Service Project

I started volunteering at Planned Parenthood a few weeks ago.
I am working on developing an outreach program to the Hispanic community in Dubuque and I will also be helping as an interpreter when needed. I have the freedom to choose how to develop this project by creating my own plan. During my first days I started by learning more about PP, about the services they offer, and about what it implies to be a medical interpreter. For example, I learned the difference between an interpreter and a translator, a translation is with text and interpretation is when it is oral.
When I was trying to find a place to volunteer, I would keep hearing all the bad things about pp but I didn't even know what it was. So I decided to learn more about it and about what they offer and I ended up meeting the head nurse there. She noticed my accent and asked me if I could help out there as an interpreter. It was the perfect timing because it turned into the service project for this class.
Since this location of PP is so new, when I started volunteering there wasn't an education coordinator yet, they were still looking for one. The idea is that once there is one, I will be working with that person so that I can have a better idea of what to do. I found out on Wednesday that they had found one and that she will be coming in next week. In the meanwhile I decided to start learning about the Hispanic population on my own. I went to a Mexican bakery and a Mexican grocery store to talk to the owners to see if they could guide me or give me advice of where to go. They told me that the Hispanic community in Dubuque is not very united, they are spread all over which means that it will be harder to reach out to them.
So far my experience at pp has been great. I've had great conversations with the staff there about why it is so controversial and about the picketers. As you may know, the picketers are protesting against abortion. I consider myself pro-choice under certain circumstances like if the child or the mom are at a risk, or if the mom has been raped or cases like that. When talking to them about this issue, they told me that they don't perform abortions there but that the goal of pp is to be there for women when they need it the most. To be there for them means that women have the power of learning the options that they have so that they can make the right decision for them in a safe and informed way. I also learned that the main purpose of pp is to prevent that these conversations have to happen through sexual education so that women are informed about contraception methods. They also provide other health care services like STD testing, treatment, and cancer screening.
Another thing I just remembered that has happened when I go to volunteer there are the picketers that are standing in front of pp. The first time I went there I thought they were going to try stopping me from coming inside, but I learned that it is illegal for them to do that so they can only stand there without getting in people's way. They usually don't say anything but every once in a while they say some prayers for me as I walk in, some other times they also say hi but it is generally very intimidating, specially for a women who might be indecisive about going there. It’s very interesting to walk by them because they have the right to be there and the right to have their own opinions but at the same time, I don’t like the fact that they consider abortion as a bad thing in every single case. I think every case is different and we don't have the right to decide what a woman who is pregnant should do. Right now there is a program called Pledge-A-Picked which consists on making a donation for every picketer; I think that so far they have raised about $500.

Sorry for the long post, I am excited about seeing ways in which we can outreach to the Hispanic community to teach them about the truth about pp and the services they offer.