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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2008 
Educator Rebuilding Lives in Poor Mexican Village
 Linda Olsen - The Calgary Herald
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| | Susan Smith is pictured with woven baskets and artwork from the Reweaving a Life Exhibition, a travelling art display on view at the Glenbow Museum until Sept. 28. (Ted Rhodes/Calgary Herald) | | |
There have been days when Susan Smith has thought about stepping back from the humanitarian work she's doing in the Mexican village of Tlamacazapa.
"A lot of times, I felt this is too hard, it's too lonely, there's not enough money, it's too stressful," admits the 54-year-old Calgarian.
But as founder and director of the non-profit Caminamos Juntos para Salud y Desarrollo - which translates as "Walking Together for Health and Development" - Smith always came back.
"I came back because I'm stubborn, and because on some level, I knew that it was going to be me who was going to help shift this."
What she is trying to shift is an entire way of life in the impoverished mountain village of Mexico's Guerrero state, which she first visited in 1992.
A nurse specializing in international development, Smith found widespread health problems and social ills, including rampant domestic violence and substance abuse, little or no clean drinking water and a lack of hope.
"The death of dreams is the worst of it all. People are struggling just to survive and many have no dreams - that hope disappeared a long time ago."
By 1997, Smith had finished her PhD in education and established Caminamos Juntos. Supported by volunteers, she began her humanitarian work in Tlamacazapa.
They soon discovered villagers were being slowly poisoned with lead and arsenic from several sources, including the local well.
"They're exposed constantly to toxins in the water, in the soil, in the dyes that are used to make the palm baskets colourful, in the cooking pots."
With support from donors and corporate sponsors, Smith has devoted herself to helping the people of Tlama set their own path to better health and well-being. She's overseen the construction of rainwater catchment systems, dry toilets for safer sanitation and the training and education of residents, who can now see hope is on the horizon.
"We're creating a zone of positive energy that's attracting young people and that is allowing the possibility of a different future. Nothing's going to change in any substantial way until people feel better about themselves, until people gain strength, inner strength - and that's what we focus on."
Smith is helping women in Tlama find that inner strength by taking some of them outside their familiar surroundings. They are invited to Canada as part of the Reweaving a Life Exhibition, a travelling art display at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary until Sept. 28. It features palm baskets handmade by the women of Tlamacazapa.
Smith says the women see how their work is valued and appreciated, and they take that message back to the women of their village.
"The reweaving of a life, the search for new dreams - to have a dream - is part of the exhibit."
It's rewarding for Smith to see that a shift is underway toward a better life in Tlama, and she looks forward to the day when she can step back from this difficult work. But for now, Smith says, this is where she needs to be.
"Life will unfold as it should - I'm in the right place."
Linda Olsen hosts and produces the Woman of Vision program. The stories air the first Monday of every month on Global Calgary's News Hour at Six. If you would like to nominate a Woman of Vision, please call 235-7714, or go to www.womanofvision.ca. |
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