On Thursday May 10 from 6:30-9 pm., legendary peace activist and women's health provider Dorothy Granada will be speaking at the Peace and Justice Center (427 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa).

I've admired Dorothy since the early 1990's, when she founded the Women's Health Clinic in Mulukukú, Nicaragua -- then a remote town with no electricity, whose national health clinic was shutting down in the wake of the Sandinista government's defeat in the infamous 1990 elections.  With Joseph Marino  and a team of his DC Power volunteers, I helped coordinate the installation at Dorothy's clinic of the then-largest photovoltaic electric system in the country, so that they could power their equipment and do their life-saving work at night with full lighting instead of flashlights. 

Ms. Granada achieved international fame in the 1990's when then-president  Arnoldo Alemán attempted to expel her from the country on fatuous charges.  (He disapproved of her activism on behalf of poor rural women.)  Cleared of all charges by the Supreme Court, she returned after three months in hiding to a boisterous hero's welcome in Mulukukú.

Dorothy has moved on from the clinic she founded and ran for 20 years.  Now in her 80's, and as energetic as when I first met her, she's heading up a new project that brings her on a fundraising journey to the US.  In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, she's training "midwife mentors" in the city of Matagalpa who in turn will spread out into over 100 villages in that mountainous region to enhance the skills of the local midwives.  The overriding aim, as always in Dorothy's projects, is to save lives -- women's and children's lives too often lost to inadequate care in childbirth, and in the months preceding and following birth.         

Dorothy Granada is, as ever, an inspiration.  A portrait in humility and courage, and a living testimonial to the world-changing benefits of dedicated hard work, she is also a delightful speaker and a unique source of first-hand information about historical and current realities in a country that for far too long has been manipulated and exploited by our own.

For further details about her years of service to the Nicaraguan poor, visit the GoLocal website: https://sonomacounty.golocal.coop/stories/legendary_women_s_health_activist_dorothy_granada_visits_santa_rosa/480/.  And listen in to Chris Welch's wonderful interview with Dorothy on KPFA from Apr. 28: http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/80102