Another Detroit Is Possible
By Grace Lee Boggs
Michigan Citizen, Sept. 3-9, 2006
Recently I enjoyed a visit from Ann Nett, a IHM sister who served in
Brazil for more than thirty years as a pastoral minister, community
organizer and educator seeking to eradicate the causes of injustice and
bring about systemic change with the poor, the landless and homeless
in a Brazilian neighborhood.
Despite the huge differences, I believe that we can learn a lot from
her experience about how, from small beginnings, we can create
“Another Detroit” – instead of allowing ourselves to be driven out of
the city by local officials whose only solution for continuing
decline is raising property taxes and water rates and charging an
exorbitant fee for trash collection.
Ann’s mission focused on helping neighborhood women in the city of
Cabo take charge of their own needs and at the same time build a better
community. It culminated in the founding ten years ago of a health and
medicinal plant project called CESPRATE (Popular Health Center-Roots of
the Earth).
The Health Center began as a dream for people, mostly women, who had
become interested in medicinal plants and other non-conventional
therapies because they wanted to know more about their own bodies and
how to avoid and treat certain health problems. They also wanted to
study the Bible and learn about public policy in Brazil.
They started with monthly meetings in various locales in order to help
women become more conscious of the necessity to struggle for better
health conditions and therapeutic remedies for themselves and their
families. Then they began networking with other nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) and religious-based groups working toward
bettering their lives.
In the 1990s, the women’s group became more structured and contracted
with the Northeastern Center of Medicinal Plants (CNMP) for training on
how to produce medications from medicinal plants, on women’s health
issues and on nutrition. They began workshops with Dr. Celerino
Carriconde, a specialist in this area, learning how to make tinctures,
salves, ointments, cough medicines, soaps and shampoos.
The group also began discussing the organization of the municipal
health council in the city of Cabo and the national health system and
how the distribution of alternative medicines could fit with these
structures
The work of several years came to fruition in 1996 when CESPRATE was
founded by a group of 24 Brazilian men and women from three cities, all
in the sugar cane area of the state of Pernambuco.
A half acre of land donated by the local neighborhood association was
turned into a garden in which 40-50 medicinal plants were grown. A
small laboratory was established to begin making low-cost and easy to
use medications that addressed some basic needs. An educative
component was also built into the organization.
As people began using the medicinal plant medications and found them
effective, word spread. Others began sharing ideas on which plants
were useful in their lives or what their families had used for many
years. The women involved in the health center were becoming
increasingly empowered and began participating more in neighborhood
associations and community groups.
In September of 1997, CESPRATE and several other groups organized
a gathering at a former sugar plantation. More than seven hundred
people participated, representing sixteen cities in the southern sugar
cane region of Brazil. New partnerships were forged among popular
groups, city governments, unions, NGOs and churches.
CESPRATE received some space in a local social center in which to
do their medicinal plant work. In 1998, more structure was added to
the organization and the quality of the production of the medications
improved. The production quantity also increased dramatically and
twelve sites in Cabo sold the medicines. A larger laboratory and
production facility was built in 2001, producing eighteen safe,
low-cost effective medications.
CESPRATE and the city of Cabo formalized a contract in which four
medications were sold to the local health system for distribution in
their health posts. These medications included two syrups for colds,
one syrup for parasites and a soap for skin problems. The contract
also included training doctors, nurses and health agents in the use
of the medicinal plant products.
A parallel program, called “First Aid at Home.“focusing on eight
plants used for colds, burns, parasites, skin problems and stomach
disorders, was also developed to make plants and medicinal products
available to people in their homes.
Email Grace Boggs Center, |