After college, Mrs. Latham went to Cote D'Ivoire with the Peace Corps as a rural health volunteer, teaching clean drinking water safety, nutrition, maternal and child health, HIV awareness and hygiene to the residents in a small village. "It was very community based work," she said. "I was there for almost two years, until the day there was a coup against the government. "At that point I was behind rebel lines and had to be evacuated by French and American forces," Mrs. Latham continued. "We had to wait to be moved out, and we got out by helicopter. They actually had to fly in and get us." It was difficult to leave a community, where you'd worked for so long and had become a family, and knowing there was no certainty on whether you'd be able to see them again," she remembered "My village was in the north, where there are no communication tools ... I've gotten some communication from people there, but I think everyone is waiting for the war to end." The ongoing conflict in Cote D'Ivoire saddens Mrs. Latham, who said all the work that goes into helping a country move forward stops when such an event takes place. "All those years of development were just cut off and ended," she said.
Ivory Coast RPCV Karen Cobos Latham spends her days as a resident of Senegal, teaching the residents of this West African country how to manage their money and plan for their future
New Milford native calls Senegal home
By: Emily M. Olson
11/14/2008
Karen Cobos Latham spends her days as a resident of Senegal, teaching the residents of this West African country how to manage their money and plan for their future.
The New Milford High School graduate, who joined the Peace Corps and served a community in Cote D'Iviore (formerly Ivory Coast) before a rebel coup forced her and other volunteers to leave the country. She now works in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, and is employed by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a U.S.-based non-governmental organization that works in more than 100 countries.
Mrs. Latham, whose husband, Brent, is a journalist for Voice of America, came back to the states for the birth of her first child. Once the baby arrives, she'll return to Senegal to continue her work there.
Mrs. Latham's parents are Pedro and Maria Cobos, who now live in Danbury. But the Cobos family members are former New Milford residents, and Mrs. Latham graduated from New Milford High School in 1994.
"I always knew I wanted to serve in the Peace Corps, to work in another place," she said, explaining her career path as an aid worker and volunteer. "Growing up in New Milford, I always wanted to go abroad. I was born in Columbia and grew up bicultural, and I always wanted to serve somewhere out of the country."
In New Milford as a teen, she volunteered for Healing the Children Northeast, an organization that provides medical aid to children in Central and South America, the Middle East and Asia. In high school, she sought out opportunities to travel.
"Supporting student initiatives in school is a good way to get involved," she noted. "If you live in a small town, it's great to support the student fund-raising so they can travel. That was a great opportunity for me."
Her experience in the Peace Corps, in spite of the way it ended, was very good, Mrs. Latham said. "I have to say that two of my best role models in Peace Corps were a 79-year old couple who were on their fifth trip," she remembered. "If they can do it, anyone can. They were pretty amazing."
After college, Mrs. Latham went to Cote D'Ivoire with the Peace Corps as a rural health volunteer, teaching clean drinking water safety, nutrition, maternal and child health, HIV awareness and hygiene to the residents in a small village. "It was very community based work," she said. "I was there for almost two years, until the day there was a coup against the government.
"At that point I was behind rebel lines and had to be evacuated by French and American forces," Mrs. Latham continued. "We had to wait to be moved out, and we got out by helicopter. They actually had to fly in and get us."
It was difficult to leave a community, where you'd worked for so long and had become a family, and knowing there was no certainty on whether you'd be able to see them again," she remembered "My village was in the north, where there are no communication tools ... I've gotten some communication from people there, but I think everyone is waiting for the war to end."
The ongoing conflict in Cote D'Ivoire saddens Mrs. Latham, who said all the work that goes into helping a country move forward stops when such an event takes place. "All those years of development were just cut off and ended," she said.
"But it's what you have when you have corrupt governments. You have people who want change but don't know how to facilitate change.
"As a volunteer, living there for two years, I knew that something had to change, something had to give," she added. "Unfortunately the political process hadn't worked for the people, and a group decided to take it by force. Now it's just an issue of making the political process work. It's an issue of disarming the country and setting up a political process."
The one thing that gives her hope is the determination of the people of Cote D'Ivoire, and of refugees everywhere. "There's a lot of hope there," she said. "The resilience of people there is pretty amazing. After I left, I went to work in refugee camps in Guinea [with a World Food Program where there were Sierra Leone and Liberian refugees, and the people are incredibly resilient. They're always ready to rebuild. That spirit is pretty incredible."
Mrs. Latham returned to the U.S. and went back to college, earning her graduate degree from Georgetown University. She was hired by Catholic Relief Services, which recruits people with master's degrees and experience working abroad. "I actually joined CRS through a fellowship program," she explained. "They assign you a place according to your experience, your expertise and their needs."
Her work in Senegal involves teaching residents how to manage their money. Because banks and technology are scarce, particularly in outlying areas away from the cities, a typical village needs a simpler way to approach banking and saving money.
A typical day in the field for Mrs. Latham starts at about 6 a.m., when she and others must get an early start to get to a rural village, driving on horrendously bumpy roads to get to their destination. "We would have let the community know we were coming, and we'd schedule a visit when they were having a village meeting," she said.
Residents collect money amongst themselves to plan and invest it. "Financial services like banking are difficult for people out in the rural areas to reach, so because they're so far, it's much more expensive," Mrs. Latham explained "So instead of having an external banking or financial entity doing the lending or the savings, the community itself manages its own cash. That way, they give themselves the ability to manage their resources to have a system set up to save and lend money amongst themselves. What's neat about that is it builds on the solidarity communities have. Instead of bringing outsiders in, it sets up an internal system and they take it and manage it themselves."
During her visit, she talks to the village residents, answers questions and provides information if it's needed. "The meeting usually lasts one to two hours-unless it's raining," she said with a laugh. "If it is, they're out in the fields working their land. But during the dry season, you are their guest, and they'll bring out a simple lunch for you."
This act of being fed by the villagers always touches her heart. "People often say, 'Oh, the poor, the poorest of the poor, they have nothing,' and yes, about 70 percent live on under $2 a day, but they do have resources, and some ability to save, and share with others," she noted. "It's a very giving community."
After her visit to the village, she returns to her office to fill out a report on the trip, and find ways to further their progress of saving money and building capital. "If a method isn't working, there's a large pool of experience and resources in Baltimore, and we can reach out to each other and ask for advice," she said.
Like many of the countries in West Africa, conflict exists in Senegal as well. "The area where I work in general is stable, but in the southern part, where these groups are operating, has been touched with a low level conflict for more than 20 years," she explained.
"Something that I face, and our national staff faces, is the fact that you're aware of a possibility of a road barricade, a block, or some sort of conflict-that there's a security situation in the area. The communities are able to tell you not to go a certain way, and because you're part of your development, their community, we have people who will really help us. I had that in Cote D'Ivoire. People led us out. They don't have to do that, but I think people really have a sense of solidarity."
Helping the Senegalese learn to save money is gratifying to Mrs. Latham, who said the simple task of managing cash gives a person a sense of worth.
"It's very simple, to learn to manage your cash, knowing what you can earn, and setting up a system so you can save each week," she said. "Poor people don't have a savings account, so they just consume whatever they have. There's no long term planning. The system we use allows them to pool their resources. Sometimes the savings is like 20 cents, or 10 cents, and at the end of each year, each member has a savings of $14 per person. But that's more than they've ever done before.
"The basis of our approach is to show that poor people can save, too. Some people say that's not possible, but I think it is," Mrs. Latham continued. "They can do things they normally couldn't do ... start a small business, like buying peanuts in bulk and selling them in small amounts, or starting little vegetable gardens and selling the vegetables, or coming together as a community to build an irrigation ditch.
"It has given them the integrity of the human spirit," she added. "They no longer have to ask for money. They say, 'Now I have a savings account, and I can ask my group for a loan.' It gives back human dignity. I think that's very powerful."
Mrs. Latham said her program has been in place for year, and has already reached more than 1,500 people. "People are asking for us to come and teach them," she said. "At first we actually thought it might not catch on because we don't provide money, but it has, because it's their money. You're an investor, it's like a community credit union, based on that concept, but it's not regulated by anyone but the community members. It works because it's based on these very close social ties."
Mrs. Latham is looking to grow the program by 100 percent. "After the baby's born, we'll return to Senegal, and I hope to be there for another year, working with this project," she said. "I hope eventually to play a larger role with CRS, which has agricultural programs, health, and peace building projects in 20 countries. I want to be exposed to the different projects they offer. I'm also very interested in countries that are in post-conflict," she continued. "I'm interested in getting in there and helping in places like Angola, the Balkans ... we still have projects there. So I'd like to do some work there."
She encouraged people who are interested in helping countries like Senegal to read the reports and "past the headlines."
"So much happens in the world," she said. "A lot of news is reported on a very broad level, and there's so much that's not reported. Organizations like CRS try to bring visibility to those kinds of conflicts."
To learn more about CRS, visit www.crs.org.
İNew Milford Times 2008
