Reaching out
Couple comes to area to help with food, computersDr. Olivia Masry Blau and her husband distribute food at the Community Pantry on Friday afternoon. The Blau's, who live near New York City, come to the area for one week a year to volunteer. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Gaye Brown de Alvarez
Staff writer

GALLUP —When New York dentist Olivia Masry-Blau worked to provide free dental assistance on the Navajo reservation in Pinehill and Tohatchi, she was appalled at the condition of the teeth of the people whose mouths she looked into.

“What have you been eating?” she asked many people of all ages whose teeth seemed to be in a state of decay that did not seem normal.

Many answers she heard were “juice, chips” and other processed, sugary foods which take their toll on teeth. Most people out here, she said, do not eat nutritional foods, and she noted that people in the poorest neighborhoods of South Bronx in New York had better teeth than people here.

Masry-Blau and her husband, Larry Blau, come out to New Mexico once a year during their off time to help any way they can on the Navajo reservation.

“Our children have all gone to school and we were wanting to make a difference and do some volunteer work somewhere,” Masry-Blau said in an interview at the Community Pantry on Monday.

One of the weeks when she was doing dental work, she had no appointments on Friday afternoon. So she came to the Gallup Community Pantry to help Jim Harlan distribute foods.

What she saw amazed her.

“He serves 2,500 families a week,” Masry-Blau said and pointed at Jim Harlan who was sitting in on the interview. But what she found so upsetting was the one Friday a month that is called “commodity day.” People come into the pantry and are given a box of food that contains six items.

Six items?

A bag of rice, a bag of pinto beans and some other canned goods were in the box. Blau noted that in addition to that measly food donation, the government money to fund the needy has fallen 30 percent in the past three years. Food donations have fallen; but the number of people needing help to feed their families has increased. Masry-Blau said New Mexico was the second-poorest state in the U.S., with 63 percent of the population at or below the poverty line.

“We have to come up with a way of feeding more people and getting more money,” she said and hopes that her efforts in New York would result in donations of money or grants.

Larry Blau showed off a plastic white and green thing that looked like a toy until he opened the lid. It was a computer. An XO computer for the One Laptop Per Child worldwide program. Designed by Nicholas Negroponte, the little computer has an antennae, a music program, a “mesh” network which links together all computers in a football-field sized area, 20-30 different languages and a wide variety of other uses. The machine also has a crank to provide power for areas with no electricity. It has changed the way people live in many poor countries in the world and he hopes to get some here for reservation students.

He was able to meet with officials at Thoreau Elementary, Indian Hills Elementary, David Skeet Elementary School, Ramah Elementary School and New Mexico State University of Grants. The response was “monumental” and Blau was asked for 2,000 units to get the program started in Cibola and McKinley counties. The couple is working on fundraising to provide the XOs.

More food and more computers from two individuals helping in an area that needs help. This is the Blaus fifth year traveling out here to help needy families.

Masry-Blau smiled when she stated the couple’s goal. “We want to help get them fed and get them ready for a better future.”

Information: the Community Pantry, (505) 726-8068.