Evanston Woman Aides Nicaraguan Midwifery Clinic

In the fall of 2007, Evanston resident Jean Paschen was listening to the Worldview radio program on Chicago’s WBEZ when she heard a story about a Nicaraguan woman running a women’s health and midwife clinic in her homeland on a shoestring budget, opening her home to women from across the country at all times of the day and night.

Alicia Huete Diaz, fondly known as “Mama Licha”, had been seeing patients in the kitchen of her home in the summer of 2001, when Angie Rogers and Bethany Golden, two Yale graduate nursing students traveling abroad for an intensive language training program, witnessed her efforts and began with Mama Licha to expand upon it. In the resulting partnership, “The Mama Licha Project” and umbrella “Juntos Adelante” project were born.

Paschen had heard similar stories on the radio before, about problems in distant parts of the world, about local people who worked to aid their countrymen, but this story was different because this one lit a fuse underneath her.

Paschen had recently retired from a 34-year career as a math teacher. She was closing in on 60 years of age. And she was looking for a way to, once again, make a difference.

Within months, Paschen filled four suitcases with donated laptops and medical supplies and headed down to Nicaragua to deliver the good. Two weeks ago, on Nov. 13, Paschen continued her efforts by throwing fundraising event for the project in Wilmette.

Evanston Patch sat down with Paschen to ask her about her experience with “The Mama Licha Project”.

Evanston Patch: What was it that drew you to this project?

Jean: I was approaching 60-years-old and I was looking for a project to do, but most of the organizations that were of interest to me were way too big and had too much overhead and so little amount of the money actually went to the cause. I was listening to the radio and when they said that 99 cents out of every dollar goes to actual health care in Nicaragua, it all came together.

Our daughter was [coincidentally] going to be in Nicaragua, so I called [Juntos Adelante co-founder Angie Rogers] and said, ‘is there anything we can do?’ She said, ‘yes. Anytime we know somebody going to Nicaragua, we try to send things with them because freight is so expensive and you don’t even know if it’s going to get there. So could you take some medical supplies that we’ve collected down with you?’

I went around and had a list of things that they needed and I went around and tried to get donations from people I knew that were involved with doctors’ offices or hospitals or medical supply places. Most of the time these are things that are out of date, that have expired, but they still have lots of use. So we rounded up a bunch of things, including laptop computers donated by Northwestern Hospital that were refurbished. We got a swivel stool that you would use in a clinic. We got blankets and hats for babies. And we took them with us in four big suitcases, and we went down there and we delivered them. So we got to see the clinic.

At another organization, I might be one of a bazillion there. Here, I’m one of a small number. I can see where my money is going and I feel like I’m making an individual contribution.

Patch: How does “The Mama Licha Project” help Nicaraguans?

Jean: Nicaragua is very, very poor. Some lists have it where only Haiti is poorer in the Western Hemisphere. And this was an area where people were victimized by the [U.S.-lead] Iran-Contra war. Women were coming to Mama Licha to have her take care of them before, during and after they were having a baby. And she was doing this in her kitchen, which had a dirt floor at the time, and she was using a headlamp because the electricity was so poor.

[The Juntos Adelante founders] asked her, ‘Mama, what is your dream?’ And she said, ‘I would really like to have a clinic, because I’m going to be helping these women whether or not I have a clinic. And so they came back and they raised only a few thousand dollars, and at that time it built a nice two-room clinic and a kitchen, because things were so inexpensive then.

There are rural areas of Nicaragua that can only be accessed by boat. Those people don’t have access to good healthcare, but they try to get it where they can. Mama Licha has trained 3,000 traditional midwives, meaning they live in the villages and perform midwifery procedures. So there are many places in Nicaragua where this would make a difference. In fact, one of the projects was they got $10,000 to train 20 community nurses who came from the countryside for one year, and then they would go back to provide some basic healthcare. … She’s only one woman, but where she can, she trains women.

She goes to [tobacco] factories and instructs women about good healthcare. She’s 74, and she’s still going strong. Every Sunday, she’ll go to a different village and do pap smears for women. They line up to do their pap smears. These women don’t have money to come in and do it at the hospital. They have trouble with just finding money for transportation. These are desperately poor people.

Patch: What have you been doing to help since you came back?

Jean: What they need most now is just money because of all the things that they do. If they have money, they can train these midwives, they can do counseling, they can buy medications that are not expired, they can expand staffing, they can do HIV screening and counseling.

I always felt like I should do a fundraiser. But I’ve never done a fundraiser. I had no idea how to do a fundraiser. I was just going to have it here at my house and just invite some friend, but it just became bigger and bigger. I asked some people if they’d like to help out, I sent out emails and said please pass it on, and there were just people who wanted to do something.

We ended up renting a room at the Wilmette Community Recreation Center. Mama Licha was there. She came, she got a visa and she was able to be here.

There was a silent auction, so there were merchants that contributed items and there were people who made thing who contributed. 10,000 Villages joined us and we had no idea what kind of crowd we might get, but it turned out to be a lot of people.

Patch: Do you view the event as a success?

Jean: We made over $4,000 and we’re not done because we have some [auction items] left over and those things are going to go to [St. Nicholas Roman Catholic Church] craft sale this Sunday. The money will go to the project and they will decide how to use it, whether they want to use it for training or whatever.

But my goal was that more people would hear about [the project]. If we made money, that would be good, but we just wanted people to hear about it. And word got out. Somebody could have just written a check for $4,000, but the goal was that more people learn about it. Every time we put the price of an object up, we also put, ‘$3 will buy a baby blanket and a t-shirt and a hat.’ Or ‘$25 will fund home visits for lactation support. $2.50 will provide a pap smear for a woman. $5 will provide an exam.’ So that people can see how even spending a little bit of money would really make a big difference in the lives of these people.

People signed up to have a little, local chapter. About six or seven people signed up. We’ll figure out some things to do.

Patch: How can Evanston residents get involved?

Jean: Email me at jhpaschen@gmail.com or call me at 847-866-7668.

To learn more information about The Mama Licha Project or Juntos Adelante, click the links.