Transcription of World Wellness, #119
Male: You’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour in podcast, recorded in the studio of Maine Magazine at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Download past shows and become a podcast subscriber of Dr. Lisa Belisle on iTunes. See the Dr. Lisa website or Facebook page for details.
Here’s some highlights from this week’s program.
Male: Our basic approach is really to work with identifying work with Haitian colleagues and try to help them be successful in building their health system and their capacity to take care of their people and to respond to things that come out.
Male: Construction help is all very temporary and I keep telling my volunteers and our board that it’s really not about projects, even the work project orientated, it’s about people. The instruction part will only last a short time, but bringing some hope to people is what we’re trying to do.
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Dr. Lisa: This is Dr. Lisa Belisle and you’re listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour on podcast. Show number 119, World Wellness. Airing for the first time on Sunday December 22 2013. Today’s guests include Dr. Nathan Nickerson, Executive Director of Konbit Sante and Mark Carter President of Neighbors First.
Last week on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour we reflected on the spirit of giving that is so prevalent in our Maine community. This week we speak to individuals who are contributing to world wellness, by giving of themselves both in Maine and abroad. From purifying hospital water supplies to providing homes Dr. Nathan Nickerson and Mark Carter are making a difference one patient and one brick at a time. We hope you enjoy our conversations.
Thank you for joining us.
I’m very pleased to be sitting here today with an individual that I met as a family medicine resident when I was in Portland. Also then a preventive medicine resident and student in the Masters of Public Health program. At the time this individual, Nathan Nickerson was working for the City of Portland’s’ public health department. Now fast forward a few years and Nat is the director, the Executive Director of Konbit Sante which is an organization that is offering health care for people in Haiti.
Thanks for coming and talking to me about this latest adventure in your life.
Nathan: Sure, it’s my pleasure to be here.
Dr. Lisa: We’ve been introduced through Konbit Sante, through our discussion with Deborah Dietrich of Maine Health. I actually had the privilege of reading a journal that she wrote when she went down there for the first time. Her eyes were really opened to what it meant to be practicing public health. It means something very different I believe, than what it means to practice public health up here.
Nathan: I think the concepts are the same, the environment and context. Maybe the starkness of the issues are much greater there. The underlying idea of public health in terms of having a whole spectrum of preventive health in the community to the treatment and higher level care is all the same. I think the biggest difference obviously, is the context. The extreme poverty in which people live and the resource challenges that people who are trying to provide care, face every day.
Dr. Lisa: I think that’s what I was reading in her journal. Was really … you’re right; it’s not that we’re any different. Everybody needs clean water, we all need food DE and we all need clean air, but in Haiti it seems as if it’s more challenging to get even the basics in place.
Nathan: I think Haiti has a really unique history, and it’s not well understood in this country. It has resulted in a situation where systems are not working well and the environment is very challenged. The people by and large, the vast majority of the people are very, very poor and the systems are resourced poor as well. Haiti has the poorest access to portable water in the world for instance. Just being able to get water to drink that’s clean is a major challenge for the average Haitian.
That’s obviously a huge public health challenge right there. Aside from provision of medicine and medical care.
Dr. Lisa: When I was on your website, I was reading about the work that you had done with acquiring water. There was some percentage of the amount of water that was currently available when you had come in. You were only getting about 4% of the water that you needed for the work that you were doing in health care. Does that sound about right?
Nathan: Yes. I think you were probably reading about the water project at Justinian Hospital. Justinian Hospital is a public hospital in Capsaicin where we work, which is in the northern part of the country. It’s the second largest city in the country. There are two major public hospitals in the country. One in the capital in Port au Prince and one in Capsaicin.
They’re the training grounds for the new residents and nurses coming through the system there. They’re supposed to be the referral hospital for the higher level cases and so forth. Yet at this hospital, I think the water situation is currently emblematic of their entire situation. When we came they had a single well that supported the water needs of a hospital; a 300 bed water hospital … I mean a 300 bed hospital. From that single well they had a pump that was essentially a residential pump, what you would have in your home.
On top of that the electricity was very unreliable, so it was only running a few hours a day. Compared to their needs, what we would consider the minimal needs for a hospital of that size, they were only getting about 4% of what they would need. That was complicated further by the fact that, the infrastructure was so poor that piping had degraded and was porous that it was allowing sewage basically, to come into the water system that was distributed to the hospital.
Not only was it in insufficient quantity, it was grossly contaminated when it arrived out of the spicket. Yes, that’s an example of just really poor infrastructure in which people are struggling to provide care. This is a hospital that does surgeries, so people need to scrub with water coming out of those sinks. You know how water’s just a basic need in terms of patient care, hydration and food and so forth.
We worked together with the Rotary Clubs in this area, in New Hampshire, to raise some funds to replace that distribution system, the external distribution system. Install two more wells and have a chlorination capacity so that disinfects that. Those pipes now are now seamless, they don’t have a contamination entering them, but it’s still within a context of a very, very challenged infrastructure, so it continues to be a challenge, but better. Better than it was. It’s sort of a step by step process.
Dr. Lisa: What is the history of Haiti that has contributed to the infrastructure issues that you’re talking about?
Nathan: I think, and it’s interesting, I hope kids are being taught this in school today, I know that I wasn’t and I’m a little … go back a few years. Through history Haiti was the first free republic that was born out of successful slave revolt. In a nutshell in the French had colonized the island after the native peoples, they were eliminated through slavery and disease very quickly. They started bringing in people from Africa to drive their economic engine, the plantation life and everything.
At one time, at that time Haiti was responsible for more than half the GDP of France, because it was so productive and so fertile, but it was all done, all built on the backs of slaves. In 1804 after 10, 11 years of struggle the slaves finally overthrew the slave owners and through them out of the country. They really rejected the whole plantation system and the agricultural system that was imposed upon them. They dismantled that, moved to more of a sustenance, small farming model, which is largely that agrarian model that they’ve adopted, has largely been undermined by international intervention, which is a whole other story. But it’s really collapsed at this point.
There’s been a lot in the interim, there’s been a continued problem class struggles within Haiti, even after their independence. Most of the people have been maintained in a very poor state. One of the things I think; there’s been a lot of ecological degradation, the country’s almost completely deforested. Largely because charcoal is still the fuel which people cook with. It reminds me, I lived down east in Maine for a while and if you had no other job and you live in a cash economy, you could dig clams or dig worms. In Haiti for a poor person, if there’s no other way to get cash you can make charcoal. Regardless of the fact that it’s the damage and the overall ecological situation.
That’s led to a whole cascade of other challenges because of the deforestation and there’s really nothing to hold the soil on a very mountainous country. The top soil washes out to the sea. The top soil that washes out to the sea destroys the fishing reefs so that people have to go further and further out to sea to get adequate fish. It’s a cascade of things that were all predicated on the birth of Haiti being born as a country of slavery.
Their independence coming in the early 19th century, predated emancipation in the United States by about 50 years. Obviously the colonizing countries of Europe and the United States were not thrilled with the idea of a black republic, that would be spreading the idea of slaves overthrowing their slave owners.
There’s a lot of things and that’s really not that long ago, that it’s got locked into trajectory that’s been very, very, difficult.
Dr. Lisa: Here on the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast, we’ve long recognized the link between health and wealth. Here to speak more on the topic is Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
Tom: I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you and yours a holiday season filled with an abundance of love and gratitude. Be thankful for the things in your life that matter most and enjoy your time with family and friends.
From all of us here at Shepard Financial, happy holiday.
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Dr. Lisa: In the United States one of the things that happened during the early Aids epidemic was that, it was “the Haitians” that were one of the primary, thought to be one of the primary causes. I can’t imagine that that had a very positive impact from a PR standpoint?
Nathan: I remember in the early Aids epidemic they would talk about the four H’s. It was Hemophilia, Homosexuality, Heroine and Haitian. I think interestingly there’s reason to believe that Haiti didn’t import Aids here, we imported Aids to Haiti. Haiti at one point was a tourist destination and the bottom fell completely out of that, related to those fears connected to Aids.
Dr. Lisa: You and I had discussed the fact that you’re dealing with day to day issues that are very challenging. Water is one that you’ve described, but you’ve also been in Haiti during a major cholera outbreak and also an earthquake. It sounds like you keep peeling back the layers and you find something you have to deal with there, peel back the layer to find something there; but then something explodes and you have to deal with that. That’s an interesting challenge.
Nathan: Yes it is. Haiti is obviously a very challenging place to work anyway; I think it is for the people that are there. I think our basic approach is really to work with identifying work with Haitian colleagues and try to help them be successful in building their health system and their capacity to take care of their people and to respond to things they cannot.
Before the earthquake Haiti had routinely suffered, just not disasters on the scale of the earthquake. They have a vulnerability because of the lack of public health response and infrastructure and the poor housing and sanitation that people suffer. Our approach of what we call accompaniment, is working together with the people there in a supportive role. Not in the front, but sort of behind. Identifying people who are their champions for the people in terms of advancing their health status and their health care and work with people there. It means walking through those times too, when there are major events, eruptions like the earthquake.
We never envisioned ourselves to be a disaster response organization, nor do we still. If we’re going to walk with our partners we have to walk through those times too. It was interesting thing; we had been in Haiti for eight or nine years when the earthquake struck. We had very deep relationship with people in Capsaicin and particularly with the public system, with Haitian system. What we saw when that struck is that people flew in from everywhere to help Haiti and there was hundreds of millions of dollars supporting groups from away. Parachuting in essentially, metaphorically or literally to provide these sort of urgent care.
No one gave any money to the public system in Haiti. Here we were working with the second biggest public hospital in the country and they literally didn’t have a penny. They’re relegated to watch all the saviors come in to do this work, when they had a really rightful role to be major contributors in the response. Our efforts were really not to be on the forefront but really to help them play the role that they could play; to help support them so that they could mount their response to the best of their ability.
That’s really the role we’ve played there, we’ve played it I think in the cholera epidemic as well. That meant when they didn’t have supplies, we really helped them get supplies. After the earthquake happened the government announced that all victims of the earthquake would receive all their health care for free, which is fine if you’re a well resourced group. But if you’re a poor public hospital that has no resources, how do you do that?
One of the things we did … by the way there was just such a great outpouring of local support that we had some resources to work with them. Some substantial resources that we hadn’t had in the past. We actually paid for the care of the victims that were cared for at the hospital, so they actually had some cash flow that they could keep the hospital open and do the work that they needed to do. We were able to work with a number of other partners to bring in the supplies, medical supplies they needed. There were teams that came down to augment the staff there, some trauma surgeons from here and other people.
The whole point was that Haitian system could play its rightful role in responding to their own needs.
Dr. Lisa: That is an important point that understanding the culture as opposed to coming in and imposing one’s own culture, ends up likely being more successful in the end. Being more sustainable. Is this something that we’ve gotten better do you think?
Nathan: That’s a good question, I don’t know overall. There are a lot of efforts; I think we believe in the long run the answers that are sustainable will be Haitian answers. We can play a role in terms of assistance and joint problem solving. We bring something to the table, but we don’t necessarily bring all the answers to the table.
The answers are going to have to be a mix of what their understanding is and what’s culturally acceptable. What’s feasible in that context, politically and economically with what we can bring to the table as well. I think I was saying to you, that often when I’ve described our model, which I think is a little challenging to describe sometimes. People say, “oh yes, no, no I get it, it’s teaching a man to fish thing.” I really don’t think it’s that, I think it’s really about sitting down and figuring out how to fish together.
Because the challenges that they face are really outside the realm of experience of most of us, when we go there. The clinicians who go down usually have at their fingertips a whole battery of diagnostic testing equipment and things. Even in our public health services, the things that we take for granted just don’t exist there. We take for granted that our population here, when they turn the spicket in their kitchen they’re going to get clean water that comes out of that. Not that you might have to spend five hours a day finding an adequate amount of water to drink and it may not be clean even then.
We really have to be very humble in our approach, that it’s really not just about; we know how to do this and if you just did it the way we did it, everything would be okay. We’re a culture that’s wed to fast results and quick impact and not the due diligence that’s required to really understand the situation and take step by step, block by block to build something substantial and sustainable.
Dr. Lisa: Nat, you have a doctorate in public health and you have also have an RM Degree. You probably could use this in a way that, I don’t know might be more economically advantageous to you. Might give you more stability in your life, perhaps more prestige. Yet you have chosen not only to go down to Haiti, to be the Executive Director of Condit Sante, but prior to that work in the public health system in Portland, Maine’s largest city.
Along the way, where you met your wife was also in the health care field, worked for a homeless health program out of Boston. You don’t seem to like the easy path I guess, or the prestigious path, or I don’t know … tell me how this has all happened to you in your life. Why has this become the path that you’ve chosen?
Nathan: Everybody who’s involved in this work has their own internal motivation and things. Things that give them satisfaction. I think for me it’s my little contribution to the piece movement or social justice or whatever. That I get satisfaction out of seeing somebody get something that they deserve from a human rights perspective, in this case health care that they wouldn’t otherwise get. If I can be a catalyst to that and join with other people in being a catalyst for that, then that’s deeply satisfying I think.
It’s a real privilege to be able to do what you want to do and not have to work in a particular area just because you have to do that. We live in a place and time where we’re very, very fortunate and I think a lot of us think, well too much us given, much is expected. I think everybody who’s been involved with this has some flavor of that in terms of why they’re involved. They want to give something back; they want to be part of a global community. They want to see their neighbors as more than the person who lives next door, but have a global a sense of who our neighbors are. They want to share from their good fortune.
I really believe and I’ve told my kids this growing up here that; there are probably other places in the world with a standard of living as a good as Portland, but probably not better. Where things are safe from random violence in general and from disaster and from horrible events that are conditions and war and these things that many, many other people in the world live with daily. We come from that place of privilege and it’s also a privilege to share some of what we have.
Dr. Lisa: You have a very active support community in Portland, which is not to say that you couldn’t use more support, or more financial contributions. Konbit Sante was founded by Dr. Michael Taylor and also I believe his wife Wendy?
Nathan: Right.
Dr. Lisa: Many, many clinicians or allied health professionals have given up their time and their resources. How do you sustain the interest in this?
Nathan: Michael and Wendy as you’ve alluded to were really the both; this isn’t just their brain child, this was their heart child. To pull at least the original group of people together and then really continue to reach out and talk about this work and promote it. Facilitated people coming down and meeting people and I think that’s part of it. They’re people from all over the community who’ve contributed in some way. There are a lot of people who are not travelling to Haiti for instance, there’s a local company JB Brown that has donated warehouse space. We collect medical supplies and equipment and so forth. We have volunteers who work in that warehouse sorting and loading containers when we send them down.
There are people who work on selling Haitian metal art to raise money out there. Then there are the people who go down on the ground and most of those people are the best ambassadors. They come back and talk about their experience, what it’s meant, what people can do to help and to contribute. There are many, many, many donors. It’s been a very, very generous community through the years.
I hope one of the reasons is that we can provide a little different narrative than hear about Haiti in the media. I think there’s a lot of media saying that Haiti is a hopeless place, that nothing can change. I think what people can see and hope they see and hear, is that with really careful, respectful, humble collaboration and joint problem solving and things; you can see movement in the right direction. That results, that directly results in benefit to the people in that community.
Some years ago Portland agreed to become the sister to Capsaicin. There’s some sense of we want to as a community, have a sister city in which we can share from. Both as a community, formerly share what we have. I think there are lots of other people who take satisfaction taking some part in that. Whether that’s making a donation, working in the warehouse, selling things. If they have a skill set that’s appropriate for being on the ground there, then doing that.
I would mention it’s not just health care people. We have a whole group people who are professional trades, engineers and we talked about the water project. That wasn’t done by clinicians, that was done by water engineers and electricians and people like that. We try to take a very holistic view of what health care means.
When I worked for the health care for the homeless program, I used to have a poster on my wall in my office that said, ‘housing is health care.’ A recognition of the idea that the whole environment which people find themselves, contributes is expressed in their health. We try to take a bit more holistic view; I think more of a public health view of what health is about. We have people with those kind of skills to help out as well.
We try to not be … I think we’ve developed from a model of let’s go down and see what we can do to really negotiating goals and objectives with our partners there and then finding the skill sets we need to move those forward. It’s not a random mish mash of a federation of well intentioned people, but really matching people skills with what’s needed.
Much like supplies; most supplies are coming to Haiti are sent by people who are well intentioned, but don’t have a good idea of what’s actually needed. Haiti needs everything, so let’s fill it with everything. Actually they can’t use everything and so much of that goes wasted. This thing we when we really tried to move towards help them develop an inventory system so we actually know what the uptake is. How much of what kinds of things are useful, so that we can match what’s available with what’s needed there. It’s the same way on the volunteer side, that we really want to match the skill set with the goals that are set up so that we can move forward on those and make real progress.
Dr. Lisa: We all like to believe that volunteering in another country, perhaps in a medical capacity is somehow superhero-esk or glamorous or life changing. It’s interesting to me that what I’m hearing from you is that a lot of what you’re doing is logistical. It’s systems orientated, it’s probably not that glamorous or sexy, but it’s having much bigger impact on many more people than just swooping into “save the day”.
Dr. Nickerson: Yeah it is different than that. It’s really not the typical mission model of coming down and doing clinics in the community and things like that. Because, actually when Dr. Taylor convened the first group, many of the people had experience doing that, that type of model. I think it’s probably at least in the short-term very gratifying. You’re able to go and give out lots of things to people, but if it’s a group of a people who I think really questioned, well what’s left in the end in terms of … I think they’re probably particular conditions and situations where if someone needs a surgery you can do the surgery and then that’s life altering.
For medical care and public health and those kind of things, require a maintenance of effort that’s ongoing. Not once a year or anything, it’s a really it’s helping build capacity on the ground to provide those kind of surfaces, that kind of health, work with the community, that understands the community, can speak with the community. That’s where this different kind of thing, that you’re right isn’t so glamorous, it’s a lot of grunt work. It is focused … and people have established really deep and long relationships with Haitian colleagues. Who are passionate about improving the situation in their country and now some people have their back.
Who can give them support, whether it’s materially, supplies, technical assistance, work with them on trainings. The new generation of clinicians coming through, help improve the environment which they’re working. Help develop the curriculum for those trainings, help with program development. We do a lot of work with operational research and trying to improve the quality of care and outcomes within a hospital. With strategies, try to negotiate within their resource meetings. Because we don’t have real deep pockets to bring to the situation but it’s a different kind of partnership. That way it’s really about trying … if I had to boil it all down, it’s really about problem solving together.
I think people still find it deeply satisfying when they can have those kinds of relationships and long term impact.
Dr. Lisa: Nat, how can people find out about Konbit Sante?
Nathan: Well I think the quickest way is to get on the website and we’re certainly happy to talk with anybody who wants to talk with us about it. I think our contact information is on the website, which is konbit.sante.org or healthyhaiti.org which will get you to the same site and probably easier to remember and spell. Konbit Sante is k-o-n-b-i-t s-a-n-t-e.org or healthyhaiti.org.
Dr. Lisa: We have been speaking with Nat Nickerson, Nathan Nickerson who is the Executive Director of Konbit Sante down in Haiti. We know you’re not up here all the time, so the fact that you came into the studio and were able to tell a bit of the story is really important to us. I thank you for the work that you’re doing for Haiti and also within the Maine community to bring support to Haiti and thank you for your time.
Nathan: It’s just a pleasure to be here, thank you.
Dr. Lisa: As a physician and small business owner I rely on Marci Booth from Booth Maine to help me with my own business and to help me live my own life fully. Here are a few thoughts from Marci.
Marci: As we close in on the holidays, I want to take this moment to wish you all a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season. Enjoy this beautiful time of year with family and friends.
I’m Marci Booth, let’s talk about the changes you need, boothmaine.com.
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Dr. Lisa: People in Maine are a generous group. I know having worked with Safe Passage, the organization that educates children in Guatemala. I know that we do a lot of work with education; we also do a lot of work with caring for people in other countries in the medical field.
Mark Carter from Neighbors First is going to talk to us today about work that he’s been doing which really is about construction and architecture. Really creating places for people to live in countries such as Colombia and other parts of Central and South America, but he also works right in Maine.
Thanks for coming in Mark and talking to us today.
Mark: Thanks for having me.
Dr. Lisa: Mark this idea of Neighbors First is intriguing because I know a lot of people will think about, well I’d like to give to somebody in another country because I know they don’t have much. You specifically called your organization Neighbors First. Why did you do that?
Mark: Neighbors are both near and far. We’re a Christian organization, non-profit corporation and the description of neighbors in the bible is someone in need, so we called it Neighbors First. Because we’re helping those in great need with construction related help.
Dr. Lisa: Your background is as an architect and you lived in Southern Maine for a number of years, before moving back up to your native Presque Isle. That was a bit of a journey?
Mark: It was, big change.
Dr. Lisa: Why did you decide on architecture?
Mark: In high school, my summers were spent on the construction site, most people in Northern Maine work a lot and that was no exception for me. Both on potato farms when I was young and during high school I worked construction for different contractors and really got hooked on building. I thought I wanted to do something a little bit even more, so went into the design area. My first job was right here in Portland, right around the corner on Exchange Street. This was a nostalgic walk for me this morning, like I was going to work 20 years ago.
Dr. Lisa: Your wife Debbie is also from Northern Maine?
Mark: Yes, both from Presque Isle.
Dr. Lisa: How did you meet?
Mark: We met in high school actually. Classic high school sweetheart story, then we went off to college in separate ways. Then when we graduated we were married and settled right here in Portland.
Dr. Lisa: You told me a story about something that really caused you to think about your life and where you wanted to live and what you wanted to be doing with yourself. I think our listeners would be interested in that.
Mark: Some 25 years ago or so I was asked to go to Mexico with a group that was going to be constructing a medical clinic. They wanted me along for my design and building expertise. I agreed to that not knowing really what I was going to see or experience in Mexico. After several trips beyond that I found myself in a migrant worker camp in Mexico, which the housing conditions were much more like a cattle farm than it was like human housing. I think that influenced me a lot and it caused me to think that perhaps the way I was living and what I was doing had a little excess to it.
We pulled up routes, I felt God was telling us to move and get rid of the things we had here in Portland and move back to Northern Maine for some reason, weren’t entirely sure. Many of our families and friends thought we were somewhat crazy for doing that, but we did it anyway. It’s been good; it was a great place to raise our three children and perhaps Neighbors First as an outgrowth of that move and big change in our lives.
Dr. Lisa: How did Debbie feel about that?
Mark: When we first talked about moving North that wasn’t very popular, but soon after she understood that was a call that we were supposed to do. It’s been there ever since, our families are both from Presque Isle and we have a lot of friends there, but we still keep contact with our really good friends in Portland. It’s nice to have friends all across Maine, in fact we still serve together in Central and South America when we go, we have friends from Southern Maine that join us on our teams. It’s been good to have the experience throughout Maine.
Dr. Lisa: Faith has been a very big part of your life, your family’s life and how it is that you’ve chosen to live. Tell me about that; is this something that started when you were younger?
Mark: Not very young. I had little to do with anything of faith until the age of 18. At that point I was not sure what to do with life as many 18 year olds would probably have that same experience. Made a decision to put God first in my life and from then on I made an effort to follow Christ wherever he wants me to go and that means helping people. Because there’s this common theme throughout the bible that says that we’re to help anybody that has need, the poor, the widows and the orphans.
Because of that many men that I’ve known over the years were like minded with this concept and so we formed Neighbors First. It has a big influence on myself; the way we live, the way we give, the way we’ve raised our children. It has been a life pattern and we want to honor god with what we do.
Dr. Lisa: What I hear from you really is about the, not only honoring of God but also honoring fellow human beings and really understanding them and having compassion for them. In a way that is open and giving as a neighbor to a neighbor.
Mark: That’s right. We enjoy helping people; we were just this past weekend re-roofing a family’s home in Caribou. My team of guys were all working on the roof and the young lady of the home came out and spoke to me and said, you guys don’t seem like you’re working, you seem like you’re having more fun than you are working. I said, well that’s truly the case. We thoroughly enjoy helping other people and we have a great time doing it and we just want to go out to people with a little bit of help.
Construction help is all very temporary and I keep telling my volunteers and our board, that it’s really not about projects even though we’re project orientated. It’s about people. The construction part will only last a short time, but bringing some hope to people is what we’re trying to do.
Dr. Lisa: What has it been like to try to identify the people in Presque Isle or around Presque Isle, in parts of Maine that might need your assistance?
Mark: A little different than in Central and South America. When you travel to developing countries and see the need, the questions about the need are not so varied, they’re pretty obvious. In North America it’s a little more difficult to determine, what’s need and what’s want. We work hard with that and that’s why we partner with a local church on all of our projects, whether they’re international or local. We want to have a local church involved, because they’re the inside of their own neighborhoods, their own areas, the people who really have need.
We connect with them and say look, if you have recognized a need, we’ll partner with you and you can provide some help and we’ll provide our help and we’ll get it done together. That way when Neighbors First is finished with the construction related project, the continuity will be there. We charge our partners with, follow up with people, see if there’s anything else that they really need. Or encourage them and that way it’s just not a onetime thing.
Dr. Lisa: What type of people are in need of help? What type of projects do you help them with?
Mark: Central and South America projects are a little different than the Northern Maine projects that we’ve worked on. In Northern Maine we’ve tended to do a lot of roofs for widows and some access projects for widows. We’ve had to provide homes for people that have great need. We were made aware of a widow over in Maine a few years ago that was living in, literally a shack. I’d been to a lot of different poor areas in several countries but this rivaled them all and it was right in our back yard. Before the building fell down around her, we provided a home and set her up for that.
Those projects are varied. In Central and South America it ranges from building a whole new building, which we’ve done several times. We’ve done orphanage dormitories and churches and homes. We currently have a project ongoing program for providing concrete floors for people living on dirt floors in Central America. People donate £250 and people volunteer their time and money to go and put in these floors and that’s had a great impact on these families to get this, what we take for granted as a decent floor that you keep clean.
Dr. Lisa: That seems like, in the grand scheme of things not that much money in order to give somebody something that seems fairly basic. $250 gives you a floor.
Mark: It’s very true. I think people would be surprised at how far a small amount of money will go in a developing country. We’ve built entire buildings for 17 or $18,000, where here it would be $250,000. Because there’s a lot of labor and there’s a lot of willingness to build what they need, but they don’t have the funds and there’s no way to get them. They’re living day to day; most people we’re working with in these countries are making $2, $3 a day. There’s no way they can build onto their home or even provide themselves a concrete floor. Out of our excess we can give just a little and make a huge difference for someone.
Dr. Lisa: What do you find happens when you provide somebody with a floor? If you’re starting with somebody who has very little, they have a dirt floor. You give them a concrete floor. What does this do for their emotional and mental wellbeing and their view of themselves?
Mark: It’s a big boost for them. Something as simple as a concrete floor; it’s hard for us to relate to living on a dirt floor because we just don’t do that. There are chickens and animals wondering in and out of their homes and their children have to sleep on the ground. Something as simple as a concrete floor that they can sweep and keep clean, along with the concrete floor we provide a gate for the opening to the home. The home is usually made up of sticks with a thatched roof and we provide gate and a little bit of instruction. That says, just keep the gate closed and keep the chickens and the pigs out of the house and the keep the floor clean.
It gives the housewife a very big boost, they’re absolutely thrilled. Because no longer are they sweeping the dirt floor which we see all the time, with their homemade brooms. They’re keeping their concrete floors clean and it just makes a big difference, good for their self esteem and gives them a little bit of hope that they’ve made a little progress and they can provide for their family a little bit. It’s a win, win all the way round.
Dr. Lisa: The goal of the Dr. Lisa Radio hour is to help make connections between the health of the individual and the health of the community. The goal of Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes is to deepen our appreciation for the natural world.
Here to speak with us today is Ted Carter.
Ted: You know sometimes we never know what’s behind the scenes, behind creation, behind a painting, behind a great photograph. I know that when I create at my drafting table and I design, the first thing I do is I go over and put on some disco music. Disco always reminds me of a happy time in my life, dancing and joy and it’s not classical, it’s disco. I think that what happens is that the child comes out to play and that child really works with us to create these wonderful spaces. The imagination plays, it becomes playful. We leave the sorted jaded adult world behind and move into this create space, that really ignites and excites us.
Then of course we hope to pass that on to people that look at the work that we create and then work with the client to have a co-creative experience with playful energy.
I’m Ted Carter and if you’d like to contact me, I can be reached at tedcarterdesign.com.
Dr. Lisa: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast understands the importance of the health of the body, mind and spirit. Here to talk about the health of the body is Travis Bullier of Premier Sports a division of Blackberry Medical.
Travis: How much more complicated than the human body can we get and on top of that health care and health insurance. At Blackberry Medical we strive to educate our customers. From the over 900 products we offer to the building of insurance we are here as a life line to your health. More important than the medical supplies, home medical equipment, daily living aids and sports health products that we offer; is our attention to your health questions and insurance enquiries. Let’s face it, who has the time to read up on all the information out there concerning your health and wellness.
Let us work with your doctors to find the right product for you and empower you to be the best and most educated you, you can be.
Visit us at blackberrymedical.com, like us on Facebook and see what products and advice we can offer you or someone you care about.
Dr. Lisa: I met you at the Maine Home and Design Show this last June. You were there as an architect but also as the founder of Neighbors First. It must be an interesting contrast for you to be working as an architect, designing homes for people who have; I would assume more money than the people that you’re designing homes for, down in Central and South America. What is that like?
Mark: I’ve often told people that my profession, I’m an architect by profession is really just a way to support my full-time habit, which is my faith and helping others. Not that I discount my profession, I love my profession and enjoy it very much, but it is a means to help others. I use the things I’ve learned over the years to help design very simple, but very effective structures. Also to assist our volunteers and how they can help, even though they’re not skilled constructions workers, they can all help. My years of experience with construction has helped with that.
We have two building contractors on our board as well, so they’re great organizers and teachers as well.
Dr. Lisa: Many people these days are moving away from the county, or have been moving away from the county. You moved back and you were able to live happily with your wife Debbie and also with your kids Gillian, Nathan and Alex. It seems to me and having spoken to people who live in the county, that there is a quality of life that’s different than perhaps other parts of the State.
Mark: That’s generally true. I think most people are from the county recognize that, it’s a little bit … and even people that visit Rooster County and stay for a decent amount of time will recognize that. That there’s a very good work ethic there and there’s a good community feeling that people feel like they belong. We’re a bit remote from many people’s standards, but you get used to that and yes we complain about it sometimes, that it takes forever to get any place.
Overall it is a very good place to live and it’s a great place to raise a family. It’s a good place to have roots, even a lot of the people that have moved away from Rooster County maintain their connection there and return and I think their roots are always pretty strong for the county folks.
Dr. Lisa: You have three children and two of them have been influenced to do work in their own lives. It has something to do with the work that you’ve exposed them to through Neighbors First.
Mark: Actually, all three of them have very compassionate hearts and that is something that my wife and I are very proud of. I think our kids are just doing great and my daughter Gillian is a teacher and not a just teacher. Of course she wants to teach the kids that are having difficulties, so she specialized in special needs education. Now she’s at home with three little kids, so that’s a big challenge on its own, but she just has a heart for kids that have a little bit of a hard time. That compassion I think, I hope has been something that’s rubbed off on her.
My two boys they are both going into prosthetics and orthotics. One is in residency and the other will be entering his Masters program next year. Both chose those professions because they wanted to help. They wanted to help people and they wanted to bring that skill to developing countries to assist in a Christian mission as well. They both have a great heart and they work with other organizations as well. We’re very proud that they’re that compassion and hoping that care rubbed off from the way we live.
People know me not as a person that has a lot to say; I’m a fairly quiet guy. I believe that actions speak louder than words and a lot more is caught than taught. Hopefully the example that we set for our children, will continue on to the next generation and also the example we’re trying to set as an organization, Neighbors First to motivate people to help others.
Dr. Lisa: If you’re a man of not many words, it must have been an interesting thing for you to consider coming on our radio show?
Mark: Indeed, I probably used up all of my words for the day and I’ll be very quiet for the rest of the day. It’s good that I’m driving home alone.
Dr. Lisa: Mark, what can people do to help out Neighbors First?
Mark: Neighbors First is 100% volunteer and 100% donation based. The monies that people donate to Neighbors First are used to buy building materials and people donate their time and their money to pay for their own tickets or their own expenses, to go with us on project trips. If people are interested in helping, obviously they can look on our website and see the type of projects we’ve been doing and understand more about how we work.
Of course donations make the work happen, if we had more donations we could do more work, so that’s the equation. We’re always looking for people to partner with us and even the smallest of donations like I’ve been talking about. Even very small donations go a long ways; we put that money right to work.
Dr. Lisa: What is your website?
Mark: It is neighborsfirst.org.
Dr. Lisa: Mark I’m really thrilled to have spent time with somebody who is as you said, living the life that you hope your children would live and providing an example to people. That we can help our neighbors, whether they’re neighbors here or whether they’re neighbors overseas.
I appreciate you driving the what is it; five, six hours.
Mark: Yeah, four and half. We’ll keep it to four and a half.
Dr. Lisa: Four and half hours down from Presque Isle to have a conversation with me about Neighbors First and I hope that people who are listening take their time to go to your website. Think about donating, possibly helping out in some way and really getting involved in a way that helps them; helps you with the compassionate work that you’ve been doing. Thanks for coming in.
We’ve been speaking with Mark Carter, founder and President of Neighbors First.
Mark: Thanks for having me.
Dr. Lisa: You have been listening to the Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast, show number 119; world wellness. Our guests have included Dr. Nathan Nickerson and Mark Carter.
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This is Dr. Lisa Belisle, I hope that you have enjoyed our world wellness show. Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your day. May you have a bountiful life.
Male: The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour and podcast is made possible with the support of the following generous sponsors; Maine Magazine, Marci Booth of Booth Maine, Apothecary by Design, Premier Sports Health a division of Blackberry Medical. Dr. John [Hersaw 00:58:53] the Orthopedics Specialists, Seabags, Mike Le Page and Beth Franklin of RE/MAX Heritage, Ted Carter Inspired Landscapes and Tom Shepard of Shepard Financial.
The Dr. Lisa Radio Hour is recorded in the studio of Maine Magazine, at 75 Market Street, Portland, Maine. Our Executive Producers are Kevin Thomas and Dr. Lisa Belisle. Audio production and original music by John C McCain. Our Assistant Producer is Leanne [Wemit 00:59:27]. Our Online Producer is Katie [Kellerher 00:59:28].
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