The Tia Foundation believes strongly in sound data gathering practices.  We conduct a baseline data study, surveying 25% of the households in our villages prior to project implementation.  The comprehensive survey reports on health histories, hygiene habits, living conditions, diet, education, immigration, and many other factors.  After a project is complete, we do follow up studies at 3 months, 6 months and then annually thereafter.

We use this data to customize our curriculum and medical kits, to constantly improve our model and methodology, and hopefully soon to share this data with other organizations and governments to use to help alleviate poverty and improve health.  With the help of Eclaire, a technology NPO aimed at helping charitable organizations share data, Tia will have the ability to have a web-based portal for dissemination of our research data, while maintaining villagers’ privacy.

Continue reading “Great Research Data Worth Sharing”

The Economist ran an article on December 16, 2010 called “Field of Tears” which is well worth quoting here because it echos what we hear regularly in the field.  The piece opens with Teresa Vega and her family in the aftermath of flooding near her home.  Her son becomes ill with dysentery, but the nearest doctor was a few hours away and they had no money to pay him.  “They could do nothing, she says. They watched their son die.”

“Ms Vega now says this event is the reason for everything she and her husband have done since.”  Their home offered no jobs and she did not want to lose another child.  The family headed north for the United States and after being caught three times by la migra, they finally succeeded in crossing the border.

Back in 2006, Laura Libman accompanied a group of Thunderbird School of Global Management‘s graduate students to conduct a study on cross border immigration.  The qualitative responses from the villagers interviewed, echo also the words of John Steinbeck’s observance about the Joad family and the other Okies, “How can you frighten a man whose hunger is not only in his own cramped stomach but in the wretched bellies of his children? You can’t scare him—he has known a fear beyond every other.”

We are beginning to settle into our new office space which has been generously donated to us by C3 Construction.  The new space is very conveniently located at 3335 East Indian School Road, though we have a separate Post Office Box to receive our mail.  Laura and Alexandra are quite happy in our new place! We would really like to thank C3 for their donation!

C3 Construction is a Client Committed Company based in Arizona who has successfully completed projects in 15 states since opening its doors in 1994.  Over the years, their new and loyal repeat clientele have allowed them to grow to a company with annual revenues between $15-20 million.  They specialize in Medical/Life Care Centers, Financial Institutions, Office, Regional Operations/Call/Data Centers, Hospitality, Retail/Restaurant, and anything their clients may need.

Published in July of July, 2010, WHO’s Global Policy Recommendation states that, “Globally, approximately one half of the population lives in rural areas, but less than 38% of the nurses and less than 25% of the physicians work there. ”  This 79 page comprehensive study makes a convincing, evidence-based argument in favor of models like Tia’s.

“This imbalance is common to almost all countries and poses a major challenge to the nationwide provision of health services. Its impact, however, is most severe in low income countries. There are two reasons for this. One is that many of these countries already suffer from acute shortages of health workers – in all areas. The other is that the proportion of the population living in rural regions tends to be greater in poorer countries than in rich ones.”

This is not the only study where the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends training Community Health Workers that are lay people to make up the deficiency.  Tia’s Promotoras (Community Health Workers) serve  rural Mexico where health care is scarce and is the best and most cost effective way to bring these services to the poor in remote areas.  We thank the WHO for their ground breaking research validating our model!

Empowered women become the building blocks for higher standards of living for their families and their communities. Through education programs like Tia’s, investing in women can produce gains in GDP growth.  Multiple studies published in just the last year by the Clinton Global Initiative, the United Nations, Save the Children and the World Health Organization reinforce the cost effectiveness of projects that focus on women partly because they have the broadest reaching results.

Women-led approached to development improve health, economic and quality of life outcomes for everyone, especially children.  Though Tia does not influence our villages or impose any gender bias on who to choose as Health Workers, so far, they have all chosen women.

Tia empowers women to become instruments in solving long-term challenges in their villages. By enabling women to be their own instruments of change, they become the mechanisms of poverty eradication through community leadership and development.