Elle Magazine covers Kari Jaquesson in Nicaragua
	Pearls of Tahiti: French Actress Elsa Zylberstein
	MAMTA in India with Swedish TV Presenter Kattis Ahlstrom
	Danish author Hanne-Vibeke Holst writes about the women of Face to Face

The following article was translated from Norwegian into English by Eriksen Translations, New York, for Face to Face International

Background: Face to Face International took four Nordic UNFPA Goodwill Ambassadors, including Kari Jaquesson of Norway, UNFPA writer Don Hinrichson and photographer Marc Edwards to Nicaragua on an advocacy and resource mobilization mission. When Kari returned to her home country, she got the following media coverage.


ELLE Magazine
January 2003
pp. 52 – 55

ELLE GLOBAL

LATIN AMERICAN SUFFERING

Wendy, Maria, and Luis Fernandez are children of Nicaragua. The future of the country is in their hands. But since these children are addicted to sniffing glue and forced into prostitution to survive, the future looks dismal. UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador Kari Jaquesson intends to do something about it.

BY: DON HINRICHSON

At one time Wendy Medina Sanchez was a pretty girl. Now she looks just as worn as the clothes she wears. Her long black hair is matted, lifeless, and crawling with lice. She walks slowly and unsteadily as though she were half asleep. Her eyes, which look like cigarette burns on a sheet, are unable to focus on anything except for a jar full of glue. In Latin America this is the opium of the poorest of the poor. Wendy sniffs a type of glue used to repair shoes. So do the other fifteen members of her “family.” They sit in a park in Managua, right across from the parliament.
Her body odor is overwhelming. Wendy has not bathed in a month. Several times during our thirty-minute conversation and at even intervals, she produces the jar of glue and sniffs. The glue makes her talkative.
“I ran away from home after being repeatedly raped and beaten by my stepfather for two years,” she says. She stops, tries to think, tries to remember.
“My mother blamed me for what my stepfather did to me. I couldn’t stay there anymore.”
Wendy ended up on the streets of Managua. All she had were the clothes on her back and a little pocket money. She had neither the education nor the opportunity to get a job, so she was forced to become a prostitute to support herself.
“When I had sex, they gave me enough money for a bath and maybe some old clothes. Sometimes I even had a roof over my head, even if it was just a tin roof.”
When she began sniffing glue, her clientele changed. Instead of getting five to ten dollars for sex, she now does it in parks and alleys for two to three dollars.
“The taxi driver would pick me up, squirt a little water on me, and clean me up a little before driving me to the edge of town. As many as ten men would wait for me there. I had sex with all of them, one after the next. After the taxi driver got his share, I would only a have a few dollars left,” she says.
Although Wendy knows about HIV and AIDS, her customers do not use condoms.
“I should insist,” she says, “but I can’t force them.”
Lester Mairena, Wendy’s boyfriend of one year, comes and sits by her side. He also sniffs glue and has lived on the streets for four years, since he was fourteen.
“Wendy isn’t a bad girl. She just needs a little help,” he says.
“I really wish I could help her to stop sniffing glue and get an education, but I quit school when I was nine. My family was poor and needed my help. I sold fruit on the street and did other odd jobs,” he says in a low and tired voice.
“But my father drank himself to death when I was eleven, and my mother moved back to Honduras. I haven’t seen her for three years.”
The biggest problem these youngsters face living on the streets of Managua is the gangs. Last year Lester was attacked by members of the notorious street gang Death. His arms and back bear marks of the brutal attack, which took place at night as he and Wendy slept.
“They tried to rape her, and I fought them, but they cut me severely with machetes,” he says and shows the pink scars on his arms, legs, and back.
“If the police hadn’t come, they would have killed me,” he says.
Another girl was not as lucky. Maria Mercedez is only seventeen and has been on the streets since she was thirteen. Beneath the grime she is an attractive girl, which makes her a target for street gangs.
“A few days ago I was held down and raped by two members of a gang called Monsters,” she says.
“When I tried to resist they burned my hands with cigarettes.”
Like Wendy, Maria was raped by her stepfather when she was twelve.
“My mother thought I was trying to steal her husband and threw me out of the house,” she says quietly. Maria also sells her body to men. She generally makes no more than two dollars for sex.
“I try to get them to wear condoms, but most of them refuse. If I insist, they beat me and have sex with me anyway,” she says.
“I’ve been sniffing glue since I was fourteen, but I’d like to stop and get an education,” says Maria. She wants to go to a rehabilitation clinic, but none of them will take her. She can’t pay for it herself and there are no government programs for street children dependent on inhalants.
Neither Wendy nor Maria blame anyone for their current situation. They both want to change, but don’t know how or where to get help.
“I want to get rehabilitation and stop sniffing glue,” says Wendy.
“And I want to get an education so I don’t have to sell my body to make money.”
The government has been unable to handle the steadily growing problem of children and young adults living on the streets. Nicaragua’s population is very young. A total of 70 percent of the country’s 5.2 million inhabitants are under the age of thirty. According to Health Minister Lucia Salvo, only one in ten young people have access to adequate information and health services, and one in four pregnant women are under the age of twenty.
The government is not doing much to provide young people with what they need to get a good job. According to the government, unemployment is at 20 percent, though the actual figure may be closer to 40 percent.
Like many others, Luis Fernandez is unemployed. He is seventeen and uneducated. He quit school to help his family when he was eleven; but when his father died, his mother went back to El Salvador and left the boy to fend for himself on the streets. He has been here for three years and he has no hope of getting away.
“I’ll probably die here,” he says.
No one denies that Nicaragua is a country with major problems.
“Two things about this country are really troubling,” says one local politician from the Caribbean seaside town of Bluefields.
“The first is that the government is unable to solve problems, and the second is the state of the country’s youth. When a country forsakes its youth, it destroys its future.”
“All I want is for my girlfriend and me to be able to work and earn money. We want a home,” says Lester, grasping for words.
“Not this parody of a life.”

“NONE OF US CAN AFFORD TO LOSE A CHILD!”
Interview with Kari Jaquesson

I take it for granted that I am in control of my sexuality and my reproduction. When I was asked to be Goodwill Ambassador, it was easy to say “yes!” UNFPA contributes to an incredible number of projects around the world.
I want my sisters around the world to live well. The road that lies ahead is long, but there are strong, good forces in the world – even if it is difficult to see them amid all the hate, evil, and brutality portrayed in the media.
With the means for health services and information, we could seriously curb the amount of mothers and small children around the world who die of AIDS and other infections. Humane and sustainable development can be achieved through women fully participating in a society’s cultural, political, and economic arenas. Equality is not yet a reality.
Most women would like to be able to decide how many children they want to have, but many do not have this luxury. The fewer children you have, the easier it is to provide them with food; and perhaps fewer children would be motherless if their mothers had access to medical aid during childbirth. Maybe there would even be money left to send the children to school. I want my two children to have a good life, and women around the world feel the same way. I am able to provide my children with security, nutritious food, and an education. I feel that all mothers should be able to do this. Our children bring us joy. None of us can afford to lose a child!
Talking is one thing, but meeting people face to face is entirely different. When I was in Nicaragua I spoke with a great number of people who were never afforded the opportunities that you and I take for granted. But I also met women, children, and young people who had new opportunities and hope thanks to the UN and its projects.



WOMEN IN THE WORLD ARE SUFFERING
• Every minute a woman dies of complications during pregnancy or childbirth.
• Sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS affect five times as many women as men.
• Women’s health in poor countries can be compared with women’s health 100 years ago in Norway, when pregnancy, childbirth, infections, and deficiency diseases represented a great health risk. Each year over half a million women lose their lives as a result of complications during pregnancy and childbirth, and another 75,000 women die as a result of abortion complications.
• A total of 350 million women in the world do not have access to safe contraception. Each year brings 175 million unwanted pregnancies.
• Over 120 million women have fallen victim to sexual mutilation. Each year, another two million are sexually mutilated.
• Each year nearly two million girls between the ages of five and fifteen are forced into prostitution.
• The UNFPA is working to solve these problems. Norway is one of the UNFPA’s major contributors.


IMPOVERISHED NICARAGUA
• Nicaragua: Central American republic. The second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere (after Haiti).
• Population of approximately five million.
• Almost half of them are poor, and just under one million live in extreme poverty.
• Population growth is enormous, and as a result, whatever is done to combat poverty makes little difference statistically speaking. A total of 10 percent of the population control 45 percent of the country’s wealth, while the poorest 40 percent of the country share only 10 percent of the wealth.
• Over 35 percent of adult women cannot read or write. About 800,000 children receive no schooling of any kind.
• Mortality among children under the age of five is the highest in the region.
• Nearly one fourth of children under the age of five are chronically undernourished.
• Half of all children in Nicaragua grow up fatherless.
• Nearly half of all nineteen-year-old women have been pregnant at least once.
• Violence and sexual abuse of women and children are widespread. Many turn to the streets, where drugs, violence, and prostitution become a way of life.
• For about fifteen years Norway has been a major contributor to Nicaragua. The country’s democratic development has been profound, but the government has had no political motivation to do anything for the poor.



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The world-famous Tahitian cultured pearl was promoted during the 18th Paris Film Festival with a gala evening organized by Perles de Tahiti and its two partners, Tahiti Tourisme and Robert Wan's Tahiti Perles. Many stars attended the evening function wearing Tahiti's lovely cultural pearl necklaces.

The evening, billed as "Stars en Perles" (the star of all pearls), brought together a variety of personalities from Tahiti, ranging from Mareva Galanter and Mareva Georges ( former Miss Tahiti and Miss France winners) to Béatrice Vernaudon, one of French Polynesia's two deputies in the French National Assembly. Other guests included French film stars Grace de Capitani and Elsa Zylberstein.
Elsa Zylberstein, UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador, Face to Face Campaign Spokesperson for France and ambassadress of the humanitarian association "Equilibres & Populations” called on the generosity of the personalities present to support Tahiti's pearl culture.

Elsa and the Gala organizers also wanted to support the charitable cause 'Equilibres et Populations' and did so by creating a series of 'Stars en Perles' postcards. Proceeds from the sale of the postcards are donated to E&P.
Equilibres & Populations is a non-government organization created by physicians and journalists to advocate the more efficient use of development aid for activities promoting health and education.

A delegation of Swedish parliamentarians and UNFPA’s Goodwill Ambassador and Face to Face campaign spokesperson for Sweden, Kattis Ahlstrom, visited India 24 – 28 February 2003. The visit was part of the Sida and Face to Face supported twinning project of the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education (RFSU) and Health Institute for Mother & Child (MAMTA) with the purpose to meet and share thoughts with Indian parliamentarians on issues related to adolescent sexual health and rights. The issue of HIV/AIDS -- being an integral part of the project -- was also addressed. The delegation visited, among others, the Michael’s Care Home - a hospice for people living with HIV/AIDS in Delhi.

Popular Swedish TV presenter Ahlstrom will produce a documentary on young people’s sexual health in India to be screened on Swedish TV.

For more information contact mamta@del6.vsnl.net.in or maria.hellvig@rfsu.seøa

9 September 2003. UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and Face to Face Campaign Spokesperson for Denmark, Hanne-Vibeke Holst met with Face to Face executive director Walter Coddington and Lars Ringhof her literary agent, in Copenhagen to discuss international distribution of Hanne-Vibeke’s latest book for the commercial market, “Face to Face” (working title).

Only a few months away from completion, the book includes in-depth portraits of 14 women who are the real stars of the international campaign for women’s rights. From Viet Nam, Russia, Nicaragua and many other developing world countries, these women live without the health services we in the West take for granted and in conditions and with illnesses many Westerners can’t even imagine.

Hanne-Vibeke Holst is a well-known and popular columnist, TV journalist and best-selling fiction writer. Her novels are mostly about modern women trying to balance new options with old problems. Her books are translated and sold in Germany and Sweden. In her own country, Hanne-Vibeke is known as an outspoken and fearless fighter of women’s rights.