In Bolivia: as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador

Helping young Bolivians – part 1

by Dayle Haddon

It was difficult to breathe when we landed in La Paz, the highest airport in the world at 12,000 feet. It was 6AM. We hadn’t slept all night. Dizzy, off balance, there was a tightness in our heads coupled with a continual low-grade headache that hit us as soon as we landed. We staggered getting our luggage, laughing about the high altitude fog we were in and handed our endless customs papers to some very severe agents. It was as if we’d drunk too much and were standing on a boat moving at sea…with waves! It was hard to concentrate. As a team we would struggle with altitude sickness throughout the trip.

The city of La Paz was spectacularly beautiful with snowcapped mountains extending as far as the eye could see. The views flying in over the Royal Range, a section of the Andes that runs down the west coast of South America were magnificent. The sun was rising just as we crested over hundreds of snow packed peaks, one after the other, some of them cupping calm shimmering green lakes in their craggy nooks. It was truly awesome. The first rays of morning light lit up the snow. Soft, puffy clouds hung over the highest peaks. They call these particular mountains the “Illimani” or three peaks because one mountain here has three tips. We had landed in Bolivia, the heart of the Andes, and the poorest country in South America.

I had come to Bolivia with a UNICEF team of four, and joined up with others on the ground to travel into the country. Our mission was to see programs UNICEF supports, find out what were the most immediate and pressing needs and determine how we could bring attention to those needs.

After a few days traveling through Bolivia, I realized this was a different kind of poverty from the in-your-face kind I’d experienced in Africa on other UNICEF trips. There were no makeshift tents housing highly contagious cholera patients as I’d seen in war torn Angola. Flies did not cover the sad faces of children as I’d witnessed in camps in Darfur. It was not the plight of displaced children begging for food at an IDP camp outside Goma, in the Congo, where you couldn’t offer what you had for fear of causing a riot. The needs in Bolivia were desperate but struck closer to home. It seemed more like what you might encounter in the poorest places in the US. However, as the days went on and we began to scratch beneath the surface, I understood that this was one of the more emotionally challenging trips I had ever experienced.

I was moved by little Melody, a six year old we met in the ‘Little City’, one of three hundred centers for abandoned children in the city of Cochabamba, in south central Bolivia. With her thick black eyelashes, cropped dark hair and ready sweet smile, we connected right away. She didn’t know where her mommy was and told us simply, “I lost my little brother.” We didn’t understand and asked about her back-story. Her mother had abandoned Melody in the streets when she was five, along with her two brothers, age six and two and half. She and her older brother left the little one for a few minutes to find some food. When they returned, he was gone. The little boy has never been found.

In the same center I noticed tiny Marina, a deaf-mute, who was abandoned at seven in the southern region of Bolivia and after years of wandering lost in the mountains, barely existing, she made her way to the ‘Little City”. One day a social worker happened to style her hair and that was a turning point. She has become obsessed with hairdressing and now does everyone’s hair at the center. Given her limitations, Marina is only able to socialize with the small children, yet remarkably, she doesn’t suffer from low self-esteem. She is determined. She is beginning to vocalize single syllables and dreams of becoming a professional hairdresser, and one day to be able to read and write.

Dayle Haddon continues with part 2 and part 3 in June

Julia Moulden: Radical Woman, Radical Thinker

Toronto author offers sense of hope, and shift in thinking about yourself and the world

“I like to think that I am helping some people to have a real sense of hope, and to shift their thinking about themselves and about the world.”

Lofty goals perhaps, but for sure Julia Moulden has global influence and is motivating legions of over 50s to rejig their lives and extend their reach. She’s a breath of fresh air: warm and welcoming with a captivating smile, but more importantly this internationally published author is helping seasoned individuals and organizations around the globe to find new – radical – ways to do good. McGraw-Hill, New York, published her most recent book boldly entitled We Are The New Radicals: A Manifesto for Reinventing Yourself and Saving the World. Her best-selling first book Green is Gold (published by Harper Business) was the first environmental guide for businesses, published in six countries.

“A New Radical is someone who takes skills acquired in their career and puts them to work on the world’s greatest challenges”, Julia told us. Asked about her own life after 50, Julia’s eyes shine.” When I turned 52 I realized I was really just getting started on this great adventure. I figured I have more than 30 productive years left in me, so combining my expertise with my dream of making a difference allowed me to create this new business – the New Radicals movement.”

“I wear many hats. My philosophy is that life is a long adventure, and I don’t want to do just one thing. I like to follow whatever appears before me each day.  I’m a writer for hire, I’ve been a speechwriter for 25 years, I consult with companies who want to foster more creative thinking, I’m on the speaker circuit, and I write a regular Huffington Post column about the New Radicals movement, and later I’ll be interviewing Jane Goodall. I also coach people who are stuck; this morning I was coaching someone in Nairobi, for example.”

The fastest growing sector of Julia’s business is working with corporations to introduce programs and initiatives that will add value to the company, increase profits, and contribute to the betterment of the world. As if this isn’t enough Julia was recently a sought-after expert to write a section of Barbara Grufferman’s book, The Best of Everything After 50. She also shared with us that she is currently pitching a reality-based TV series based on the New Radicals to a major network.

Of the woman herself, this busy yet surprisingly outdoorsy woman loves hiking and kayaking. Having raised three stepsons, she now relishes the time she spends with her ten-year old niece doing ‘girly’ things. Julia survived a messy divorce and paused, thinking her life was over (it wasn’t), before establishing her new business and setting out on her new adventure.

“I am just beginning, now, to tap into who I am and what I have to offer; what my capabilities are and where my interests may lead me. I had no idea back then that there was this whole field of work available to me, and that what you do can have such an impact on the world.”

If you are looking to make a change in your own life and want to help to change the world, then you are a New Radical. There are three categories. Activists seek out work which will let them serve others, or promote a cause. Entrepreneurs (that’s Julia) start new enterprises to address a problem, want to use their expertise to make the world a better place, and are also interested in making a profit. Innovators initiate change and innovation from within an organization – such as searching for environmentally sustainable ways of doing business.

Next for Julia? “In my next phase I hope to be painting and writing plays. Creative people need growth, and I consider speech writing  great preparation for writing a play,” she said. Watch this space.

Watch the short video, read the book … Julia will inspire you to continue to do something with your life, and help change the world. Tempo Toronto has autographed copies of “The New Radicals” to be won by two Members. See our contests page, in the Member Centre.