I started writing for the Metro section of the Union-Tribune during the past month. I'm covering community features and news stories. It's good to write on different topics and stretch my legs a bit.
Here a couple of stories published Jan. 24, 2008 in Our San Diego:
Persian culture at center stage
By Chris Nixon
For the Union-Tribune
January 24, 2008
UNIVERSITY CITY – Shahri Estakhry was looking for ways to improve communication between her English-speaking daughter and Farsi-speaking parents. Her search resulted in the creation of the Persian Cultural Center of San Diego, which will soon enter its third decade serving a growing Persian community with language, dance and theater classes.
“It started on a very personal note,” Estakhry said on a Sunday afternoon at Standley Middle School in University City, where the center holds an array of classes. “I've come to believe that all successful things start when it's personal. The school started as a means for communication between my daughter and my parents. It's as simple as that.”
In 1988, Estakhry was teaching at All Hallows Academy, a Catholic school in La Jolla. She decided to start a small language class for children, hoping to draw one or two other children to help her daughter learn Farsi in a classroom environment. After getting permission to hold a weekend Farsi class for children in her classroom at All Hallows, she put her plan into action.
“I put a little ad in a La Jolla paper saying, 'Farsi classes, Saturday mornings,' ” Estakhry said. “All Hallows was fabulous. They said, 'Go ahead and use your classroom, use the library, whatever you want.' I wanted to have two or three kids to come so my daughter would be challenged. That year, 70 people came.
DETAILS
Persian Cultural Center What: Established in 1989, the Persian Cultural Center is a local nonprofit group created to celebrate, share and promote the Persian culture.
Programs: The Center includes the Iranian School of San Diego, the Persian Cultural Dance Academy and the Iranian Foundation Offerings charity program. It also produces Peyk, a magazine focusing on Iranian-
American issues.
Information: (858) 653-0336; www.pccsd.org
“Everything just fell into place. The dance class came. The history class came. We separated the children (by age group). It was really unbelievable for us. Since then, it has been a story by itself. The growth of it has been wonderful.”
Parent Teacher Association meetings for the school led to the formation of the Persian Cultural Center in 1989. The center, an umbrella nonprofit group, offers four levels of language classes at the Iranian School of San Diego to more than 200 adults and children. Cultural programs include traditional Iranian dance and theater classes. The center also publishes Peyk, a glossy magazine with a circulation of 6,000 focusing on Iranian-American issues.
“Part of the Persian Cultural Center's mission is to bring the culture to the community at large,” said Shaghayegh Hanson, one of the cultural center's 14 volunteer board members. “It's not just to maintain the culture and heritage for current and future generations of Iranians. But our mission is also to reach out and promote cross-cultural understanding.”
The Cultural Center recently received a $10,000 grant, one of 12 nationwide, from the PARSA Community Foundation, the largest Iranian philanthropic organization in the world.
Southern California is home to the largest concentration of Iranians outside of Iran, with an approximate population of 500,000. Ali Sadr, the Iranian School of San Diego's principal, estimates that up to 40,000 Persians live in San Diego County.
The organization's mission focuses on fostering good will in the community, but recent tensions between the governments of United States and Iran might make the task more difficult. Board members say the Persian Cultural Center hasn't experienced any overt racism. But Hanson concedes that she has personally had negative experiences.
“As individuals, we all have different experiences. As individuals, we would have come across these types of things.”
The Cultural Center tries to stay neutral, disassociating itself from political and religious affiliations.
“We fiercely defend our nonpolitical stance and our nonreligious stance,” Hanson said. “First of all, we can't be political because we are a nonprofit organization. But for us, diversity is the key to everything that we do. It's the way forward, and it's the way to help people understand what Iran and Iranian culture is all about. It's not just about this point in history where there's an Islamic government (in Iran). It's about several thousands of years of culture that have spanned many different religions, ethnicities and advances in civilization.”
Sadr hopes the center's efforts will counteract any negative feelings from the public.
“A lot of people are affected by the news from Iran,” Sadr said. “But the people who come in contact with us and the Persian Cultural Center have a much better understanding of Iranian people and their heritage.”
As the organization grows, the center hopes to work with other San Diego-based Iranian-American organizations to build or purchase a place of its own. It currently rents space at Standley Middle School and Mt. Carmel High School in Rancho Peñasquitos. It hopes to own its own community center in the next three to five years, Sadr said.
Chris Nixon is a freelance writer in San Diego.
And another story on a new health clinic for women:
Clinic focuses on women's issues
Positive response reported at low-cost health center
By Chris Nixon
For the Union-Tribune
January 24, 2008
Mission Beach has a new health clinic for women who may be struggling with the rising cost of health care.
Tucked away near a busy intersection at Mission Boulevard and Santa Clara Place, the Beach Area Women's Health Center provides family planning, pregnancy testing, prenatal care, cancer screening and other health services.
The clinic's eight staff members, including a physician, a nurse practitioner and a nutritionist, have been seeing an average of 20 patients a day since it opened in July. It's across the street from, though part of, the larger Beach Area Family Health Center that opened in 1990.
DETAILS
Women's Health Center
Where: 3690 Mission Blvd.
Hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday. Closed for lunch 12:30 to 1 p.m. Monday-Wednesday; 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday.
Contact: www.fhcsd.org; (619) 876-4420
“The response has been very positive,” Beach Area Health Family Center director John Bridges said of the women's clinic. “The environment is softer and a bit more comfortable for our female patients. They feel like they can get more attention because it's not as hectic as the main clinic. The waiting time is less, and they feel it's more personalized.
“The staff is female, and the focus of care is on women's issues.”
Family Health Centers has been operating as a nonprofit organization in the region since 1970 and has 24 countywide locations. The women's clinic runs on an annual budget of less than $1 million and is supported largely through donations, fundraising, grants and patient fees.
The Mission Beach center is its first stand-alone clinic dedicated solely to women's health care.
The new clinic opened with the help of federal grants and city funds.
None of the Family Health Centers, including the Mission Beach facilities, is free. But Family Health Centers of San Diego offers affordable care and flexible payment plans to help low-income patients pay for their health care out of pocket.
“It's really diverse, but the majority of our patients are low-income, working families," said Jennette Lawrence, director of government and community relations at Family Health Centers of San Diego. “So they're working (multiple) jobs. They're supporting their family. But their employer doesn't offer health insurance, or the cost of health insurance is cost-prohibitive given their salary."
The center also guides patients through the programs available at the city, county, state and federal levels to help pay for services.
“The biggest thing I hear from people is not knowing what resources are available and not knowing what programs that they qualify for and what programs their child can qualify for,” Lawrence said. “It means a lot to people to have a friendly face in your community to help them through the process.”
Chris Nixon is a freelance writer from San Diego.
