Service Learning #4

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1. This week I contacted my community partner Arielle to ask if I could assist in anything this week. I had attempted to set up a fundraising table in front of Publix but I called three in the local area and they said they could only accept one a month and they were all done until the new year (WHAT?). It was frustrating because I didn’t exactly understand what the problem was. So I decided instead to volunteer for the Suntree Fall Festival on Saturday (tomorrow). Arielle put me in contact with two other girls going and so we will carpool there. While there, we are going to be passing out fliers and giving out information about Animal Safehouse. We have everything we need, except some chairs which I am currently trying to find!

2. I feel that it will be a very good week for Animal Safehouse. The festival will be a success and we are cooperating together to get the message out there. It’s amazing what a few girls can get done! There were frustrating setbacks in the beginning. Not a single Publix would let me put up a table but I later found out that Patricia set up an appointment for next month for a table storefront-after the EIGTH Publix she called. It showed me that it takes some serious perseverance to get the job done sometimes. Despite that, we moved onto another opportunity to raise awareness!  In the chapter we read this week on violence against women, it says that “changing public consciousness about a traumatic issue like violence against women takes a concerted political movement.” (Kirk, and Okazawa-Rey 267) And I think that is what drives my community partners to push forward everyday even against the current of negativity.

3. I love the fact that I am doing something productive with my time that truly makes a difference. I am so excited to go to the festival tomorrow and represent Animal Safehouse. In a way, I am representing Animal Safehouse and all of the women and pets the organization fights for, and I look at that as a great responsibility. It also gives me a deep sense of satisfaction.

Works Cited:   Kirk, Gwyn, and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives Multicultural Perspectives. 5th. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 267. Print.

Weekly Activism Log 3

1.       This week got me a little down. I didn’t feel like I did enough to help Animal Safehouse, and maybe I should have put more energy into doing so. On Sunday, I contacted Arielle about anything I could do for them this week to which she responded, that they were in need of fosters. So, being new to this whole activism thing, I attempted to reach people the only way I knew how: Facebook! I alerted to the fact that Animal Safehouse was looking for fosters and I put up their website link. I also contacted Arielle for fliers to put up around the school and then proceeded to do so. Unfortunately, no one has presented any interest yet, which is very discouraging for Arielle and I. Next week I know that I have to pursue a slightly more aggressive plan to gain fosters/money to Animal Safehouse. Valerie, who is also in WST with me, and I will be setting up a table to fundraise.

2.       This week allowed me to reflect on what activists must go through sometimes to accomplish their goals, and how it isn’t always easy. There are setbacks, and hopefully next week won’t be a copy of this one. Feminist activism is an uphill battle! Drawing attention to women’s issues is not easy. I was shocked by the amount of people that didn’t understand what Animal Safehouse does, and when I explained it to them so they finally could, they acted towards me as if “Oh, you’re one of those women’s rights girls.” I understand that Arielle has probably gone through the ups and downs of activism for a while now but it doesn’t seem to faze her. I realize that these kinds of people are resilient, and being a part of this makes me feel like it is my duty to develop that trait myself.

3.       From a feminist perspective, what I am getting from these experiences is the inherent strength I never knew I had as a woman. Although I am extremely humbled by the women who have fought the greatest fights, I still feel like a woman fighting for other women in a very small way. And the feeling of being one woman fighting for another is an incredibly powerful feeling and if had to guess, that high is what I imagine “the erotic” to feel like. Audre Lorde argues that it is that joy that makes you except nothing less, and that drives you to fight for a better existence. I think the miniscule work I have done so far for Animal Safehouse is the beginning of me feeling like me, in this tiny little frame of a body CAN in fact, make some kind of an imprint in this world.  

Weekly Activism Blog

1.This week was the week that me and my community partner were waiting for. Last week Arielle Schwartz (the Animal Safehouse coordinator) and I, put together a plan to transport an animal to her owner who has recently gotten out of a shelter for women fleeing domestic violence. The cat was cupcake, and she belonged to a woman named Cynthia who went into the shelter with her son. The cat was given to Melissa, a woman who agreed to be a volunteer foster for Cynthia until she got out. Unfortunately, Cupcake had originally went to the foster Melissa with another cat, but the cat sadly passed away from liver failure. Last week, when I attempted to pick up Cupcake and transport her from Melissa, the foster, to Cynthia the owner, it didn’t work. Cynthia was not responding to the phone calls, therefore we had to postpone it until Cynthia felt ready. This week, we decided to go ahead with the plans to transport Cupcake again, and it really went down to the wire. I drove to Melissa’s house, and was finally introduced to Cupcake. She was the cutest cat, but she had an open-flesh wound on her neck from biting and scratching it so hard. Melissa showed much distress about the situation, and expressed that she didn’t know what else she could do. As she helped me bring Cupcake, her food and collar to my car, I could see her getting quite emotional having to part with her after being her foster for so long. I then drove Cupcake 45 minutes away to meet up with her owner, who still wasn’t responding to the phone calls. When she finally did, she told me she was picking up her son another 45 minutes away, so I agreed to go ahead and drive Cupcake to her halfway, where we met at a gas station, and they were finally united. It was challenging, because the owner was not exactly cooperating with us, but in the end, it was a success because Arielle and I got her cat to her safe and sound. 

2. People don’t realize the correlation between domestic abuse and domestic violence.  My community partner Arielle is opening my eyes to all of the work that needs to be done out there. Seeing Cynthia’s face and the tears that came to her eyes when I gave her Cupcake made all of the time and energy worth it. It felt like I was putting a piece of the puzzle back into her life, and hopefully she will be able to move forward with her life in a more positive direction than the one she came from.

3. I have never done anything like this before, so this was great for me. I saw the work that some women are doing for other women, and that it’s these little things going on behind the scenes that make a huge difference and like Arielle told me, “It takes an army to do what we do.” I felt really good about what we accomplished and I’m excited about continuing with Animal Safehouse. Next week I am planning on setting up a table in front of Publix to inform people and raise some much needed money for Animal Safehouse!     

Women and Health

1. The problem that I chose to address is women and childbirth in our society. Watching The Business of Being Born was an enormous wake-up call for me on the issue. In the film it explains that infant mortality rates are higher for hospital births than they are at home births, due to infection, and surgical complications from C-sections.It is a MAJOR surgery to have, and one of the things I found interesting was the idea that women are looking at it now as almost an extension of plastic surgery. Women are misinformed by the notion that the knowledge of midwives are "old wives tales" and medieval compared to the medicalization of childbirth in hospitals (Kirk/Okazawa-rey, p.215). Also, the issue of infant mortality rates in the U.S. is disturbing, as there is a clear connection between mortality and race where there shouldn't be. "Black infants continue to die at more than twice the rate of white infants,"(Kirk/Okazawa-rey, p.218) and I believe that the shortcomings of women and childbirthnhave everything to with lack of access to information and alternative treatments, and societal inequalities.

2. "In 2005, 30 percent of births in the United States were C-Sections, the highest rate in the world" (Kirk/Okazawa-rey, p.215). I believe this problem is attributed to the medicalization of childbirth, and how the system of patriarchy has found another way to put women's bodies in the hands of people in power. Women are not informed of holistic and alternative approaches to childbirth, because the system wants women to pay more to give birth in the hospitals. Like Harjo's story of childbirths over the course of three generations, the practice of hospital births has become cold and calculating, more impersonal and less caring. It is all about keeping women in the dark about their options, keeping them ignorant, and taking away power over their own bodies. C-sections are now being done to save the doctor's from "malpractice suits" (Kirk/Okazawa-rey, p.215), and it was mentioned in The Business of Being Born that they were performed mostly between 4 and 10pm which indicates that doctors care only about getting home at a decent time. Women are not objects, and childbirth should not be just another routine surgery. It is a pivotal moment in a woman's life and should be treated as such. Black infant mortality rates are linked to "external environmental factors like contamination due to lead, chemical weed-killers, and other hazardous substances" (Kirk/Okazawa-Rey, p.218). Women of color are typically exposed to more stress due to racism, poverty and other factors, that affect their habits while pregnant (i.e drinking, smoking) and affect the life of the child.

3. My “pro-woman” vision would be more adequate health care in areas that are stricken with poverty, and more information to women of all races, about what their options really are. Alternative treatments should be covered by insurance companies. Childbirth needs to be taken out of the hands of people in power, and put back into the hands of women themselves. What it in essence goes back to, is a call for social equality for people of all races, and a crack in the system of patriarchy. Women need to revert back to the days when they had self-knowledge and self education, where they have control, and are held accountable for the life of their baby. Women of all classes and races should be included in the mission for better lifestyles, because a lot of those goals don’t take into account the external environment that some women live within.   

4. As soon as I finished watching The Business of Being Born, I called my mother an told her that I was having a home-birth and that I was going to encourage other women to do. I urge women to know their options, and hold themselves accountable to get out there, ask questions, and SELF-EDUCATE themselves about what their options are. My plan is to let women know what I have now learned, and hopefully open their eyes like mine have been opened. Keeping women out of the dark is the key to reclaiming power over their overall health and well-being.    

Work Cited:
Kirk, Okazawa-rey, and Margo GwGwyn. Women's Lives, A Multicultural Perspective. 5th. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. p.215-218. Print.