gain insight into the daily community life in a remote Nicaraguan village and co-ordinate community action days to raise awareness of the importance and benefits of education and pre-school attendance; many children were pulled out of the pre-school in Siares due to the disruption by the smaller children.

Looking at the plans for the pre-school

The new pre-school is going to be 14mx6m, with a moveable dividing wall, allowing for 30 children per room. Overseen by a local maestro (foreman) and assisted by the fathers in the community, this is an extremely labour intensive and hands on project for all Raleigh volunteers. They will be very deserving of their delicious home cooked meal at the end of the day, living in the community with host families - every volunteer will get a real Nicaraguan experience, although basic standards of living.

Guest Blogger Katharine from Alpha 9 – Conte Burika Health Post

Shane, Helena and I have just returned from 2 days in the Conte Burika Indigenous Territory at the South Western tip of Costa Rica. We’re buzzing with excitement about what this project has in store – the journey there and back is an adventure in itself! Over the 3 phases of Expedition 13A we plan to assist the local community in building a Health Post – something the community have never had within easy access (the nearest medical care is currently a 6-7 hour walk, followed by a 60km bus journey).

We were greeted at the Costa Rica-Panamanian border by Patricio – a gentleman from within the Ngöbe-Buglé indigenous community – he guided us to his village, trekking 5 hours through beautiful jungle, filling our water bottles in streams along the way, stopping occasionally to enjoy a can of cold beans, some nuts & raisins – good old Raleigh staples!

Walking back to Fieldbase, sunrise at 6am

On reaching his village it felt an absolute privilege to be permitted access to such a remote, private and humble community: to sit down to dinner with Patricio’s family (a delicious combination of rice, beans and plantain); to practise our (currently limited!) Spanish; to experience a vastly different way of life; and to get excited about working with the Ngöbe-Buglé people – not only building, but also getting involved in community mapping, speaking to elders about the history of the area, and setting up Action Awareness days to promote such things as hand hygiene, waste disposal & use of the medical centre and its benefits.

The completed community centre built by Raleigh in 2007

Raleigh already have a presence in this village – our team will be sleeping in the Community Centre built by Raleigh in 2007. It is a wooden building on stilts, a structure similar to the Health Centre that we are planning to build only 100m away.

Our new home

At the end of our brief visit, Patricio led us out along a spectacular 6 hour beach trek (this will be our route in when we return with our group in 10 days time) – the bright blue Pacific Ocean to our left, black sand underfoot and dense jungle to our right. A truly unique experience. We can’t wait to take the Venturers back with us and begin work on this incredible project which we hope will make a sustained positive impact.

Sunrise beach walk 

Guest Blogger Sacha from Alpha 10: Housing Project in La Arenilla, Miraflor - we be building yo!

Angie, Victoria and I travelled for 2 days from Raleigh Fieldbase in Turrialba to La Arenilla Nicaragua, a long journey which culminated in a quick jaunt along a steep, rocky stretch of country road, we finally arrived in La Arenilla. Our work here will involve building strong, sustainable houses for six families in this small Nicaraguan community. Having spent a night in the home of Davíd, the community leader, a light rain shower made it very apparent why this is such a worthwhile and needed project. The houses are very basic, made from loosely-aligned wooden planks, with corrugated iron roofs and mud floors. Lying in bed, water spritzing our faces through the walls, we realised how damaging a serious storm would be to home and health.

One of the sights for the new houses

Having met all six families, we are excited at the prospect of staying with them as we build their new homes. Most families grow their own fruit, vegetables and coffee so the meals are always delicious and the locally grown organic coffee will convert even the most vehement haters. At dawn, the nearby forest comes alive with the sound of grunting monkeys and the views of the surrounding mountains from this hilltop community will move you. We are very excited about this one.

Beneficiaries of a new house

Guest bloggers Claire, Louise and Clive will be letting you know about the Environmental projects tomorrow so check back!

Raleigh contributing to the UN Millenium Development Goals

In 2000, 189 nations adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration at the Millennium Summit. The Declaration committed the nations to a new global partnership to meet the world's development needs and set out eight targets, known as the Millennium Development Goals. The target date is 2015, when the international community will again come together and consider progress made.

The goals are:

1 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2 Achieve universal primary education

3 Promote gender equality and empower women

4 Reduce child mortality

5 Improve maternal mortality

6 Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases

7 Ensure environmental sustainability

8 Develop a global partnership for development

Why do they matter

The goals represent human needs and basic rights that every individual around the world should be able to enjoy—freedom from extreme poverty and hunger; quality education, productive and decent employment, good health and shelter; the right of women to give birth without risking their lives; and a world where environmental sustainability is a priority, and women and men live in equality.

If the goals were to be achieved by 2015:

• 500 million people will be lifted out of poverty


• 300 million people will no longer suffer from hunger


• 350 million fewer people will live without access to safe drinking water


• 650 million fewer people will live without basic sanitation

For the billion-plus living in poverty, the achievement of the goals represents an escape from their abject living conditions and the means to a productive life.

How Raleigh contributes

The work that Raleigh is doing with its partner communities in Costa Rica and Nicaragua contribute to the achievement of the Millenium Development Goals. For example, in Expedition 13A our Venturers will be:

●      Building a health centre in Conte Burika, a remote community in south eastern Costa Rica, contributing to Goals 4, 5 and 6.

●      Creating a gravity fed water system to provide clean water in Achuapa - Matapalo, northern Nicaragua, contributing to Goals 4,5, 6 and 7.

●      Clearing old prison buildings in San Lucas, an island in western Costa Rica, to create a nature reserve, contributing to Goal 7.

●      Building a pre-school in San Ramon-Siares, a community in Nicaragua, contributing to Goals 2 and 3.

Clean and safe water: MDGs 4,5,6 and 7

As discussed during the Raleigh Project Framework blog, the issues we are facing globally are complex but the work Raleigh International undertake and will be continuing throughout expedition 13A and beyond, are postively impacting the communities we work with. To find out more visit the UN MDG webpage by clicking here >

Today's blog was written by Vanessa Glynn, 13As Administrator, whose wealth of knowledge is educating us all at Fieldbase with her 28 years of experience in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, The Scottish Government and European Union.