An Introduction to The Vagina Monologues (by Meg Styles)

When the suggestion of a benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues first came up I have to say that I was instantly drawn in. At the time I was with a large gathering of TGF volunteers and two of our board members, Marie-Louise and Laura, were sharing their own V-Day success stories to the group. By the end of the evening, the excitement had spread and we conspiring towards our own V-Day success story.

There are two things I love most about TGF; seeing our work change the lives of young women through nursing scholarships and seeing our Gretta family grow.

Not only will this benefit production increase our mission on the ground but it has been, and continues to be, a privilege to work with the most incredible crew of committed, passionate and creative volunteers making this all happen. In these last couple months, I have been truly blessed to witness the multitudes of wonderful people putting in their energies and artistry and enthusiasm into a project we collectively believe in.

March 19^th, the opening performance of V-Day Lafayette's The Vagina Monologues, will mark the celebration of what would be Gretta's 80^th birthday. Her birthday has also been designated National Certified Nurses Day. I know that she will be with us all. Gretta was a visionary leader. Our mission was the progeny of her admonition, "Imagine a world without nurses." As I have seen with my own eyes, there are many places where imagining this seemingly inconceivable world takes no imagination at all.

Well TGF, V-Day Lafayette and all its volunteers, imagine a different world, a world where we combat violence against women through education and through the provision of tools to enter into the one truly indispensable profession, nursing. We imagine a world where legions of Gretta Scholars impact their communities exponentially and give the battle against child and maternal mortality and diseases like HIV a real fight.

And I can't forget to thank Eve Ensler and The Vagina Monologues for this extraordinary opportunity. I am privileged to be a part of this production, a production which over the years has done so much to support efforts that empower women around the world and break down stigma, embarrassment and shame.

Most importantly it is with great pride and humility that I extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the production and the support of these performances. You know who you are.

It's amazing to me to think that a word like "Vagina" can make such a huge difference in so many lives. Who could have imagined?

V-Day Lafayette Presents "The Vagina Monologues"

Please join us as we raise funds and awareness for The Gretta Foundation through a benefit production of Eve Ensler’s award-winning play, “The Vagina Monologues.”

http://www.grettafoundation.org/vday.htm

SF Bay Area Vagina Monologues Auditions - Set for January 30 - Event Proceeds to Benefit the Gretta Foundation

V-Day Lafayette is putting on a benefit production of "The Vagina Monologues" as part of the V-Day Community Campaign, a global movement to end violence against women and girls. The “V” stands for valentine, vagina, and vict...ory over violence. For more information about V-Day and its other campaigns to end violence against women and girls worldwide, please visit www.vday.org. The performance dates are March 19 & 20, 2010. Proceeds will benefit The Gretta Foundation.

The Gretta Foundation’s mission is to increase the global “Nurseforce” by providing full nursing scholarships to impoverished persons living in disease-burdened nations. Nursing scholarship recipients, or Gretta Scholars, attend in-country nursing programs. In repayment for the assistance, graduates serve for a predetermined period of time in their country. For more information about The Gretta Foundation, visit www.grettafoundation.org

V-Day Lafayette is opening auditions to perform in "The Vagina Monologues" to all women, 18 yrs to 150 yrs old, from all walks of life. Previous acting experience is NOT required. This is an all volunteer production. Please pass this along to your friends

What: "The Vagina Monologues" Audition
When: Saturday, January 30
Time: noon - 5pm
How to audition: visit www.grettafoundation.org/vday/event_cast.htm
Questions: TGFauditions@gmail.com

Library Fundraising Drive Update

Happy New Year!! All the best to you in 2010!!!

Thanks to your support we have reached $6,500 toward much needed books for the nursing library in Uganda. Our goal is $15,000 and we are still campaigning to make that happen.

Donations can be made easily and securely on our website... http://grettafoundation.org

Go to the website and just click on Donate Now. Any and all amounts are a huge help.

Thanks for your continued support and help in spreading the word about the great work The Gretta Foundation is doing in the world.

We can't make it happen without the support of great folks like you.

Thank You!!

Our Last Day in Uganda

From Sunday, November 29, 2009











(Picture sent via iPhone is from the plane on the way home….see the sunset and the coast of Greenland!)

Today is our last blog entry, and a short one.

We have spent the day packing and getting ready for the 29 hours of travel ahead of us. But since we didn’t leave until 11:00 pm, we made sure the day was productive and we met with UNANM for a few hours putting together the final pieces of our strategy and defining our goals and objectives. It was a particularly engaging meeting as now after all this time, we have some clear direction and aspirations.

I am very excited about our plans and I look forward to coming back in March to make the next crucial steps.

It has been a pleasure sharing this experience with you all and thank you for your interest in our work.

“Kwaheri” from Uganda!

From Saturday, November 28, 2009

One thing I didn’t mention yesterday was our wonderful dinner with our UNANM (Uganda’s national nursing association) friend, Patrick B. He joined us on our tour to Kabale and was very helpful in scheduling appointments during our trip.

He continues to be a wonderful help and a terrific mind. I really enjoy collaborating with him, sharing ideas, and of course learning all that he knows about nursing in Uganda which seem endless.

Because his wife Prissy is so patient to let us take him away so much we took them out to a fun part of Kampala called Centenary Park. It is a huge compound of restaurants and more restaurants. The park was alive on a Friday night and we sat under the stars eating Uganda’s version of BBQ while competing music from three different restaurants vied for our attention.

Today we went for a tour of the national museum. It is lovely, but small and had the feel of an old-school museum with dioramas and displays of baskets and tools used years long gone. It took less than an hour but it was a nice break before continuing to type up more notes and compiling additional information from the SONS.

We ended the day over dinner with our good friend Janet O. who is the President of UNANM. We gave her a recap of our trip and an update on our work. She too is a wealth of information and we continue to learn a great deal from her extensive experience. For our work to sustain itself it is so important that we actively engage UNANM in the development of our work. By working together, we can better ensure that future Gretta graduates have appropriate remuneration, safe working conditions, due professional status and the like.

Well today was our last full day in Uganda. Until tomorrow….

From Friday, November 27, 2009

Today was a national holiday but we still squeezed every bit of work out of this trip that we could. We toured the last school of nursing scheduled for this trip. Rubaga, a private faith-based SON and affiliate hospital had very warm and gracious faculty. We are grateful that some of the sisters came on the holiday to show us around.

There are many things on this trip that I have probably neglected to share but one thing I can't overlook is acknowledging Janet's nerve, tack and sensitivity in capturing our trip visually. Today was no different. Can you imagine coming into a hospital ward and asking to take pictures of patients in bed at the bedside of a loved one? Capturing these pictures so that we can come home to help share these important stories is so invaluable.

She instinctively seemed to know when to proceed and when to pull back. She greeted each person with an extended hand and asked kindly for permission. Today she seemed to be the much needed respite in the pediatric ward. All the kids, except for a confused one or two, along with their mothers posed for pictures. Janet went through the same process each time and when she was done taking the picture, would share the image with them. It brought many laughs and smiles. Well done Janet and a heartfelt thank!!

For the record, we have visited 12 schools of nursing and eight hospitals during our two weeks on the ground. And in between those SONs and hospitals were lots of road in between them. We have now visited almost every SON in Uganda that meets our program requirements and we are very proud of our extensive research all the support we've received along the way.

This afternoon was spent with an American nurse from a prominent SON in the US who is in Uganda for two years. We were discussing what we've learned and in addition to a new masters program that is in the works which we hope to support next year when it is launched. It is greatly needed.