We Completed the Marathon!

After months of training, last minute travel complications, and confusion on the race course we successfully completed all 42 kilometers (26.2 miles) of the Red Sea/Aqaba Marathon! We have almost met our fundraising goal of $5,000 but we are still looking for last minute contributions. MRDS has agreed to continue collecting funds for MOT through January and we hope those who haven’t yet had time to contribute will be able to do so in the coming month.

Finishing the marathon was an emotional event for both of us, bringing full circle our time as Fulbrighters and our efforts to help our friends in Yemen. We won 2nd (Jess) and 3rd (Diana) place out of the few women who participated. But, better than any trophy was the satisfaction both of us felt at having completed an event which meant so much to us. While we celebrated mastering the physical challenges of the race, our real joy came from the knowledge that in completing the marathon we had guaranteed our ability to meaningfully contribute to the YFCA and the Deaf Association.

We cannot fully express our gratitude to those of you who have donated. Your contributions will soon be helping in the procurement of an autoclave for the Safe Motherhood Hospital in Sana’a, and educational materials for Deaf schools in Aden. Without your donations MOT would have remained a dream, and it is to you we owe endless thanks.

May the New Year bring peace and stability to our global community.

Diana and Jess
January 1, 2008

The Miles of Thanks Project

Education and access to reproductive/maternal health services are crucial development components that empower individuals and communities. In Yemen, disability and gender often adversely affect a person’s ability to gain an education or to seek necessary health services.

We, Diana Schaffner and Jess Tibbets, are two U.S. Student Fulbright recipients who were evacuated from Yemen in mid-April, 2008. Political tensions and subsequent mortar attacks led to our premature departure, interrupting our research projects and forcing us to leave a country we had come to love. Following our evacuation, Diana was reassigned to Oman and Jess to Jordan, but together we created “Miles of Thanks: A Marathon to Benefit Deaf Education and Safe Motherhood Projects in Yemen” (MOT) as a way to give back to the organizations we worked with in Yemen.

We will run the Aqaba/Red Sea Marathon in Aqaba, Jordan on December 5, 2008 as a fundraiser on behalf of two special Yemeni organizations—the Yemen Family Care Association (YFCA) and the Aden Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of the Deaf and Mute (the Deaf Association).

The YFCA and the Deaf Association were chosen for this project because they specialize in our respective research fields and because we have worked with these organizations personally and know that they diligently serve their local communities. Funds raised through this project will be divided between the YFCA and the Deaf Association, with a small percentage going to support our partner MRDS and its Yemen projects.

Our partner, Millennium Relief and Development Services (MRDS), a Houston-based 501(c)(3) working in Yemen, will collect and transfer all funds raised by MOT to our designated organizations in Yemen. Money can be donated HERE at the MRDS donations website, or via checks sent to the MRDS headquarters in Houston. In both instances make sure to designate “Yemen-MOT” as the intended beneficiary. Donations made to MRDS are tax deductible for American citizens. A percentage of the funds raised by MOT will go to support MRDS projects in Yemen, including the only clinic serving the street sweeper (Akhdam) community in Sana’a.

Running this marathon holds particular importance for us as female athletes and as supporters of women’s participation in athletics. In February we cheered Yemeni Fatima Suleiman when she won a gold medal at the 2008 Asia Championships and this summer we watched Waseelah Saad head to Beijing as a part of Yemen’s Olympic team. We are excited by the growing number of Yemeni women and girls participating in sports programs and we hope that this trend continues to gain support.

Major Goals of MOT:

1. To raise at least $5,000 (split equally) in order to assist YFCA in the procurement of vital medical equipment, and to help the Deaf Association purchase visual aids/educational materials for Deaf classrooms.
2. To share our experiences in Yemen with non-Yemenis, especially our fellow Americans. Too often, the image of Yemen held by those who have never visited the country is wholly negative. We hope that our stories, and those of the organizations we seek to assist, can provide a more balanced view of the country.

Our Organizations

The Yemen Family Care Association (YFCA)

The YFCA was founded in 1976, and is currently the largest reproductive health NGO in Yemen. YFCA works to provide information, education, and a range of services related to maternal and reproductive health in all regions of the country, including under-served rural areas. The Association has seven fixed reproductive health centers (Sana’a, Aden, Taiz, Hodeidah, Hadramout, Ibb, Hajjah), a number of mobile reproductive health clinics, and the Specialized Safe Motherhood Hospital and Youth Development Centre in Sana’a. Services offered at YFCA clinics include pre- and post-natal care, immunizations, family planning information/services, and Safe Motherhood services. In addition to providing health services, the YFCA seeks to enhance the recognition of the health rights of women and children in Yemen by promoting policies and legislation which protect and support these rights. In Yemen, many women face social, economic, and cultural obstacles which prevent them from gaining access to reproductive health-related information and services. (NYTimes article child marriage) A major goal of YFCA policy is to combat such obstacles, to promote gender equality, and to work with local communities to support the reproductive needs and rights of women while respecting local customs and beliefs.

The Deaf Association

The Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of the Deaf and Mute in Aden was established with the help of an Australian woman in 1975. The Association is nominally government supported, though in reality little money is received by The Deaf Association and the affiliation serves to deter international organizations from donating to the group. Even with a persistent lack of funds, The Deaf Association has established classrooms for Deaf children in every neighborhood in Aden, as well as a preschool in Monsoorah. These classrooms provide Deaf children a unique opportunity to gain an education and to socialize with their Deaf peers in a friendly environment. In addition to its schools, The Deaf Association runs technical training centers which teach members of the Deaf Community skills such as carpentry or sewing, to enable members to become financially independent.

While The Deaf Association has managed to establish a number of schools in Aden, many of these facilities lack basic classroom necessities. Visual aids, which are essential for Deaf Education, are absent in most of the classrooms. MOT hopes to raise enough money to help the Deaf Association purchase visual aids and other educational equipment for their Aden schools.

Jess and Diana

Jessica Tibbets is now living in Amman, Jordan and will complete her Fulbright grant in January, 2008. A graduate of The City College of New York (’07) , Jess is looking forward to the upcoming challenge of grad school beginning in the fall of 2009. Jess’ research focuses on Deaf communities and she has already produced a short documentary film from her research in Yemen. Currently, Jess is loving Amman, missing Yemen, and relishing the challenge of training for a marathon in the Middle East.

Diana Schaffner is currently serving the remainder of her Fulbright grant in Muscat, Oman. A graduate of Vassar College (’07) she is hoping (inshallah) to attend law school beginning in the fall of 2009. Her research interests over the past year have included customary law and national maternal health policy, the Omani birth spacing initiative, and community-based reproductive health programs.