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