GMO Infographic - Guest Post from Sandra Mills

GMO's - Are They Good or Bad?

     The genetic modification of foods began in the 1990's. Since then, many Americans have been concerned about what is going into the ordinary foods we eat every day. When we think about genetically modified food we envision a science lab where a mouse has a human ear growing on its back, or the old movies of Jekyll and Hyde. It's more than a little daunting to think that the “healthy” carrot we are munching on could actually be implanted with the DNA of corn -- or

worse, something ultimately harmful to the human body. Almost 85% of the foods we eat are genetically modified in some way, so this issue is not going way anytime soon. The debate rages, and since genetic modification hasn't been around long enough, it is hard to say what the long-term effects will be.

     Genetically modified foods are purported to be stronger, since they are developed to be pesticide tolerant. Industrial scientists tell us that genetic modification is not only desirable, but it's necessary, to keep up with the high food production necessary for American consumers. But is it? Is there a link between the amount of genetic modification of foods and the great number of Americans who have food allergies? Could genetic modification be causing cancer and other diseases? Check out this infographic from Carrington College and decide for yourself.

Written by Sandra Mills

Pomegranate Harvesting

Pomegranates have a priceless quality about them. Shiny, jewel-like seeds stud the inside of the fruit, lending it a deep, ruby-red color. In fact, once you’ve gone through the effort of removing the tiny arils, you’re left with a feeling of accomplishment, as if you’ve got a real treasure in your hands. This is not new – pomegranates play prominently into the cultural heritage of many societies. Greek mythology, for example, explains the seasons through the story of Persephone, who eats six pomegranate seeds in Hades and is thus doomed to spend six months of the year in the Underworld. Her mother Demeter grieves over her daughter’s absence during these months, leaving the earth barren.

Aside from their delicious tartness, the fact that they’re prohibitively expensive in the grocery store, and the reality that I’m often too lazy to go to the trouble of picking out the arils, the above was pretty much all I knew about pomegranates before this fall. I certainly didn’t know how abundant they are in Tucson, or that so many fruit never make it to people’s plates. I also didn’t know how prized pomegranates (pronounced something like “ruman” in Arabic) are in the Middle East. I learned this from an Iraqi gentleman and an Egyptian woman, who joined me for my very first harvest with Iskashitaa at Tucson Botanical Gardens.

Although I don’t know Arabic, and I often spoke much too quickly in English, I learned a lot from Alaa through the course of the morning. He showed me that you can tell if a pomegranate is ripe by pressing into the side of the fruit with your thumb and listening for a crunching sound – that means there’s plenty of water and the seeds will be juicy. He also explained that the lighter-colored, more tart pomegranate seeds are excellent in baba ganoush, a concept Barbara and I were excited to test out at our bimonthly Food for Thought dinner with refugees at Sinbad’s (yum!).

Most importantly, though, I was introduced to the abundance that we have in Tucson, and the amount of food that never makes it to people who are in need of nutritious fruit at the right price. I saw the absurdity of shipping pomegranates from miles away when they grow so well in our own backyards. As we continue in pomegranate season through the fall, please keep Iskashitaa in mind for your own shrubs or trees, and keep an eye out for friends and neighbors who might not be able to use all of their fruit. And of course, remember that we are always looking for new harvesters. Come join us and help spread the good word!

Heather Gerrish

Harvesting Coordinator

harvesting@iskashitaa.org

Reuniting Family of TWELVE

This was no easy feat for Isakshitaa but with the gracious help of many generous institutions and individuals, including St. Francis in the Foothills, UMC, St. Marks UMC, First UMC and Southside Presbyterian, the Musombe family has arrived to a completely renovated house and property, enrolled in school, and family-member Oswald has found a job, to name just a few feats. These efforts exemplify the very definition of the Somali word Iskashitaa, “working cooperatively together”.

But we want you to hear directly from the family’s most dedicated Iskashitaa volunteer, Charmaine Lewis. Many hands, ranging from volunteers, donors, organizers, truck owners, drivers and mentors helped Iskashitaa staff and refugees in this endeavor. To all of them we to say Asanti sana sana sana – thank you very very much, in Kiswahili.

There is an old saying in my native Jamaica, “One cocoa full basket!” It speaks to the power of collective action and effort to yield a greater result than would the effort of one person alone.

In late July I received an email invitation to join the “Dream Team” to help the Mushombe family from Congo resettle in Tucson. Initially, they had been placed in Portland, Oregon after being granted refugee status in the United States. I was really struck by the needs of this family of 10 children and two loving parents faced with rebuilding a life in yet another place after nearly 5 years of displacement from their homeland.
It would have been easy to just write a check and walk away, feeling that I had contributed something of great value, but sometimes money is not enough. Sometimes giving demands concrete personal involvement and even a measure of personal sacrifice. It’s a kind of giving that requires going beyond one’s comfort zone to invest personally in the lives of strangers. It’s a kind of giving that may just yield greater impact and value in the longer term.

I asked myself, what would I need were I to be dropped into an alien place without any possessions or language skills or the cultural currency needed to survive and thrive? So instead of just writing that check and walking away I chose to take what for me is more meaningful and impactful action.

In addition to calling on all my local friends and contacts to donate clothes and household items to the family, I chose to make myself available to the family as a concierge or ambassador. As a busy mom of two very young children, that has required some planning and coordination.

It’s meant driving rather long distances to their home and struggling to communicate with them in my terribly broken French. It’s meant popping by to be present with Mrs. Mushombe in her home to play with her kids while she tidies up her kitchen. It’s meant driving Mr. Mushombe to the hardware store to buy a replacement window or to the DMV to help him navigate that wonderland of bureaucracy! It’s meant talking to their children about my children and my life so they can get a picture of the possibilities and potential that may await them in their new life in America.

So far I don’t feel I have done terribly much and I wish I could do more, if only I had more time and brilliant ideas. However, if everyone reading this can put “one cocoa in the basket” then our small efforts combined could certainly make a greater impact on the long term success of this family than could mine alone. Sometimes we don’t take action because we feel we can’t make a big splashy showing or because we can’t see the immediate impact of our actions.

This family has been on an uphill climb for many years and will continue this way for many more years by dint of being refugees in a new place, during difficult economic times. Without significant financial resources and long-term support there is a great risk that they will fall through the cracks of our society and be doomed to a life of poverty. However, it is my belief and experience that poverty of knowledge and lack of access to the intangible cultural and social language is one of the greatest barriers to escaping poverty. So if you can’t give money, you can give of your knowledge and experience of making a life in the US. Things you take for granted and do automatically are things they will have to learn, sometimes through painful experiences. If you can give nothing else, you can give of time and experience and knowledge.

By making direct, sustained personal connection with this family, we can create a humane social safety net for the Mushombes. Another way of thinking about it is to imagine our actions creating a launch pad for this family to transition out of this state of their lives into one in which they can become productive and contributing citizens of Tucson and the United States.


Charmaine Lewis
Iskashitaa Volunteer

Health in all Dimensions

Caring for Health Beyond the Physical: Mental Health of Refugees

The second week of July, the Arizona Daily Star ran a story highlighting a recent study looking at the mental health of Bhutanese refugees from a variety of states across the country. Researchers administered a standard mental health test to all Bhutanese refugees in its sample, which spanned the states of Arizona, Georgia, New York, and Texas, and found signs of depression and other mental illnesses to be prevalent within the population. It concluded that there could be a “high burden” of undiagnosed mental illness among the Bhutanese refugees resettled in the United States[1]. This study serves to analyze a noted trend of suicide within the U.S. Bhutanese refugee population. U.S. Department of Health and Human services reported 16 suicides among approximately 57,000 Bhutanese refugees who settled in the United States since 2008, according to the Arizona Daily Star article.

The mental health of refugees has been a rising concern and focus of studies in recent years. One study published in the Journal of Immigrant Minority Health in 2012 examined food security of Cambodian refugees, who were two decades resettled in Lowell, Massachusetts, as it related to depression and acculturation. Their findings demonstrated that those of food insecure households were more likely to be depressed, to be low-income, and to be less acculturated than those of higher food security[2]. From this, they concluded that high depression and stress within the population could be contributing to low food security and that low income could be contributing to both depression and low food security. The relationship found between depression and food security was not clear with which might be influencing which, so there is also the possibility of low food security leading to the depression and stress seen within the population.

While these two studies are community specific and do not necessarily depict a perfect, complete picture of the present refugee communities in Tucson, they do hold many truths about the refugee experience in general. For this reason, they can be drawn upon to highlight some needs within the refugee community. The Arizona Daily Star article echoed the voice of the study it quoted and called for prioritizing mental health among the services provided to refugees. They even suggested that social-support and mental-health components be added in along side the job and language training.

The services provided to refugees upon arrival generally focus on their physical health and their new cultural surroundings. There is not an extensive focus on the mental health of the refugees. As members of a community that works with and alongside refugees, we have a role in addressing this need. This role could vary from donating time for social support to recognizing certain warning signs of mental illness and depression. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is one community organization that targets this issue through their Center for Well Being here in Pima County. Their services include behavioral health, support for survivors of torture, and refugee well-being programs. Case management, counseling, and group therapy are available to address physical and mental hardships encountered as a refugee resettling to a new country, and both western and non-western traditions are used in the treatment of physical and psychological illnesses. Furthermore, they accept and follow-up on referrals from volunteers and agencies that work with refugees.

Additionally, due to the circumstances of refugees’ resettlement and process of resettlement as a whole, refugees remain vulnerable to both economic hardships and poor health outcomes long after resettlement in the United States. For this reason, the food security study called for more funding and promotion of programs that “target reach” refugees beyond the resettlement process, as many refugees continue facing economic and mental-health hardships that can contribute to food insecurity as well as other chronic diseases.

Iskashitaa Refugee Network’s programs extends beyond the beginning of resettlement and target hunger and food security as one primary goal. Buying food from a grocery store is a normative task for many Americans, but for refugees struggling to learn the language and cultural customs of the United States, it can be a challenge. It can also cause a great economic burden when it is considered on top of expenses like rent and utilities. By redistributing community grown food to refugees, Iskashitaa helps to alleviate the financial burdens they might be encountering and to provide fresh fruit and vegetables that are often the most difficult to come by due to their cost and absence in the food banks and pantries, which might act as a primary source of food for the refugees in need. As a member of the community, you can spread the word about programs, like Ishashitaa, where refugees can get donation to fill their needs. An extensive list of local food banks and pantries can be found on the Iskashitaa website. The largest barrier to the utilization of these resources is the knowledge of their existence. If refugees are not aware that such these resource or program exists, then there is no way they can use them. Raising awareness of and supporting such programs can help to alleviate some of the financial and emotional stresses of the resettlement experience.

The experiences of the refugees are often far beyond what many others might ever endure in their life. Refugees are a resilient demographic whose strength and endurance shows in all aspects of their lives. Nonetheless, there can be lasting mental effects as a result of such hardships. Mental health is an incredibly personal affair, but, nonetheless, the resources must first be made available and known. Early diagnoses and culturally appropriate resources available for the full span of their lives could make a huge difference in the lives of refugees across the United States and the world.

Miranda Jennings, Nutritional Studies Intern

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[1] “Suicide of refugees from Bhutan studied,” Arizona Daily Star, July 8, 2013
An electronic, follow-up article was published July 13^th on the Arizona Daily Star website

[2] Jerusha Nelson Peterman et al.,  “Food Insecurity Among Cambodian Refugee Women Two Decades Post Resettlement,” J Immigrant Minority Health 15, (2013): 372-380