|
Interview with Mayra Neal
|
| by Mari Parker, Mosaic March 2005 |
|
|
Xavier Coll, HR Vice President; Ines Cifuentes, President CASA of Maryland; Mayra Neal, WBFN Member; Gerry Rice, World Bank Communications Director, at a December 15, 2004 World Bank event supporting community programs. | | WBFN member, Mayra Neal, one of the co-founders of the World Bank Breast Cancer Support Group shares her volunteering experiences and stories…this time within her own community in Silver Spring. |  | | Mayra, many in the WBFN know that you are active in the Wandering Winners Investment Club and also a member of the Creative Writing Group. Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into your volunteering work? |  I feel like I have lived three lives, or been three women. It’s as if I was following the Hindu philosophy in which there are three stages to our lives: learning, accumulation and redistribution. In the last part, we return to our community the good that we have received. My first life began on my parents’ coffee farm in the mountains of Nicaragua, where I was born, and received my early education. My second life was in Canada, where I served as Trade Commissioner for Nicaragua in Ottawa, during the difficult days of the U.S. trade embargo. My job was to open markets for our products in Canada. I came to love Canada for its humaneness, its gentility and social values. I also found the love of my life, Christopher Neal. We married and had our children there. My third life is unfolding here. The Bank offered Christopher a position about six years ago. After adjusting to this new country, I reviewed my commitments, and tried to see whether they matched what I profess. It was a matter of blending these two lives, in Nicaragua and Canada, without renouncing either, into a third life, that of a woman who has found her voice. I realize I may be living the best part of my life now by discovering the real significance of life.
| | How did you first come to be involved in the World Bank Breast Cancer Support Group? | When I came to Washington, I had just gone through breast cancer myself, and had been active in a survivors’ group in Ottawa. I looked for a similar group here, but was surprised that the World Bank did not have a breast cancer support group! After searching, I met Lorraine Nagy, Occupational Health Analyst in the Health Services training in breast self-examination, which HSD has provided to staff, spouses and retirees. We are grateful to Dr. Bernard Demure, Director of HSD, who sends one or two of our members to the International Breast Cancer conference once a year. I was honored to be sent to last year’s conference in San Antonio . The Support Group is a space in which we can get together to raise awareness, no money involved, no insurance companies. We just share information in a safe place, and gain friendship and solidarity. This is a part of therapy that no doctor can give you, that only we can give to ourselves. We are a successful group of 55 listed members including staff members, spouses and overseas members.
| | Your next work brought you closer and closer to your calling. Tell us about this. | Next, I was curious to understand my community of Silver Spring, a neighborhood with a lot of multi-cultural richness. I started by volunteering at Montgomery Blair High School, because I wanted to understand my daughter’s world better, to understand the American education system and adolescents’ behavior. I became an assistant in the ESOL program. Soon I realized that as a privileged Latin American, I could not stay indifferent to the fact that so many young students and families, many from rural Central America, are marginalized and excluded in Silver Spring. I discovered that being different is an obstacle to their education rather than an asset. Cliques make it difficult for children of the third culture to find their social space. Many low-income Latino families don’t know their rights or responsibilities. As parents, they believe education is the role of school only. They work double shifts to make ends meet, while their children face various problems. I learned that Montgomery County Public Schools offer Study Circles, in which groups of 15 students create a dialogue between parents, teacher and students. I became a moderator of such a group. This work led to another: I was recruited to work with Impact Silver Spring, an NGO that offers leadership training to be effective agents for social changes on issues of common concern in the neighborhood. I completed the Community Empowerment Program and I am working on a project to promote affordable housing. Impact Silver Spring was founded to counterbalance the forces that are making life difficult for the low-income population in the area.
| | Now you are reaching out to the Maryland Latin American community. Tell us. | I learned about CASA of Maryland when our housekeeper, a young single mother who speaks no English, was diagnosed with breast cancer. She told me that without the help of CASA of Maryland she could not have made it. I was touched. They helped her with referrals, and different screening tests. CASA of Maryland also offers legal services for domestic and other vulnerable workers, temporary shelter for abused women, landlord and tenant problems, and so on. My husband agreed to nominate CASA of Maryland as one of the organizations to be listed in the Community Connections Campaign of the World Bank. It was accepted. CASA of Maryland was listed and their staff were invited to present their work at the Community Connections launch in the Atrium last December. It was my honor to introduce them to staff members and friends at the Bank.
| | What has kept you strong and how do you see your work developing in your future? | I want to conclude by saying that we do not need a salary, an office, or a title to make a difference or to make change happen. Most people with paying jobs do not have the opportunity that volunteers have. In an organization, we are more limited. Being a volunteer keeps you strong and helps you harmonize your convictions and actions. It helps you discover the real significance of life. My future? I would like to continue doing what I am doing, which is to help promote the inclusion of low-income Latin-American immigrants in this society. Because I come from Latin America, I believe I understand how Latinos feel here and how this world looks to them, and how much they could contribute if they were really included.
| | | CASA of Maryland was one of a number of NGOs to be listed in the Community Connections Campaign of the World Bank and was invited to present its work at the Community Connections launch in the Atrium last December. www.casademaryland.org |
|
|
|
.jpg)
