Gota de Leche: A Drop of Milk is Life

By Marivir R. Montebon

It took my grandmother's generation 30 years to see a suffrage law passed, but after the first election of women, the Japanese came.  We had to pick up the pieces and begin again.  Taking the lesson from triathletes, you go the whole length, and then again, until you are done. - Anna Leah Sarabia

Since 1906,  a drop of milk has made a difference in the lives of women and children in the Philippines, albeit silently.  Gota de Leche Manila was a project of the Asociacion Feminista Filipina, and became the banner program when the La Proteccion de la Infancia was incorporated in 1907.  Gota de leche was the name everyone remembers, and has seen the unfolding of one crisis after another in the Philippines, taking an active part in the survival and triumph of Filipino women and children through the ages.

[caption id="attachment_2973" align="alignleft" width="292"] Gota de Leche Foundation in Manila[/caption]

Here we look back to the leadership of Natividad Almeda Lopez, who joined La Proteccion at age 15, and served as its president even as she was the first Filipino woman judge and justice.

The women leaders of Gota de Leche have actively participated in the suffrage movement in the Philippines, aside from responding to concerns of life and death in the midst of war, starvation, and disease.

In these trying times of the Philippines, Gota de Leche has continued to take up the responsibility to help mothers and children in the Yolanda devastated areas in Central Philippines.

[caption id="attachment_2981" align="alignright" width="110"] Sarabia[/caption]

Anna Leah Sarabia, following the footsteps of her mother Lourdes Almeda Lopez and grandmother Justice Natividad Lopez, takes such responsibility personally and squeezed her time for this OSM! interview. Excerpts:

1. Which areas are you sending relief to?

We have sent to places that were not being prioritized by the big agencies in the first days:  Northern Iloilo and Capiz (Panay), Biliran and Coron.  The Canadians recently arrived in Panay, and the people of Palawan have rallied for Coron and nearby parts.  Biliran has very few volunteers still.  But we continue sending to Panay and Biliran as we gather materials and donations.

[caption id="attachment_2974" align="alignleft" width="300"] A woman flees from the rubble of the earthquake in Bohol. (Inquirer photo)[/caption]

 

2. What is the core program of the institution? Why?

After the Philippines lost the Philippine-American War at the turn of the 20th century, one of the biggest problems was famine in many parts of the country.  Carabaos and cows were decimated by war and disease, and people were not able to plant -- making healthy brown rice scarce.  Americans then imported polished white rice, and made the population vulnerable to beri-beri then raging.  Mothers stricken with the disease who gave birth and nursed their babies passed it on -- until the infant mortality rate reached 80%.

The feministas were the only organized group at that time, and some doctors appealed to them to save the population -- and the women quickly organized gota de leche, including the first dairy in the country, and the first milk collection, distribution and feeding program.

The core program has not changed since 1906: providing nutrition support to malnourished children (with milk and supplements), and food support to breastfeeding mothers.  Malnutrion among children remains a problem to this day, 100+ years later.

[caption id="attachment_2986" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Gota children in 1957[/caption]

3.  On a personal note, what inspires you to do this kind of work?

In the beginning, I could not understand the dedication of my grandmother, Natividad Almeda Lopez, who joined La Proteccion at age 15, and served as president even as she was the first woman judge and justice in our country, and of my mother for the institution. She worked for the restoration of the Gota building which later earned a UNESCO heritage award.

[caption id="attachment_2985" align="alignleft" width="202"] Justice Natividad Almeda Lopez with the children of Gota. 1945. (Photos courtesy of Anna Leah Sarabia)[/caption]

It was only in the mid-1990s, when I began seeing references connecting Gota de Leche to the suffrage movement and to women's early campaign for education and empowerment that I understood what it meant to them, and to other early women advocates.

Besides attending to indigent malnourished children and to poor breastfeeding moms, we have established links with the schools around Ubelt to strengthen a sense of community service in the students.  The problem of safe spaces for women in evacuation sites of typhoon Yolanda has given us the opportunity to open our simple facilities and services to them.   I hope that the government will make use of this offer of ours to typhoon victims.

4. Our country is undergoing tremendous, untold challenges this very moment. This moment now will define us and determine our future. environmentally, economically, politically, holistically. What is your call/ought to be done that we will emerge victorious as a people, as women?

I wonder if it is facetious (or even futile) of me now to imagine that things might have been different and better if the culture of untrammeled capitalism and machismo had not dominated our society in the last 60 years.  It is a mentality that has promoted material greed,  plunder of earth's resources and of women's bodies.

This has proven to be not only unsustainable.  It is also socially unjust, and must be changed.  But how does one change such a system? Important  laws that protect women and girls take years, even decades, to pass and then to be implemented.  The men who promise reform and revolution end up reinstating male dominance.  The media in our country is owned either by big business, the church or government, and the people in power take so long to recognize the need for change.

But we have to find ways, we have to influence and enlighten people using creative means. Maybe mother nature is not as patient.  Who knows what really created the force which devastated so much in our country?  Who knows what changes it will bring?  The important thing is that we should never give up.

[caption id="attachment_2983" align="alignleft" width="111"] We have to influence people using creative means.[/caption]

It took my grandmother's generation 30 years to see a suffrage law passed, but after the first election of women, the Japanese came.  We had to pick up the pieces and begin again.  Taking the lesson from triathletes, you go the whole length, and then again, until you are done.  It's the lesson for advocates of the Reproductive Health Law, and for gender and social justice activists.

WWII Veteran Honored in Biggest Gala in the US

By Marivir R. Montebon
New York City

In 2011, WWII veteran Felino Punsalan was accorded a Lifetime Achievement Award during the 6th Annual People’s Ball of the Washington, DC-based Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC) for his effort to have the USAFFE veterans under Gen. Douglas McArthur recognized and rewarded by the US government.
In May this year, he passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 95 in San Francisco, California, still very much involved in the campaign for justice for the veterans. Punsalan’s struggle would not be in vain, for the inspiration he left behind will energize those who shall continue with the quest.
The MHC will give Punsalan's family his Posthumous Award during the 8th Annual People's Ball, the biggest gala of Philippine immigrants and advocates in the US at the national capital's Marriott Wardman Hotel on June 22, 2013.
Punsalan and all the other remaining Philippine soldiers have ceaselessly called on Pres. Obama to grant full benefits to Filipino veterans who until now have been denied the corresponding benefits as war heroes. All the other WWII veterans of the 65 allied countries were given full benefits by the US government, except the Filipino soldiers.
Punsalan called this institutionalized racial discrimination. He served the World War II but because his name was not in the Missouri List, he was unable to get any benefit from the US government as one of its freedom fighters. He died fighting for his right. His group, the Justice for Filipino Veterans, continue their campaign for equity.
"We fought and won the war that made America the greatest country on earth. We have to be duly recognized, as the other allied soldiers were," Punsalan used to say.
Born on June 1,1918 in Concepcion, province of Tarlac, Punsalan had been orphaned early. His father, Anselmo Punsalan, died when he was two months old and his mother, Bibiana Coronel, died when he was nine. A sister provided for his grade school education; an elder brother for his high school education.
Punsalan married Edith Refundo Ardena, an elementary school teacher, with whom he has six children: Imelda, Edgar (deceased), Renato, Susan, Brenda, and Alan.
He worked as stenographer at a private office in Manila in 1940-1941 and joined the army during WWII and was a member of the United States Forces Far East (USAFFE). He retired with a rank of Master Sergeant in 1966. He joined the Bureau of Customs- Piers and Baggage Inspection Division 1966- 1983 and received an award “Best Employee” in 1976.
He migrated to the US in November, 1983 and eventually took the advocacy campaign for equity benefits for the Filipino veterans.
He may have been a good lawyer, but he dropped out on the third year at the College of Law of the Far Eastern University for economic and health reasons. He gives high regard to education and once said, “…after reading my story you may have noticed that in my family, I am the only one without a college degree. It is really difficult to be an orphan at an early age. It is very good for children to have parents who could guide them to the pathways towards good college education.”
The JFAV have lobbied for equal protection for two groups, one group belongs to the Filipino veterans and the other group is composed of widows and children of the veterans who passed away.
Recently, the veterans found an ally in the office of Democratic US Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid-NV who promised to work closely with equity champion Senator Brian Schatz-HI and other leaders to bring about the passage of S690, “The Filipino Veterans Fairness Act of 2013,” on the floor.
This came as a result of the week long lobbying by volunteers of the JFAV at the Capitol. The office of Senator Durbin recommended either to right away co-sponsor or vote for the bill when it’s on the floor.
Schatz was given the right to stand up and state support for the bill he introduced. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski- AK together with Senators Mazie Hirono- HI and Mark Begich- AK co-sponsored his bill.
In the House, Rep. Jackie Speier- CA introduced a companion bill with 33 co-sponsors including Republican Joe Heck- NV. Schatz called on his colleagues in Congress to join him in moving swiftly to pass this legislation, "so that we can finally fulfill the promise of equal rights for thousands of veterans across the country, and fully honor the men and women who served our country so bravely in a time of war."
JVAC coordinator Arturo Garcia welcomed the bill of Sen. Schatz. “The Fairness Act by Senator Schatz provides
unconditional recognition and full compensation while the Promise Act by Senator Heller simply affirms the lump sum payment for pain and suffering, and minimizes benefits,” said Garcia.
JFAV is obviously supporting the Fairness Act.
Aside from lobbying at the Capitol, JFAV has filed a certiorari on their case before the Supreme Court, after the Court of Appeals in California affirmed the decision of the district court to dismiss their benefit claims in February this year.
As the soldiers continue to lobby for their campaign, Garcia said they will sorely miss the veteran Punsalan, who, at 95, still had the zest to belt out songs with his beautiful voice and the stamina to dance gracefully. (Photos by JFAV)

Did You Know that the First Computer was a Woman?

By Marivir R. Montebon

The first computers were not machines, they were women. And they were important as the soldiers who won World War II for America to become the world's dominant world power. However, recognizing their contributions had a long time coming.

[caption id="attachment_2082" align="alignleft" width="200"] Leanne Erickson[/caption]

It took 67 years for women mathematicians to be recognized through a historical documentary presented by Leann Erickson, a professor of Film and Media Arts at the Temple University in Philadelphia. Having been a film maker for more than 20 years, she is a recipient of regional and national production grants for her work from such funding sources as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation and the Leeway Foundation.

Titled Top Secret Rosies: The Female Computers of WWII, Erickson's documentary centered on these young female “computers” who took a short and intense course on ballistics calculations before they began work in 1942. So precise, they could calculate whether the soldiers were standing or laying on the trenches.

Way back in the 1940s, a computer was not a machine, but a job position held by someone who was excellent in math and science could readily fill in. At that time, young women did the work.

Erickson featured twins Shirley and Doris Blumberg, Marlyn Wescoff Weltzer, and Jean Jennings Bartik, who were then high school students who excelled in mathematics, for her documentary which was finished in 2010. They were among the recruits of the government’s frantic effort to hire mathematicians for the war.

In the documentary, Bartik said all the ballistics programmers at that time were women who worked with the ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer), created by Penn scientists John Mauchly and J. Presper Eckert Jr. She said that they demonstrated to the military brass how the computer worked, with the programmers setting the process into motion and showing how it produced as answer, debugging every vacuum tube.

Bartik, who passed on in 2011, said computers were useless without programmers in the documentary. However none of them was invited to the recognition dinner. They were also just thought of as models who showed off the machine. In their many years of work, all the programmers had were a shared certificate of commendation from the military.

It was only in Bartik's twilight years that she was awarded merits of recognition for her work as a human computer. She was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 1999 and became a Fellow Award honoree at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California in 2008, three years before she died.

Erickson said, "We just don't pay attention to what women do. Despite the fact that women helped the war effort, we don't know."

Erickson has launched a tour of her historical documentary and is pleased by the overwhelming response of the schools and universities in the country.

Women’s groups and leaders in the US have continuously sustained their work at educating the younger generation and innovating ways to empower women through Math and Science. These relentlesss efforts always make the faceless, voiceless contribution of WWII computer Rosie Jean Bartik recognized. (Photos by Leann Erikson)

[caption id="attachment_2081" align="aligncenter" width="250"] Jean Bartik[/caption]

FAITH CAN MOVE MOUNTAINS

By Marivir R. Montebon

Genara Rubi (1919-2011) is a bastion of faith. She passed on last year at age 92, after a long haul of nine silent years due to a massive stroke that rendered half of her body dead and silenced her speech.

But she lived that long. My mother, her eldest child Jocelyn, took care of Lola Nara since she became bedridden. Together, they hurdled the most basic of life's challenges...stubbornly clinging on to it despite a lingering disability.

In the rare times that I visited Lola in Stockton, massaging her, singing to her, feeding her, wheeling her to the park...I asked myself if ever she really would have wanted to just cross to the other line. For somebody who was feisty, noisy, a big time laugher (my word), hardworking, she may not want to live in silence and immobility for too long.

But I can only surmise that, because what is clear is her willingness and faith to live day by day, by the care of my mom and youngest brother, which lasted for nine difficult years. I would also take credit the amazing health technology and medical care accorded to her, without these my grandmother could have easily slipped away.

Genara Rubi's life has always been that of hard work and faith. These made her as solid as a rock.

My aunt Linda, her second child, tells the story of how Lola and my dear grandpa Domiciano Rubi Sr. went through the most difficult time of their lives, the outbreak of World War II. I didn't remember having known this at all...that Lola gave birth to Tita Linda when the Japanese invaded the island of Siquijor.

What could have been worse than being caught in an invasive war with your lives on the line and giving birth to a new life at the same time.

Faith must have pulled my grandparents through, larger than their fear and pain and exhaustion. My aunt was born during the war, and as my cousin Aldous Arbon (my aunt's ghost writer) has put it..."against the pangs of war, there was a birth pang; the first brought death, the second brought life."

Circumstances like these mold characters of people to be strong and unwavering. How lucky they were to have withered that through their faith, because there was nothing else could disturb them.

At one time, I saw Lola Nara easily relaxed my mother while we were aboard a rickety small boat in the dead of the stormy night on the way to Cebu. My mom woke up my grandma and frightfully said, Ma, it is so stormy and getting too rough. Lola just told her, just lay down there and pray. Mom obliged as the defunct Dona Magna was tossed by giant waves throughout the night. As a child, I innocently thought the big waves were all right, it made me sleep faster.

I saw my grandmother's faith when she went through the painful process of letting go of my grandfather to lung cancer. She took care of him in those difficult moments, stretching money for his medicines and keeping him clean and comfortable in bed.

Grandma did not think so much there was going to be a miracle of life for my grandfather. At the time, she thought it was best to gracefully humble down in pain, and say God's will be done.

Genara Rubi's life is my anchor. She was a happy farmer and fantastic dress maker, and she glorified such humble life with faith.

Up to this moment, I can remember her laughter, her singing, her scoldings. I see her work efficiently as a housekeeper and dressmaker. Oh how she effectively delegated house chores to my aunts and uncles, making them responsible people in their later years.

Genara Rubi, you rock.

For details and orders, visit healthychocolatenyc.com