Pubdate: Wed, 10 Mar 2010
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
Copyright: 2010 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Contact: http://archives.starbulletin.com/forms/letterform.html
Website: http://www.starbulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/196
Author: Katherine Nichols

PROGRAM PAYS ADDICTS TO USE BIRTH CONTROL

Project Prevention Brings Its Contraception-Sterilization Message to 
Hawaii Addicts

Mona Rodarte watched state authorities take away her third baby a few 
months ago, and the trauma was enough to motivate her to consider 
Project Prevention's offer to pay her $300 to get sterilized or start 
using long-term birth control.

Each child has a different father; two are in jail and all three are 
drug dealers. The 28-year-old Rodarte, who lives on Maui, had just 
graduated from a rehabilitation program. She had been clean and sober 
for six months. Determined to do things differently, she was looking 
forward to the birth of her baby.

But the change in environment, lack of structure and a return to what 
she described as a "dysfunctional" home sparked a relapse into her 
habitual crystal methamphetamine and alcohol abuse - two weeks before 
her baby was due.

That is when she lost her privilege to be a mother. Rodarte's older 
sister is now raising the child, and brought Rodarte to Oahu to 
encourage her to obtain some form of long-term birth control.

"How does it feel that I'm on my third baby and I don't have none of 
them, and I'm still doing the same thing?" Rodarte said. "It feels 
(frustrating)."

Though she was initially offended when approached with the 
sterilization/birth control offer, she gradually accepted its practicality.

"It was hard because I didn't want them to take my baby away. But if 
I'm not done running around, I cannot bring any more lives into the 
world. I need to stop having kids that I'm not going to take care of."

After talking with Barbara Harris, founder and director of the 
national nonprofit Project Prevention, and debating the issue for a 
time, Rodarte called a Maui clinic for Implanon, a long-term birth 
control device that is inserted under the skin and remains effective 
for years or until it is removed.

HARRIS AND THE FOUR children she adopted from the same drug-addicted 
mother travel the country together, sharing Project Prevention's 
message, which encourages - with the promise of cash for 
follow-through - drug addicts to get sterilized or use long-term 
birth control until they are ready to bear healthy children and care 
for them properly. The Harris children, now in their late teens and 
early 20s, have visited some dismal corners of the country and seen 
everything they do not want to be, said Harris.

Yesterday they began a three-day stint in Honolulu, sharing fliers 
with anyone who would listen, drifting from the Institute for Human 
Services to Aala Park to wherever they thought they might find new 
clients and save one more baby from a substance-exposed birth or life 
in a foster care system. Since Harris started Project Prevention in 
1997, she has paid more than 3,000 clients in 39 states. Every time 
someone accepted information, she responded kindly, "Thank you so 
much. We really appreciate your help."

But Harris admitted that "every once in a while, it's intimidating." 
She wants people to understand that she is not accusing anybody of 
using drugs. And she is not passing judgment. "I have drug addicts in 
my family. So these people might not be using, but they might know 
somebody who does."

Media aside, the word-of-mouth buzz yields the most results in her 
program, which is supported entirely through private funding. When 
people on the street hear that real cash is involved, "that gets 
their attention."

Accompanying Harris is her daughter Destiny, a sparkling 20-year-old 
adopted when she was 8 months old and living in foster care. Now 
attending community college in their hometown in North Carolina, 
Destiny remarked fondly on the summers the family has spent touring 
the country in their recreational vehicle for Project Prevention.

"If you know what's out there and you have a chance to change it, 
then it feels really good," said Destiny. The first four of eight 
children from her birth mother were scattered into separate foster 
homes. Destiny has met them, and it inspires her to do the work.

"We're saving a lot of children from lives that are," she pauses, 
"not so fortunate. We see how life could be."

Destiny hopes one day to combine her love for art and children into a 
career as an elementary school art teacher. When asked about other 
talents, she demurred, then grinned when all three siblings answered 
for her: "Singing."

When Destiny was young, officials in the foster care system told 
Harris that the birth mother's addiction to crack and heroin had 
rendered the child permanently "slow." This irritated Harris, who 
noticed Destiny's intelligence. "It makes me sad," she said of kids 
who do not get enough love and support to break free from labels.

But it was adopting 19-year-old Isiah at birth that truly sparked 
Harris' anger. The drug-addicted baby screamed for hours on end, 
vomited uncontrollably and could not be left alone for even a few 
minutes. She and her husband had to watch Isiah in shifts all night. 
She made up her mind that she would do whatever it took to prevent 
another life from starting this way.

After initial media reports appeared in Honolulu, Harris received an 
e-mail from a woman who has had six children taken away and wants a 
tubal ligation. Encouraged by the inquiry, Harris said it would be 
"one less worry for her - and society, because everyone else is 
raising her kids."

After the Harris family leaves Honolulu, the next destination will be 
England. A BBC interview inspired a donor to step forward with 
$20,000 and an invitation to London. Harris taps donated funds for 
her own airline ticket, uses connections to obtain hotel discounts 
and requires that her children pay their own way (all have jobs 
outside of school) if they want to travel with her.

"When I founded this organization, I never believed how big it would 
be," she said. "Every day I feel like we're making a difference."

[sidebar]

PROJECT PREVENTION

In Honolulu Today and Tomorrow

Web page: www.projectprevention.org

Telephone: (888) 302-7225
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake