Sandra is shy. Whether a language barrier, fear or some unknown factor guides her actions, she initially remains at arm's length -- though never out of sight -- as 10 volunteers from a place worlds away erect her new home, replete with two windows, one stoop and four concrete walls unbending to nature's whims. For this single mother, the home means protection for her children, but it's also a source of pride. Sandra owns the house and the land, and the money she'll pay back for the building fills a pot distributed to others in need in her small Nicaraguan community.
In this Central American country, a non-destination sandwiched between Honduras and Costa Rica, many women live like Sandra used to, with countless family members crowded into cramped quarters made of unsound materials. Since 1992, the Ossining, N.Y., nonprofit Bridges to Community has constructed 6,000 homes there -- on land wholly or partially owned by women -- with help from some 8,000 volunteers, including those who put up Sandra's, a group of Ridgewood teachers and their family and friends.
Organizations at home and abroad find Bergen County residents spending time and giving money toward work aimed at bettering women's lives. Some travel to Guatemala to build schools. Others spend a day in a less well-off Bergen town finishing a residence for teen mothers and their babies. No matter the project, the end-goal remains supporting women, and in light of the International Women's Day centennial on March 8, we wanted to highlight three that exude this giving spirit.
A Home, Not Just a House
A typical Habitat for Humanity house holds a single family. But thanks to a collaboration funded by Bergen County's Division of Community Development, in conjunction with Zoe's Place, Inc., five homeless teen moms and their babies can rest a little easier.
The new place in Garfield, built by 239 individuals during more than 4,000 volunteer hours, offers each family its own room, on-site day care, the comfort of a live-in housemother and a job at Zoe's Cupcake Cafe in Teaneck. It's the only secular residence of its kind in Bergen, according to Jane Fiedler, co-director of Zoe's Place. "We're not just calling it a 'home,'" the mother of three says. "It's going to be a home."
Girls can stay as long as they need. A 19-year-old may seek shelter for a few months to finish school, or a 15-year-old may settle in for years. "It's not that you can't be a good mother when you're 15 or 19," Fiedler says, "but the obstacles are huge that you have to overcome. We're really trying to help them put things in place with a place to live and a place to work."
Fiedler's gratitude overflows for the Habitat crews who transformed this project from wish to reality. "We're gonna have our home -- finally," she gushes. "Their volunteers are building our dream." That means healthier, happier lives for those young women and their children. "For the girls," Fiedler says, "the better they're doing, the better parents they're going to be, too."
A Guatemalan Education
For many a mother, being a good parent means having the ability to send her children to school. In a place such as Guatemala, where the government pays for teachers but not classrooms, getting an education is often a privilege, not a foregone conclusion. Since 2005, the Sienna Project has aimed to alter that notion -- one schoolroom at a time -- in the name of a little girl who died young.
When Sienna passed away shortly after her third birthday, her grandfather Martin Lavanhar wanted to honor her memory. With the help of Sienna's uncle who lives in Guatemala, Lavanhar formed the Sienna Project, which sends volunteers to the Central American country to build schools. By the end of 2010, the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) had participated in the construction of 10 classrooms.
Initially, the volunteer majority consisted of members of Lavanhar's Ridgewood church. But as the nonprofit grew, so did its base. First, other Ridgewood residents joined, then neighbors from Allendale, Teaneck and other Bergen towns. Now trips typically include one or two county residents, with people from around the country filling out the remaining spots.
And although the Sienna Project doesn't limit its work to schools geared toward girls, Lavanhar says that any school his NGO builds offers education opportunities to both genders. To 22-year-old Sienna Project alum Deirdre Halloran, it makes sense to open school doors -- literally and metaphorically -- to as many Guatemalan children as possible. "We weren't saying necessarily that our way is really the right way," she says. But "now they're free to decide whether they want to attend and send their daughters."
Lavanhar says he's aiming to empower the country's women. "The women hold the families together; they're the ones who bring up the children. If we can bring up the children and get them educated, the country's going to get together." In Guatemala, a nation smaller than Tennessee, that can ultimately amount to serious change.
Strength in Nicaragua
In Nicaragua, Central America's poorest nation, dwellings built from mud, wood and scrap metal line dirt roads outside the capital city of Managua. Nicaragua's physical location puts it directly in the path of devastating natural disasters, and western notions of family responsibility don't often apply. That gives an organization such as Bridges to Community an opportunity to make a real difference, especially for Nicaraguan women and girls.
"Women typically receive less schooling than their male counterparts," says Bridges to Community director Kevin Mestrich. "The role of the women, while oftentimes they're the community leaders, they're not seen as people who go outside of the home to work. They're dependent on men, and when men leave, that often leaves the women in desperate conditions."
Bridges builds earthquake-resistant homes for those families, with their help and that of village members. Community leaders select those in the direst circumstances, and once the family receives a title deed for the land in the name of the man and the woman (or just the woman, if there's no man in the picture), building begins. The family can move in as soon as the house is ready but pays back a portion -- most contribute two-thirds of the cost over 10 years -- to the community fund, Mestrich says.
Wyckoff resident Bobbie Hart, a Bergen teacher for more than two decades, has taken two trips to Nicaragua, first in 2001, then most recently in 2009. "We take for granted the ability to be educated the way we are, to be able to work the way we can work, our freedoms, our independence," she says, adding that women in poorer countries aren't always as lucky.
On Hart's second trip, she met Sandra, a strong woman in every sense of the word. Though they didn't speak the same language, they bonded -- as Sandra eventually did with most of the volunteers -- over the building process. By week's end, the Nicaraguan mother of four was mixing cement and carrying cinder blocks. She was inches away, no longer keeping her distance. The day the volunteers turned over her new house, a small smile spread across Sandra's round face and stayed glued for the duration of the group's time in her country. She was home.
