DEVELOPING TIMES

Tomato Fest held at Seymour Farmers’ Market

2011-09-07T18:37:00.000-06:00

Tomato Fest held at Seymour Farmers’ Market

Partners Worldwide

2011-05-04T05:52:00.000-06:00

Partners Worldwide

Harvest Shares

2011-03-25T10:03:00.000-06:00

Two Worlds

2010-08-13T05:48:00.005-06:00

While my role as the facilitator of Rural Empowerment Initiative (rei) will have me in two worlds, I can experience certain things in each continent.
For example weather.
Here the news will lead off with the weather. Its going to be in the high 80's today with dew points near 70!
This is news?
While in West Africa in February and March, I experienced their weather. While there isn't much variety in the news broadcasts, especially in Liberia, where basically the whole country remains off the grid from decades of fighting, it sure aint about the weather.
In fact, when you ask people "how hot is it?" Most people have no clue, do not care and just live life as usual.
They do not have ozone alerts or water sprinkling stations.
You know what they do. They don't complain. There are much bigger fish to fry so to speak. Its called survival. You see you have to do what you got to do, or you don't eat that day.
Women continue to carry large loads of material on theirs heads. Men continue to labor in the sweltering heat...if so fortunate, children walk along way to go to a school that is very under qualified.
I never knew how hot it was during my stay, other than it was really hot.
But its amazing when you don't let media tell you how it is, it doesn't seem that bad, or i guess you just put up with it and just do life.
I wish my world here in the US would pay attention to bigger fish and not make the weather headline news.
Believe me, there's much going on that could lead the news.

Partners Worldwide Confernce

2010-08-11T06:18:00.001-06:00

PARTNERS WORLDWIDE CONFERENCE

Go here to find out more and register...hope to see ya there!

A Tale of Two Cities — Clean Water and Sanitation

2010-06-22T06:44:00.001-06:00

A Tale of Two Cities — Clean Water and Sanitation as posted on business as Mission website...http://www.businessasmissionnetwork.com/

Guest Post by Chris Horst - Last month I started a journey, in monthly installments, to two fictional cities—Assetsville and Needsville—both cities representative of poor communities in Africa. While the issues in these cities are identical, the responses to these issues could not be more different—both in philosophy and methodology.

Clean water and sanitation are luxuries. The statistics are devastating: One billion of our planet’s citizens lack access to clean water. Unsafe water and poor sanitation cause 80% of all diseases and kill more than two million people annually, 90% of whom are children under the age of five.

When these realities became publicized in Needsville, the response from the international community was swift and profound. Wells were drilled. Rainwater was collected and purified. Water filtration plants were installed. The challenge was big and the response was inspiring.

Sadly, the outcomes fell far short of the aspirations. Shockingly, 80% of the new wells fell into disrepair. The entire region became a “wasteland for broken water and sanitation infrastructure.” The working wells became overworked, plagued by shortages and unmotivated staff. Long lines developed at these wells as the meek recipients waited anxiously to fill up their jugs with the “free” water. Even some church well projects, while well-meaning, were not sustained. The wells were drilled for the residents of Needsville by missions trippers, not by or with them.

In sharp contrast, the streets of Assetsville are now flowing with clean water. Local ingenuity, entrepreneurial grit and sustainable models abound. A local church recently built a water purification center with the help of a Christian ministry and is now providing affordable clean water to their community. The water business employs a handful of church members and creates a revenue stream for the church to pay its underpaid pastoral staff. Refreshing: The local church is providing affordable pure water and sharing about the Living Water.
A microfinance program in Assetsville built a purification system in its branch office. Dozens of clients subsequently took out loans to purchase the clean water in bulk. These water vendors load up their bicycles with jugs of water and sell it in some of the most-underserved communities in the city. Through this model, they collectively sell over 300,000 gallons annually and experience the dignity of work. Innovative: Water solutions—microfinance-style.

Down the road, a pioneering new business is a booming success, bringing dignity to sanitation, through its high-quality, public, pay-per-use toilet and shower facility. Counterintuitive: “The poor” paying for the privilege of using clean bathroom facilities.

Even the children are involved in the movement. They pump clean water into their schools while they play on merry-go-rounds. The excess water is sold to the community and advertising space on the water tanks is sold to ensure the pumps are maintained. Clever: Sustainable clean water fueled by the play of children.

All throughout Assetsville, fresh ideas and entrepreneurial tenacity are charting a new course—a course fueled by smart solutions, and framed by healthy partnerships between the residents of Assetsville and those who are descending on the city to provide help.

Labels: Chris Horst, Water
posted by Justin Forman | 5.05.2010 - 10:02 AM

Liberia-Full of Hope

2010-06-14T20:30:00.002-06:00

While this piece rings so true with moving Liberia forward...it brings up the issue about aid workers and how little aid really gets to the people...it's time for change in development...bottom's up!

Open letter to Bono and Bob Geldof

2010-06-11T05:21:00.000-06:00

Open letter to Bono and Bob Geldof

President Obama Meets with Liberian President Sirleaf

2010-06-01T06:33:00.000-06:00

The Greater Cane Rat- AKA-Grasscutters-A delicacy In Cote d'ivoire

2010-05-25T19:54:00.007-06:00

One of the projects being started by ACLCP(Association of Christians Fighting Against Poverty) and the demonstration farm in Cote d'Ivoire is a grasscutter production.
In the beginning of the month,30 grasscutters where delivered at that Ghana border by Renita Reed.
Three died in transport as these little 'rats' are sensitive to travel.
Now the 27 have found a new home in the demonstration farm and will be the base for production.

Wikipedia states;
The Greater Cane Rat (Thryonomys swinderianus) is one of two species of cane rats, a small family of African hystricognath rodents. It inhabits Africa, south of the Saharan Desert. The cane rat lives by reedbeds and riverbanks. As humans move into such territories, the cane rats accepted plantations and cultivated areas. Cane rats can grow about two feet long in the longest individuals and weighs a little less than 19 lb (8.6 kg). It has rounded ears, short nose, and coarse bristly hair. Its forefeet are smaller than its hindfeet and supports its weight on only three toes. Cane rats live in small groups led by a single male. They are nocturnal and make nests from grasses or burrow underground. The oldest cane rat can live more than four years. If frightened, they grunt and run towards water. They eat grasses and cane and since they have tastes for cultivated foods, they make serious agricultural pests. So far, their conservation status is lower risk.

In the country of Ghana and other regions of West Africa, the Greater Cane Rat is usually called a grasscutter or cutting grass. In both West Africa and Southern Africa, it is considered a delicacy. As a consequence, "grasscutters" are beginning to be raised in cages for sale, and so are sometimes referred to as micro livestock.

So in here begins a small enterprise raising grasscutters.

The goal is to help in self sustainability of ACLCP and teach other farmers in the production of these delicate, expensive meals.

My Latest E-Letter-Saturday Morning Post(s)

2010-05-22T06:57:00.001-06:00

Saturday Morning Post(s) has been in production for 3 years...get latest copy here

Jatropha-the other weed

2010-05-05T13:41:00.001-06:00

In 2008, Mission Goorgoorlu won a grant to produce biofuel outboards, with the goal of helping rural Senegalese use their waterways to connect them to markets, hospitals, and cities. This is our first launch.

Check out this video

‘Agribusiness is the pathway out of rural poverty’

2010-05-03T19:05:00.000-06:00

http://www.ifad.org/media/press/2010/30.htm

‘Agribusiness is the pathway out of rural poverty’: IFAD President urges African leaders to invest in agriculture

Rome, 29 April 2010 – African governments, donors and the private sector need to act now to turn the world’s 500 million small farms into profitable businesses, said Kanayo F. Nwanze, President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Prior to leaving for Dar es Salaam to attend the regional World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, hosted by the United Republic of Tanzania, Nwanze said, “What we need to be rethinking is how to turn political will into profits for Africa’s agriculture sector, 95 per cent of which is smallholder farming.”

He added that this could be accomplished if African governments step up their investment in agriculture and build partnerships with the private sector in an open and accountable way. “Working to double the income of a subsistence farmer is simply poverty management. But helping that farmer to launch an agribusiness; that is poverty eradication,” emphasized Nwanze.

The theme of this year’s WEF meeting on Africa is “Rethinking Africa's Growth Strategy”. Nwanze is slated to speak at key Forum sessions.

“African governments must create the right policy environment to allow agribusinesses and agro-industries to develop and flourish, which can provide much-needed employment for Africa’s youths,” he said. “At the same time, investments by the international community and developing country governments need to be smart to focus on the research and development of new technologies to enhance productivity and intensify production.”

Investments and policies need to pave the way for private sector involvement by providing smallholder farmers sufficient access to assets such as land and water, and improving infrastructure, such as roads, power and storage.

During the Forum, Nwanze will outline the potential and promise of rural agriculture and call for governments of African countries and the private sector to find synergies among their competing priorities.

“We must continue to ask tough questions about how African countries, and particularly their leadership, are managing their own houses and applaud those who are setting examples,” said Nwanze, adding that “lessons must be learned from past mistakes that have led to misery for poor people in the rural areas of the continent.”

It will be the first time the WEF has held its meeting in East Africa, where according to UN agencies, a major food crisis is building in southern Sudan.

“With some 80 million small farms in sub-Saharan Africa producing 80 per cent of the agricultural outputs, smallholder farmers can unlock the continent’s potential to feed itself,” he continued.

“Agriculture, irrespective of the size of the farm, is a business. And every entrepreneur, whether it is a smallholder farmer or a large commercial farmer, needs or wants to make money. We have the responsibility to transform smallholder agriculture into smallholder businesses," Nwanze said.

At WEF, Nwanze will meet private sector leaders and explore wealth creation for smallholder farmers. “I will be working to empower them to increase incomes from one dollar a day to five dollars a day,” he stated. Partnerships with the private sector are a linchpin in the new vision of IFAD, and under Nwanze’s leadership the Fund is looking to mobilise resources through the private sector for agro-processing, marketing and business development to transform rural areas into thriving economies.

SENEGAL: Small-Scale Irrigation: Key to Rural Development

2010-05-01T07:33:00.002-06:00

SENEGAL:
Small-Scale Irrigation: Key to Rural Development

Koffigan E. Adigbli

DAKAR, Apr 13 (IPS) - Over the past four years, the Local Small-scale Irritation Project has spent more than $10.5 million U.S. dollars supporting rural communities in Senegal.
These water reserves have contributed to increased rice yields, which grew from less than one tonne per hectare in 2003 to three to six tonnes per hectare in 2009. It also allowed the development of off-season horticulture, rice cultivation and vegetable gardening. Communities in target villages of Fatick, Tambacounda and Kolda Kédougou also achieved six to eight months self-sufficiency in rice crops.

"The project has also helped increase the income of more than 6,000 farmers by over 50 percent; replenished the water table; launched micro-projects (in water supply and sanitation), and an anti-salinisation campaign," Wally Gueye, technical advisor to the Ministry of Environment told IPS.

He said more than 2,100 hectares of land that had been rendered saline was reclaimed; preventive measures were taken to protect a further 9,800 hectares of land at risk. of salinity.

"The activities conducted in different regions often exceeded targets," said PAPIL coordinator Amadou Baba Sy, "whether it be seedling production and reforestation, creating and maintaining fire-breaks, or cattle rangeland clearing and maintenance."

He added that a programme on water-borne diseases was implemented by regional medical centres which included information, public education and communication campaigns along with advocacy tools.

Sy emphasized that the persistent food and financial crisis, the adverse effects of climate change, floods caused by torrential rains, desert encroachment, coastal erosion and loss of ecosystems have combined to hinder some of PAPIL's achievements.

He also said there were still some difficulties to be overcome before the programme can expand nationally. These difficulties are mainly tied to implementation delays and funding gaps.

An agreement was signed in February between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and PAPIL defining a framework for collaboration, co-managing and co-financing joint activities and guaranteeing the project's sustainability as a tool for grassroots development, Sy told IPS.

A total of 207 microprojects amounting to about $1.6 million dollars are available to rural communities, according to Sy. The projects include 35 for water education, 10 health, and 98 for post-harvest equipment.

Jeffrey Povolny, Senegal director of USAID/Wula Nafaa ("Benefits of the Forest" in Bambara), states that USAID has the added intention to work with PAPIL to help the Senegalese government improve its agricultural policies and activities.

"We work on the same issues. It was logical for us to combine our efforts and work together for better returns," he says. The overall objective of USAID / Wula Nafaa is to contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable local development by increasing the income of rural producers and local communities, he told IPS.

Ibrahima Diouf, coordinator of a group of farmers who've been participating in the project in Fatick for over three years, the breadth and productivity of rice cultivation have increased considerably.

"Our group, which includes over one hundred people, has more than five hectares of rice... Currently we're supported by PAPIL especially regarding irrigation. We also produce garden vegetables, a very profitable undertaking," he told IPS.

Famara Sarr, vice-chairman of Fatick's regional council, said it was important to encourage the government to provide more resources to the project.

"Lack of funding prevents PAPIL from reaching approximately 65 percent of farmed regions and 70 percent of other agricultural production areas," he says. "The project must be institutionalised to support communities with programmes that are to everyone's advantage."

(END/2010)

Slager Vision Video-West africa 2010

2010-04-30T06:08:00.000-06:00

Slager Vision Video -West Africa 2010 from rick slager on Vimeo.

Agricultural Empowerment Initaive--LEAD INC.

2010-04-23T07:29:00.002-06:00

Agricultural Empowerment Initiative

In response to requests from rural regions of Liberia, LEAD is launching an agricultural component to its training and loan programs. In spite of its fertile land, roughly 80% of Liberia’ s food supply is imported each year. This is largely due to the large number of farms which failed or were abandoned during the war. LEAD’s newest program, the Agriculture Empowerment Initiative (AEI) is dedicated to providing the business skills training and capital needed by Liberia’s farmers as they restart their farms. This program will help to lower food prices across Liberia, stem urban migration, and generate jobs in Liberia’s poorest rural region.

Rice vs Vegtables

2010-04-21T05:53:00.002-06:00

DAKAR, 1 April 2010 (IRIN) - Rice may still be a symbol of food security across Africa, but the cereal does little to boost nutrition, unlike vegetables, according to the India-based International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).

Vegetables should have their place in the fields and at the table alongside cereals commonly grown in arid countries, vegetable breeding expert Sanjeet Kumar with ICRISAT and the Taiwan-based AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center (formerly known as the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center) told IRIN.

“While rice and other cereals can cut hunger, vegetables bolster nutritional security and take up less land to grow.”

“Rice is a poor source of essential vitamins and minerals, either because these compounds are not present in rice, especially when it is polished [white], or they cannot be absorbed by humans,” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) nutrition specialist Roland Kupka told IRIN. “Diets that are primarily based on polished rice may thus lead to deficiencies in iron, zinc, vitamin A, and thiamine [B1] deficiency, which in turn impair growth, immunity, and mental development among children.”

Mineral and vitamin-packed foods include fruit, vegetables and animal products like eggs or fish, said Kupka.

UNICEF estimates 40 percent of under-five children in the arid Sahel are chronically malnourished because they lack the vitamins and minerals needed to bolster their immune systems and mental skills. Another estimated 300,000 die every year from malnutrition.

While health workers may have scales, armbands and yardsticks to measure acute malnutrition (when children are underweight for their height), they are less likely to have microscopes to analyse blood work to measure micronutrient deficiencies.

Comparative advantage

When asked whether rice overshadows more nutritious agriculture sectors, the director of Africa Rice Centre, Papa Abdoulaye Seck, told IRIN that rice cultivation can subsidize these other crops.

“Rice is a strategic commodity… We can do business with rice. Imagine if the US$2 billion dollars [2006 estimate] that Africa spends on rice imports every year were reinvested in the agricultural sector - do you think Africa would now have 265 million starving people?” asked Seck, referring to an estimate from UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Photo: Tomas de Mul/IRIN
Rice fills stomachs, but empty in other ways (file photo)
Seck said farmers in Africa have a comparative advantage in growing rice. “We want to develop rice instead of [only] vegetable gardening, because Asia, the largest producer of rice, will not be able to continue doing so. In Asia, there is arable land, but less water. While in Africa, we have enormous potential.”

FAO estimates farmers use 17 percent of cultivable land in Africa, which leaves some 126 million hectares to plant, he said.

Lack of seeds

Based in Niger, vegetable breeder Kumar said ICRISAT and AVRDC-The World Vegetable Center have worked with local groups since 2001 to establish in West Africa 2,500 vegetable gardens that use low-drip irrigation - small perforated pipes that deliver water directly to plant roots.

“There are local vegetables and people know the importance of traditional vegetables, but they do not have the seeds or they get seeds donated from other countries that are not adapted to local conditions,” Kumar told IRIN.

He said land in the Sahel is not the main obstacle to expanding vegetable cultivation, but rather lack of seeds. The vegetable plots are at most 500 square metres. Vegetables that can survive in the Sahelian sun need to be grown for their seeds, but seed commercialization is undeveloped.

Then there is tradition. “Staples like millet and sorghum have long dominated diets in the region, and they are suited to the climate. Vegetables, including indigenous vegetables, have always been part of local diets, but improved vegetable varieties that grow well in the Sahel were introduced only in the past few decades,” said AVRDC’s director for Africa, Abdou Tenkouano.

Problem of perception

There is also the problem of perception. “Vegetables like traditional leafy greens are sometimes viewed as ‘food of the poor’. People may not know how to prepare vegetables to benefit from their nutritional content, and they may lack knowledge on the health benefits of a balanced diet,” he added.

For the past two decades in Mali, Mariko Fadima Siby has grown 'fonio', a local cereal found throughout the Sahel.

She told IRIN rice has always been seen as a sign of status. “Since rice cultivation first picked up here in West Africa decades ago, you were somebody if you had rice during the holidays or growing in your field. It is not that local crops were forgotten, but they paled next to the sheen of rice.”

But eventually, people turn to what grows in their backyard, Siby concluded. “This is a hot place in the world. Whatever takes root here, we will take.”

pt/cb

Themes: (IRIN) Food Security, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition

[ENDS]
Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88650

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Moringa- A Gift from God

2010-03-16T10:55:00.002-06:00

While at Echo's (Education Concerns for Hunger Organization) conference in December of last year, I was reminded of the importance of this plant. My friend Andy from Echo, sent a bag of dried Moringa home with me years ago to try.

While in Liberia, I seen that it had been introduced to parts of Nimba county from Ghana.(that is what I was told...need to research that)
I can't help to think of the possibilities that this could provide for local farmers. While it would provide income generating activities for the small market holder, it would also provide nourishment.

What's great about this plant, it can grow almost anywhere and can take arid and semi arid conditions.

I will be studying this plant (hope to go to ECHO for two weeks this year) and I pray that we can be part of the production of it someday... somewhere.

Check out this video....

Out of Poverty-the old fashioned way

2010-03-15T18:47:00.005-06:00

Last fall, I was told about a guy named Paul Polak. "Never heard of em" , I said. I was talking with another ministry explaining the ideas and the method I was thinking about to reduce poverty in rural areas, it was then I was told of the book 'Out of Poverty'.

I returned home and I Googled it, and ordered the book on Amazon right away. That book radically changed my thinking and it confirmed some thoughts and ideas that had been rattling around in my cranium for some time.
What the book did for me is to realize, that if I were to dedicate the rest of my life to working with the rural poor, the approach should be the old fashioned way, work for it.

While traveling in West Africa last month, I witnessed many NGO's that I would imagine are getting thousands and if not millions of dollars and Euros to eradicate poverty. What kind of impact are they having? I would imagine some. But is it the long range solution?

The point of this post is using grass roots approach to reduce poverty.(I won't use the word 'eradicate' on this blog, Jesus said the poor will always be among you) There are 800 million small subsistence farmers in the world and they tend to be overlooked for many reasons.

But Paul Polak, the founder of International Development Enterprises (IDE) has proven methods that they share with others in reaching the rural poor. I hope that we can incorporate these into our ministry.

(From his website)
Paul Polak is drawing on his 25 years of experience, Polak explodes what he calls the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": that donations alone will end poverty, that national economic growth will end poverty, and that big business, operating as it does now, will end poverty. Polak shows that programs based on these ideas have utterly failed–in fact, in some areas where these approaches have been tried, such as sub-Saharan Africa, poverty rates have actually gone up.

These failed top-down efforts contrast sharply with the grassroots approach Polak and International Development Enterprises have championed: helping the dollar-a-day poor earn more money through their own efforts. Amazingly enough, unexploited market opportunities do exist for the desperately poor. Polak describes how he and others have identified these opportunities and have developed innovative, low-cost tools that have helped impoverished rural farmers use the market to improve their lives.

Good stuff...stay tuned for more developments...

Trashy Bags-our bags are trash

2010-03-12T07:33:00.004-06:00

While in Ghana for a few days, we visited a very unique and much needed business.
One thing I quickly realized on my first visit to the Gold Coast, is that the trash is limited compared to the other parts of Africa I have been.
Maybe one reason is this company has collected over ten million water sachets (they sell water on the street in these convenient plastic bags) all over Accra.
They pay women a certain price for large bags that are full of these sachets. Income opportunity number one.
Then they are washed and sorted all by hand outside of this modest little factory/building.
Then they are washed and trimmed to specifics with a scissors...by hand. I think you get it here.
These bags are all by hand and are cleaning up the environment and turning trash into jobs and profit.
Its been one thing that has been on mind since first arriving on African soil...there has to be some way to make something out of all this plastic?
There is so much plastic in Africa, that Uganda has banned them.Plastic is interfering with water penetrating the soil as they have become a liner. Every little thing you buy in Africa, they want to give you a plastic bag...
Then we saw the sewing process and so on at Trashy Bags. Very impressive.

Hopefully this can spill over to other countries and provide more work and income so people can be self supportive. GO TRASHY BAGS!

If you want to order these they will be available in the US on this website in about two weeks...http://www.business-connect.net

You can go to Trashy Bags website here

On the Road again...and hold on

2010-03-06T08:13:00.003-06:00

Traveling in Liberia is interesting, to say the least. The roads here are few and beat up. Fifteen years of war can do that to a country. To travel anywhere is not easy. First of all the public transportation here needs a major overhaul. The auto taxi's here are clunkers. We were to travel last Sunday to Cote d'Ivoire from Ganta, Liberia.
Our experience started as we went the 'parking station' to get a vehicle. There they sign you up for a taxi. Imagine this... in one little car they will load three people in the front seat(this includes the driver) and four people in the back seat. We could wait for the car to fill up or we could pay for extra seats. This was a easy decision. We each bought two seats. Cost? Ten bucks per seat. No problem. Ok, now my partner asks "do you have a spare tire?" and "does it have brakes?"
So we loaded up...when the driver assured of us both. One women joins us with a little baby and we are off.
Just after going down the road, I realized something. This thing was one piece of junk. We had to push start it every time and everything creaked, squealed,and begged for mercy.
One and half hours into the trip ...it started falling apart. The passenger front tire brake pad was found in the red clay dirt road as the driver realized we had problems.
So not only was our driver, a chauffeur, he was also a roadside mechanic.
He pulls out his bag of parts and starts to fix this beater. Two hours later, he assures us that we will be going soon. (this is after another roadside mechanic jumps in to help)
But,one thing I have figured out in Africa, that while it might take time, it usually happens. We arrived safely at the Cote d'Ivoire border after leaving six hours before.
We said good bye to our driver and prayed for the next passengers to ride in the 'car'.

In Country-Liberia

2010-02-21T13:43:00.002-06:00

As I landed In Liberia on Thursday afternoon I was greeted with palm trees and a very beautiful landscape. Overhead on arrival, I was amazed on how ‘green’ it was. Most of my experience in Africa has been in the dry season in Senegal.
As soon as I got off the plane, I was also reminded that this country is coming out of a long bitter confusing war. UN planes and vehicles were everywhere around the airport. Most Americans, including myself were oblivious to what happen here for 13 years. The devastation here from the war I am sure runs very deep into the culture.
I was amazed at the airport. It was very clean and orderly. I had this picture painted of it in my mind, and it was nothing like I had expected. This country is rebounding with resiliency.
My first night for dinner we met with a local doctor at his house. Inside, although very small with electric run by a generator, we were warmly received. There were many laughs and introductions that night and I had a sense I was really going to enjoy getting to know this country.
The heat and humidity here are high. It’s taking some getting used to. I love warm weather, but the humidity here is one thing I could do less of .
The last two here in Monrovia have been full of meeting with Equip Liberia and LEAD Liberia. Two organizations that I am praying about to collaborate with in the future. I am so impressed with both.
LEAD Liberia is a NGO that is building up Liberia through small and medium enterprises. Training and access to capitol for Liberians to build their business is the heartbeat of this organization. Yesterday, at the national conference/Monrovia, we heard about customer satisfaction and the importance of it. The ambassador to Liberia from the US was the keynote speaker. Here she encouraged the Liberian small business owners to be honest and fight corruption.
Equip Liberia is working in rural communities and assisting in reestablish medical work. The work is around 80% in rural communities and is putting a good size dent in bringing back medical care for everyone.
Tomorrow we finally head out to the bush. I am excited to what God is doing out there and look to join Him in the work.

On the Road Again...Goin places I've never been

2010-02-04T20:34:00.005-06:00

On February 14, I embark on a 23 day three country trip, to West Africa. Landing in Accra , Ghana on the 15th , I will spend 2.5 days with the Reeds in the capitol city. Renita Reed of Partners Worldwide will be my host and 'tour guide'. The Reeds spent around four years in Liberia and have now settled in Ghana. I am so thankful for this opportunity.
I have spent a considerable amount of time communicating with Renita in preparation for this trip. I will also be with some North Americans from Michigan and Indiana while In Monrovia.

We will visit a few organizations and villages while in Ghana and then take off for Monrovia, Liberia. I will be spending around three days in Monrovia, which is the capitol of this war torn country. I then will proceed to venture out into the bush, Nimba county for about one week. There I will have the opportunity to see the work that Equip Liberia and L.E.A.D are doing in these farming communities.
Then its off to Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast) for around five days. Here, I will visit with a pastor who has incorporated a demonstration farm and training center into his ministry. Because of the looting by rebels around 2003, it has to be reestablished.

So whats the point?
As we are beginning a new season of life with Equip International, we are looking at plugging into an opportunity for ministry and development.
I am interested in what these organizations are doing, and seeking God's plan for our lives.
Exciting times!

And I'm sure I will be ready to go home again...after visiting places that I've never been...

Oceans Waste Management-Monrovia Liberia

2010-02-04T19:58:00.000-06:00

OCEANS from Partners Worldwide on Vimeo.

Africa Can Feed Itself?

2010-01-23T21:39:00.002-06:00

There are lots of opportunities in agriculture to turn the African continent from food-deficit to food-surplus, but all sensible commentators agree that it is smallholder agriculture particularly that deserves attention if we are to achieve this goal. Questions are: Why are smallholders still net importers of food into their homesteads? And why does 30-40% of African agriculture go to waste every year?

Better seeds, fertilizers, market information, roads, post harvest storage, local value adding, more facilitative regulations, access to credit - all these are cited as important responses and necessary to the 'green revolution'. But one fact stands out starkly: only 4% (or 6% according to some) of African agriculture is irrigated. This means that 96% is rain fed.

Rain fed means feast-famine, glut-shortage production cycles which are out of whack with demand which is constant (and indeed rising). Increasing the productivity of rain fed agriculture will compound the existing problem of 30% - 40% waste, by placing additional strain/demand on already inadequate infrastructures. Nowhere else in the agriculture world does anyone depend so heavily on rain fed production.

Asian agriculture is 43% irrigated! So why can we not apply this solution here? Some say it is because Africa is water scarce ... but it absolutely is not. Others say that it’s because irrigation is so phenomenally expensive - big schemes, large dams, small dams, other storage systems like RWH tanks do indeed cost a lot. But irrigation need not be so expensive as we have shown:

At KickStart we have developed an irrigation technology that:

* Costs less than $400 per irrigated hectare (versus $5,000 - $10,000 for conventional irrigation schemes)

* Is as conservative of water (arguably even more conservative) than micro-drip - and is less expensive per hectare and much easier to set up and use

*Only uses surface or shallow groundwater (e.g. from hand-dug wells), which is renewed/recharged every rainy season

* Is already used by over 90,000 rural families - who have invested in the technology themselves without any assistance from anyone

The technology has transformed from subsistence to profitable commercial agriculture as a result; increased productivity and incomes by typically 300% to 1200%; provided new employment to over 120,000 people in rural areas; generated over $90 million per year into local economies and can be used by between 15-20 million families in SSA (i.e. ~10% of the SSA population) because they live in places where the pump can physically work and where it makes economic sense to do so

This technology is well designed and made. The human powered pressure irrigation pump for example, is widely distributed, marketed and sold in Kenya and Tanzania and Mali. The two models - one for $100 and another for $35 are guaranteed.

Smallholder farmers themselves make the decision to invest in them. No government or NGO funds are needed. The farmers themselves have gone on to reap the benefits and make the impacts that are cited above. Currently around 2,000 smallholder farmers per month buy one of these pumps.

Rural people can come out of poverty and into prosperity in as short a time as possible - using market based approaches. There is potential here for 10% of Africa's people to increase their productivity by a factor of 5 (or so) which would mean doubling current food production on the continent. And it would cost them and their governments only a very small fraction of the money that other, less effective, solutions would cost.

We need brain-fed but not rain fed agriculture to turn around the smallholder sector in Africa and transform rural people from 'liabilities' on national books of account, in permanent need of charity and relief welfare, to 'assets' who are using their skills and knowledge to add value and create wealth. It is not rocket science to do so. Just a question of looking critically at our agricultural systems and processes, and identifying where the tightest bottleneck is and removing this first, before going on to address secondary and tertiary bottlenecks.

Right now, I fear that many policies and interventions in this sector can be likened to the non-solution to traffic congestion we are witnessing along Nairobi's Mombasa road. By widening and smoothing this road, as they have done, a whole lot more cars can get a lot more quickly to the Nyayo stadium roundabout and get stuck there, so we now get a 2km long, 4 lane wide, jam instead of a 4 km long, 2 lane wide, jam. The net effect is zero.

By Nick Moon,

Co-Founder; Managing Director,

KickStart International

Driving (and Walking) In Monrovia: Not For the Faint of Courage

2010-01-21T07:20:00.004-06:00

Monrovia, Liberia - A major challenge in any large, crowded city is simply navigating the traffic in traveling from one place to another. But that task is decidedly more complicated in a city with no traffic lights, few to no stop signs whatsoever and just a handful of traffic agents on the roads. Imagine if all the traffic signals were disconnected and stop signs removed from, say, Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn or Fordham Road in the Bronx.

That’s the case here in Monrovia, where the impact of nearly 15 years of civil strife is most easily seen and felt in the city’s traffic. For one thing, the sheer volume of the population of Liberia’s capital has soared as rural dwellers moved en masse to seek employment in Monrovia, the country’s lone big city. The population here has more than doubled since the war, with about 1.5 million people in the capital (half of Liberia’s population now lives in Monrovia) Furthermore, the war, which ended in 2003, destroyed the hydro-electric plant in Monrovia, and rebuilding it has been a slow – if steady – undertaking. At the same time, the number of motorcycles has skyrocketed with officials suggesting that they now nearly rival the number of cars here.

All of that has made driving here an enterprise that is best not left to the faint of courage. The best preparation might well be a month of test driving on an obstacle course (or even in downtown Brooklyn, for that matter). Simply driving onto the highways and streets here — and certainly seeking to make a left turn from a major road — takes a combination of boldness, pluck and sheer bravery. Pedestrians cross roads as best they can, calculating whether they amass the speed to outrace oncoming traffic. There is no traffic light to bring traffic to a halt at an intersection and rarely is there a police officer. So, crossing the street is a highly-charged, track-and-field event for pedestrians. And the presence of potholes of every size is an extenuating challenge for Monrovia’s drivers.

There is a distinctive rhythm to creeping out to enter or make a left turn from the road – it’s the driving equivalent of the school girl poising with intense focus descend into the whirl of jump-rope. “You’ve got be very watchful,” said Michael B. Cole, a 20-year-old University of Liberia student who drives his older brother’s Volvo from time to time. “I’ve been driving since I was 13, starting with my father’s car.”

Driving in Monrovia, he added, involves the utmost in concentration, because of the pedestrians, the unpredictability of the motorcycles’ bobbing and weaving, the potholes and the water that can form small lakes in the roads during Liberia’s rainy season. “You have to always watch, always watch,” he said, while blowing his horn to alert a driver who seemed to be on a collision course with Mr. Cole’s car.

And driving here at night is an altogether advanced level of challenge. With few sections of the city illuminated by street lights, averting the scampering pedestrians in the darkness can be a potentially perilous endeavor to say the least, a virtual suicide mission for those crossing by foot. On a recent event here, the streets at one junction seems even more crowded than during the daylight rush hour and pedestrians at every turn seems to narrowly avert catastrophe.

And yet, amid the motorcycle darting, the fearless pedestrians and the incessant blaring of horns, there is an abundance of courtesy that seems to prevail. Some drivers will simply stop at an intersection to allow the elderly or young children cross. It is not uncommon for a driver, seeing the desire of another to make a turn, to slow down and flash his lights, a sign of allowance to make the turn. All of it is acknowledged with the courtesy of a wave in return.

But things are due to improve, said Miekee S. Gray, the chief of traffic for the national police. “We have plans to get many more traffic signals placed in the busy intersections,” Mr. Gray said, in an interview. “Right now we just have about 150 traffic officers on duty during the course of the day. In two years, I think you will see a big difference in the traffic in Monrovia.”

For one thing, he said that the increase in traffic signals will make it possible to reduce the number of traffic agents on the streets, freeing them to do other police activities. He said there are also plans to set up video monitoring systems that will enable the police to watch traffic around Monrovia from a command center and dispatch agents as necessary. Also, the police will conduct widespread training to better acquaint drivers with standard international traffic signs.

Also, Mr. Gray said, police officers have cracked down on enforcing seat belt regulations so intensely that most drivers now understand the importance of wearing them. And the department plans more public awareness campaigns, he said. “We are making progress and we will be making a lot more progress in the next few years,” he said. “You'll see street lights in bigger numbers and a better flow of traffic” (To be completely accurate, there is one functioning traffic signal here now, at the Port of Liberia).

In the meantime, drivers have to make the best with conditions. “I think things will get better in time,” Mr. Cole said. “It’s a pain driving in the city. But you have to make the best of it for now.”

By Jonathan P. Hicks

Amaranth

2010-01-15T07:00:00.002-06:00

One of the things we will look at in the future is introducing where applicable, new varieties of food and fodder.

This project in Uganda can be duplicated in other parts of Africa?

New Year...New Gig

2010-01-09T09:52:00.007-06:00

Happy New Year!

How's those resolutions doing? Geez...it's the ninth already and I haven't even made any.

I've thought about creating a list...so how bout making it public?

So here's my top ten list of things to work on in 2010.

Being a better Dad-Husband-Brother-Son-Friend- This is a challenge we all struggle with. But, being aware of this every day is my hope and desire.
Memorize a bible verse a week. It is what it is. This will take discipline.
Keep up with exercise and whole foods diet.
Simplify life...I'm already making strides here...need to keep the push.
Learn French...Oh my, this one scares the heck out of me! Let's see if I can blog in French by years end!
Establish a ministry...this means too many things to post here. But, let's look back at years end and see what God does here.
Clear out my idols closet one by one and make God the center of my life.
Use Time wisely-when you realize that you are about to turn fifty...time starts to matter a bit more? I'm not just talking about little things you waste time in the day, but I'm talkin about the big picture. You know each day is a gift...I'm going to try and make each day count.
Reading more. Watching Tv less and less frivolous internet searching...e.g. Facebook
Not make any promises I cannot keep. I'm one to put myself out there. I've had too many irons in the fire and it just adds unwanted stress. Can I get an amen?

Kenya: Maize Shortage to Affect Four Million Citizens

2010-01-04T07:28:00.000-06:00

Kenya: Maize Shortage to Affect Four Million Citizens

Mark Kapchanga

3 January 2010

Nairobi — More than four million Kenyans will face an acute shortage of their staple food, maize, as early as April this year.

Egerton University's research arm -- Tegemeo Institute -- says the country's food security situation is precarious. It adds that there is a potential food crisis occasioned by erratic rains during the long rains season.

Kenya will depend heavily on neighbouring countries for maize imports.

Tegemeo maize researcher Francis Karin says the maize reserve will last up to the first quarter of 2010 only.

"From April, Kenya will have to import maize to save its people from starvation. The situation will improve only after major harvests are realised towards the end of the year in September and October," Mr Karin said.

The thinktank says the situation has been worsened by the failed El Nino rains, which many farmers had pegged their hopes on.

Continuing export bans in neighbouring Tanzania and Uganda have worsened the problem. They are likely to reduce cross-border maize inflows by approximately 46 per cent.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) says other issues affecting Kenya's maize outputs include inefficient market competition, lack of enough agricultural extension systems and poor infrastructure.

Production from the long rains usually accounts for 85 per cent of the national output, which is currently estimated at 30 million bags. As a result of the intermittent rains this year, this production level is set to fall below last year's.

Estimates by Tegemeo place the long rains production at 18 million bags. This represents 65 per cent of the Ministry of Agriculture's target of 28 million bags.

Crop performance analysis by the ministry shows that the country's major production zones will record massive declines in maize production.

South Rift, Eastern and Central and North Rift Provinces have an annual crop performance rate of 50 per cent. Nyanza's lowlands recorded a 60 per cent production decline while the highlands had a 35 per cent decline. Western and Central registered 30 per cent and 70 per cent decline, respectively.

On average, out of the country's 1.3 million hectares of land under maize, only 18.2 million bags were achieved, representing an average 14.3 bags per hectare. This is 65 per cent of Kenya's target of 28 million bags.

The ministry estimates the short rains production at 6.5 million bags, with 2.6 million bags coming from Eastern province. Another 1.6 million bags is expected from Nyanza province.

This is quite optimistic. Ukambani and upper Eastern have already lost their maize crop due to the failed El Nino rains. Nyanza has not fared any better.

Copyright © 2010 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Senegal apology for Christ 'slur'

2009-12-31T07:32:00.002-06:00

Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade has apologized to the Christian minority for comparing a controversial statue to Jesus Christ.

Archbishop of Dakar Theodore Adrien Sarr said the comments had "humiliated" Catholics, leading to angry protests by hundreds of Christian youths in Dakar.

Mr Wade made the comments after imams condemned the statue as "idolatrous".

The $27m North Korean-built "African Renaissance" statue has also been criticised as a waste of money.

Senegal has a long history of tolerance between majority Muslims and the influential Christian community, who make up some 6% of the population.
“ We were shaken and humiliated by the comparison which the head of state made between the monument to African renaissance and the representations found in our churches ”
Theodore Adrien Sarr Archbishop of Dakar

But the BBC's Tidiane Sy in Dakar says there have been recent warnings that this could be at risk.

Three respected groups have called on the government to be cautious about how it handles religious issues.

President Wade sent his influential son, Karim, who is also a cabinet minister, to deliver a personal apology to Archbishop Sarr after the stone-throwing Christian youths clashed with security forces outside Dakar cathedral on Wednesday.

The archbishop had said: "We were shaken and humiliated by the comparison which the head of state made between the monument to African renaissance and the representations found in our churches."

President Wade had sought to deflect the criticism of his statue on religious grounds by comparing it to the statues of Jesus Christ found in churches.

He hopes that the statue will attract more tourists to the country but many Senegalese feel the money could be better spent.

The statue, intended to symbolize the fight against racism, was Mr Wade's idea and he says he will personally take 35% of the revenue it generates, with the rest going to the state.

When completed early in 2010, it will be bigger than the Statue of Liberty in New York.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8435805.stm

Published: 2009/12/31 10:20:28 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Liberia: Belle Yella Opens to the World

2009-12-29T06:21:00.000-06:00

28 December 2009
The people of Belle Yellah, in Gbarpolu County, received perhaps the greatest Christmas gift of their lifetime when President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf led an array of Government officials and the Ambassadors of the United States and China to fulfill a promise that she would spend the 2009 Christmas with the people of this northwestern forest town.

What made the Belle Yellah visit even more historic is the fact that, for the first time in the history of Liberia, a town once famous for its political prisons, where past governments locked up opponents and hardened criminals, was poised to be linked to the rest of the country by a motor road being constructed by the Government of Liberia.

The Liberian President had assured the County's most famous son, Paramount Chief Old Man Jallah Lone, now 106 years old, and other prominent people of Gbarpolu that, come what may, she would spent the Christmas in their town, not by way of a helicopter, but by road. "If the road doesn't reach Belle Yellah in time for the Christmas, we will walk, wherever the road stops, to get to Belle Yellah," the President repeated recently in a holiday message and in subsequent interviews.

The President's comments to walk to Belle Yellah may not have been taken literally by many. They were wrong, because the President actually walked for more than an hour and a half to reach the town, when it became clear that the Ministry of Public Works construction crew would not be able to connect Belle Yellah by road on Christmas Day.

With Government officials and her diplomatic guests following, the President walked through the dense Belle forest, crossing creeks, connected sometimes only by makeshift bridges that challenged even those who use them regularly.

"How far is Belle Yellah from here?" was the question most frequently asked by the officials, determined to spend Christmas in the town. Depending on who the question was addressed to, the responses were different. "It's just 30 minutes; you're not too far." One villager was very precise. "It will take 23 minutes," he said, confidently. In reality, the stretch was longer than everyone anticipated. Those who could walk faster took an hour, others a little longer. But in the end it didn't matter; the goal was to get to Belle Yellah, a town charged with euphoria and anticipation.

At about 4:15 p.m., the crowd, ecstatic, erupted in cheers and songs. It appeared that the President and her entourage had made the stretch. But that was not the case. A motorbike had made it through, the first in the history of the town. Most of the inhabitants, especially the younger generation, had never seen a motorbike, let alone a vehicle. A young man rubbed the dust off the motorbike with his finger and licked it, in appreciation for the historic event he was witnessing.

Meanwhile, the crowd continued to surge, anticipating the arrival of the President and her delegation, which arrived, finally, at about 6:15 p.m. to the delight of the town's residents who sang, danced, and chanted slogans in welcoming the President to "prisoner's creek," so-called because it was used by male prisoners as a place to shower.

Women spread their lappas on the ground as the President and her entourage walked to the recently constructed meeting place for an official program. County officials, led by Superintendant Gertrude Larmine and the Legislative Caucus, were present, and lavished praises on the President for fulfilling her promise to spend the Christmas with them.

They were particularly grateful to the President for undertaking the construction of the 25-mile stretch of road linking Bopolu to Belle Yellah. "You have fulfilled the vision of our forefathers," District No.3 Representative, Dixon Yarseah, said. He regretted that the area was marginalized by past governments, but was now hopeful that, with the construction of a motor road linking Belle Yellah to the rest of the country, the area would now attract more development.

The President thanked the citizens for the warm welcome, and reiterated that her visit was in fulfillment of a promise to the people of Belle Yellah that she would spend the Christmas with them. She apologized for the delay in reaching the town, but assured them they would spend Christmas night together.

The Liberian President also thanked all those who had made the trip, taking time from their families to spend Christmas in Belle Yellah. She was particularly full of praises for the Minister of Public Works and his engineering crew for their hard work. "We intend to turn Belle Yellah into a place of hope from a place of horror," the President told journalists later in an interview.

The decision by the President to spend the night in Belle Yellah took many residents by surprise since accommodation, especially for a President, poses some challenges, which the President acknowledged. "We will all stay up, tell stories, and dance as it is done when a stranger comes to your town and there are no sleeping places," the President suggested.

It was worth the wait because, as the night progressed, and with the President keeping her word and staying awake, enjoying the traditional music and dance, came word that the road crew was about to enter the town. The news spread like wildfire, and like an army of ants, residents, with their flashlights, began to move towards the construction site to witness, firsthand, the history that was unfolding before their very eyes.

Yes, it was, indeed, true, because not only was the sound of the heavy-duty equipment becoming increasingly louder, but lights from the caterpillars and the Presidential fleet of vehicles began beaming through the forests, becoming visible.

"This is not true, I cannot believe this," exclaimed an older woman as she struggled to join others who had begun to make their way to prisoner's creek, which stood as the only remaining hurdle to the entry of the first motor vehicle ever to enter Belle Yellah.

At 3:15 a.m., the first vehicle, a caterpillar, followed by a fleet of vehicles, roared into Belle Yellah as its residents chanted. It was reported that a woman, no doubt overwhelmed by the event, fainted. This could not be independently confirmed.

As the convoy approached, a middle-aged man, lying in the middle of the road, in disbelief, screamed: "I want the caterpillar to walk over me."

"Who way-say, Ellen way-say; Who way-say, Ellen way-say," chanted the residents, of all age groups, as they hugged one another and welcomed the convoy into Belle Yellah - the first entry of a motor vehicle, a dream - which the President described as a fulfillment of a promise to the people of Gbarpolu to end the isolation of the town and bring development to the area.

Copyright © 2009 Liberia Government. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica - All the Time

What Christmas was all about (in case you have forgotten already)

2009-12-27T09:43:00.000-06:00

Liberian head's Christmas in jail

2009-12-27T09:22:00.001-06:00

Liberia's President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf says she is going to spend Christmas Day at an old maximum security prison in the jungle.

Bella Yalla prison is in the remote north of Liberia, where political prisoners were kept and often tortured.

During her visit the prison will be renamed and transformed into a museum.

The BBC's Jonathan Paye-Layleh says her visit is intended to mark the end of the use of torture in Liberia, which is recovering from years of civil war.

Our reporter says during the conflict the government used to fly political prisoners to Bella Yalla prison in the Belle Forest.

He says some of those detained were political colleagues of Mrs Johnson-Sirleaf.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8428923.stm

Published: 2009/12/23 17:11:44 GMT

© BBC MMIX

Merry Christmas

2009-12-23T08:03:00.005-06:00

“Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”- Luke 2:11-14 NIV

I'd like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

But, I also would like to remind you that while we enjoy this season, there are so many people who are really hurting these days.

You don't need to look very far. Right in our neighborhoods there are people who are really hurting. Then if you look in your state, the urban areas, and the small towns, sins ugly head rears everywhere. And then we have world wide issues, persecution,hunger,war...this list could go on....

Yesterday as I was in Walmart, I couldn't help to think about the abundance we are surrounded with. One of the things that always turns my stomach, especially after returning from a developing country, is the rows and aisles of 'stuff'.

I saw people who had carts full of 'stuff' that will be given as a 'gift' and only to be forgotten in days, if not hours of receiving.

What did you get for Christmas last year?

There's only one gift that will last forever. That happened over two thousand years ago. And it came in a manger, in the form of a savior, Jesus Christ.

My prayer is that all people would acknowledge the real meaning of Christmas. That is what motivates our work. Yes we care about the social issues, but ultimately it is that each person would acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and savior that motivates us.

That's what Christmas is all about for me.

Merry Christmas!

One Person at a time....

2009-12-18T05:11:00.001-06:00

Help That Makes a Difference: Change our Worldview

2009-12-15T17:50:00.002-06:00

You want to read a good book regarding these topics? When Helping Hurts is a book you NEED to read if you are doing mission or development work.
Another one that is very helpful is Serving with Eyes Wide Open by David Livermore.

The goal is not to turn Kampala into Chicago. The goal is for both Kampala and Chicago to look more like the New Jerusalem.

Brian Fikkert, co-author of When Helping Hurts

What's the biggest change needed in how charities and federal agencies deliver aid to developing nations? Brian Fikkert, co-author of When Helping Hurts, David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, and Dale Hanson Bourke, author of The Skeptic's Guide to Global Poverty, suggest the best way to help.

"We were happy in our village before you folks told us we were poor. We didn't have many things, but happiness doesn't come just from having more material things. What makes you think we want to become just like you?"

The audience, a group of American donors and development leaders, looked bewildered as Emily, a community development worker from Liberia, took her seat. Finally, one of the U.S. donors spoke up. "Yes, of course we share your goals, Emily. That's why we keep on bringing you more capital and technology." Emily listened helplessly, realizing that her message had fallen on deaf ears—again.

Americans are the richest people ever to walk the face of the earth, and we coexist with 2.6 billion people living on less than $2 per day. The situation is simply immoral. We must do more, but we must do it differently.

For the past 60 years, the majority of American assistance has flowed out of a materialistic worldview, which assumes that wealth is produced by material things, namely capital and technology. In this view, America is "developed." We have arrived, and they have not. The assumption is that if we provide them with more capital and technology, they will be able to be just like the U.S.—a country where families and communities are disintegrating, where addictions are on the rise, where mental and emotional illnesses are exploding, and where rampant consumerism is bankrupting all of us.

The need for more capital and better technology persists. People really do need improved access to clean water, better health care, decent education, and a living wage. But they, and we, need something far more profound. Whether we realize it or not, we all are longing for an intimate relationship with God, for a sense of dignity, for community and belonging, and for the ability to use our gifts and abilities to develop creation. The goal is not to turn Kampala into Chicago. The goal is for both Kampala and Chicago to look more like the New Jerusalem.

The practical implications for providing aid are enormous: Spend more resources on supporting people-empowering processes and less on bricks and mortar; help people to steward the gifts and resources they already have; include the materially poor as full participants in selecting, designing, implementing, and evaluating any intervention; build the capacity of indigenous churches and Christian organizations to work in highly relational, gospel-focused ways; promote the use of spiritual tools—prayer, meditation, fellowship, and Bible study—in addition to material tools in all poverty-alleviation efforts; and embrace that both they and we are fundamentally broken and in need of the healing that only Jesus Christ can bring. We are all developing nations.

ChristianityToday

Related Elsewhere:

Brian Fikkert is co-author of When Helping Hurts, is director of the Chalmers Center for Economic Development at Covenant College. David Beckmann and Dale Hanson Bourke also suggested the best way to help.

Previous Village Green sections have discussed technology and abortion.

africa and business

2009-12-15T07:16:00.004-06:00

It's interesting when I talk about Africa to ill-informed, media induced and what I would call 'poverty p*rned' ( you know... images of starving children to open your pocketbooks) individuals.

Recently, I was talking with an interested party in buying our business and she asked me what I was going to do next. I never know how to answer this question because I'm not sure people can put their minds around it.
But, I told her that I was considering moving to Africa and that in the next few years we would be doing some ground work for that.
Her reply was interesting. She said something like " Isn't really impoverished over there...I mean how would you live?"
Hmmm....where does this preconceived notion come from?

And to be honest, the church and missions has added to this delusion. Of course there is poverty, corruption and lack of moral leadership. But, as I look around here in my US setting, I see the same.
We just have different forms of it.

But my view of Africa is changing. I see Africa as a continent with unlimited potential. I see Africa as a leader in world evangelization.
I see Africa as a continent that is far from its potential right now, but as the world recognizes this, things will change. China already has been investing in Africa. I have seen whole city streets in Senegal taken over by Chinese merchants in just a few years. I have seen the Chinese building roads in the DRC . But the US keeps talking about aid....and more aid....

Here's a good block of text from a TIME magazine article; ( my thoughts in italics)

Perhaps the most compelling evidence that Africa is now a business destination is China's new love for it. While the old superpowers still agonize over Africa's poverty, the new one is captivated by its riches. Trade between Africa and China has grown an average of 30% in the past decade, topping $106 billion last year. Chinese engineers are at work across the continent, mining copper in Zambia and cobalt in the Democratic Republic of Congo and tapping oil in Angola. Nor is this merely exploitative. ( this is debatable )China bought its access by agreeing to create a new infrastructure for Africa, building roads, railways, hospitals and schools across the continent. The current crisis is not expected to affect China's march in Africa: on the contrary, with the West's plans in Africa on hold at best, Beijing views it as an opportunity to extend China's lead. "We will continue to have a vigorous aid program here, and Chinese companies will continue to invest as much as possible," Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said in South Africa in January. "It is a win-win solution." Dambisa Moyo, who wrote Dead Aid, says those who need convincing about Africa should ask themselves if they are convinced about China, "because if you back China, you're backing Africa." Ecobank CEO Ekpe says part of the explanation for China's zeal for Africa is a new way of looking at Africans. "[The Chinese] are not setting out to do good," he says. "They are setting out to do business. It's actually much less demeaning." ( How would you feel if people constantly come into your neighborhood and your house taking photos and looking at them as inferior human beings?)

And that gets to what, for Africans, is the emotional heart of the matter — and why joining the business world means so much. Though it rarely occurs to Westerners who've been instructed that Africa needs their help, charity is humiliating. Not emergency charity, of course: when disaster strikes, emergency aid is always welcome, whether in New Orleans or Papua New Guinea. But long-term charity, living life as a beggar, is degrading. Andrew Rugasira, 40, runs Good African Coffee, a Ugandan company he set up in 2004 to supply British supermarkets under the motto "Trade, not aid." He is emblematic of a new generation of African antiaid, antistate entrepreneurs. For Rugasira, aid not only "undermines the creativity to lift yourself out of poverty" but also "undermines the integrity and dignity of the people. It says, These are people who cannot figure out how to develop." Aid even manages to silence those it is meant to help. "African governments become accountable to Western donors," says Rugasira, "and Africa finds itself represented not by Africans but by Bono and Bob Geldof. I mean, how would America react if Amy Winehouse dropped in to advise them on the credit crisis?" (Oh man...that's a daggar!)

So its time to reshape our ideas about Africa.

Let's think about a hand up...not a hand out.
Let's look at the potential of Africans. You'd be surprised.

Hello...Hello...Hello...my time at Echo Conference

2009-12-12T04:02:00.006-06:00

I just returned from the 16th annual Echo conference held in Fort Myers, Florida. Overall it was a great experience and opportunity. I met and interacted with people that came from all over the world that had the same focus, to meet the needs of the majority world and fight hunger.

I am still processing all the info I took in. I was amazed that in every session, there was something that could apply to our approach in ministry. I was in my element.

I grew up on a farm in south central Wisconsin. There I have found memories of doing field work, feeding cattle, and most of all enjoying God's creation. I still wish it would have worked out for my dad to remain in the farming business for longer than it did. I am sure that my dad was always a farmer at heart. :)

Years later, I became an avid gardener, loving to get my hands back in the dirt. I began to learn more about plants and started thousands of plants from seed in my basement. I remember working with my dad and trading 'secrets' about gardening. I always dreamed of being 'part of a farm again'. Then came my business and life changed. I had 'no time' for it.

Now, in processing, I just returned from something that stirred up a deep love. Agriculture and plants. I believe it has come full circle. I heard about amazing farming techniques in the tropics. I heard about a missionary that has helped begin the transformation of Niger. Their approach of Farmer's Managed Agroforesty Farming System is truly making a difference. Niger is one of the poorest countries of the world. Food security here is vital.

I heard about weaving Ag development with participation of the community. What a novel idea! It's time to listen to the community in which we work and build off what they know. In my little experience on the field, I am convinced I will always know very little and the community knows a lot.

This is where development starts- Listening...Learning...Sharing

Exploration

2009-12-03T20:22:00.002-06:00

Do you like exploring?
I do. I love visiting new places. I love looking under rocks. I like the old Forest Gump saying..."Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what your going to get"

That's where I am in life right now. After thirteen years of owning and running a small business, the season's are changing.
Is it a mid life thing at 48 years of age? Maybe. Is it in obedience to God? Yes.
You see eleven years ago I sat on a plane for the first time with my old pastor going to Romania on a cross cultural trip to visit a missionary we support as a church. This was the first time I was ever on a plane and I was flying all the way to Budapest, Hungary.
Little did I know, that on that trip, I would be introduced to Africa. The leader of that trip asked me during our time in Romania if I had any interest in going to Africa next February. I told him , I would talk to my wife and consider it in prayer.
Almost nine years later, I find myself selling my business and going full time into 'ministry' with an emphasis on community development and business as mission in West Africa.
The year 2010 looks to be full of challenges,changes and excitement for me.
I can't wait to see what is under the next rock!

Wow...this post needs more exposure.

2009-11-13T14:46:00.004-06:00

Recently I have been in contact with some people who are doing development work in Liberia.
Here's a blog post you gotta read...

Some of you, intrepid souls that you are, have expressed an interest in experiencing life in Liberia, or Africa in general, but haven’t had the means or opportunity to do so. Some of you have said it would be good to have your family experience the reality of living in a developing country, in part to add perspective to life in North America.

After churning it over a bit in our minds, we think we may have come up with a way to create a Liberian experience in a non African context. We call it Livin’ Liberian. It is actually nothing more than applying the living conditions of most Liberians to a set of instructions for you to follow. For some of you, just reading about it may be all the “experience” you want to absorb. For others, you may want to try it with some modifications. But for those radical ones out there, you may want to do the whole thing.

The full version of Livin’ Liberian should take place in the hottest, most humid time of the year. It should last for a week to get a richer sense of it (although longer would be even better). However, even a day or two will work toward an understanding. Of course, there can really never be a full understanding, because we have the option of stopping-- of buying the food we want, of going to the bank, of driving a car, of having running water. Nevertheless, in place of the real thing, this could be meaningful.

You ready? Here we go. Remember, this is the full version. You may modify....

read the rest here

tree trimmer?

2009-11-10T20:35:00.001-06:00

Liberia

2009-11-07T06:44:00.000-06:00

Evangelical polarization between social action and evangelism—some historical perspective (Ralph Winter)

2009-10-23T05:06:00.003-06:00

I am researching and studying about the ' great reversal', when I came across this excellent article by Ralph Winter: Understanding the Polarization Between Fundamentalist and Modernist Mission. In this article, Winter gives some historical perspective on the tension between social action and evangelism-only thinking among evangelicals. His most interesting insight may be that Evangelical emphasis on evangelism over social action may have been more the result of massive conversions among uneducated working-class—who were powerless to change society—than any theological reason. [All emphasis added.]

Here are some highlights of the article.

We often hear about the “Great Reversal.” The phrase refers to the early 20th century reduction of 19th century broad evangelism (including good deeds in this world) to narrow personal evangelism. In this regard we have talked about the tension between social action and evangelism. [Several more excerpts below.]

Professor David Moberg, author of The Great Reversal, was talking about the emergence of the polarization between fundamentalism and modernism. I want to address the source of that polarization. Let’s go back a few years before Moberg’s book, The Great Reversal. In 1947, Carl F. H. Henry, who was a professor at Fuller and later Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, wrote a book entitled The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. For a small book, it has had an earthshaking impact, not necessarily positive, in the entire Evangelical world. As a result, the entire Fuller Theological Seminary was branded as New (or “Neo”) Evangelicalism. This was, you might say, the postmodernism of its day—emergent theology. There was a great deal of unpredictability about Fuller. Henry’s book essentially was the opening shot across the bow of where Evangelicals had been…

…in the 1900s we had a very different kind of Evangelical Christianity, which we had forgotten about by 1958. Evangelicals earlier had indeed talked about the Kingdom and worked toward its extension on earth in this life.…all that had happened in an earlier, forgotten era.

By Timothy Smith’s day most American Evangelicals were settled in the conviction that there were just two kinds of Christianity, one valid and one invalid. The valid kind talked about Heaven (and later on the prosperity gospel for individuals)—an entirely personal-salvation gospel. We talked about taking that gospel around the world, getting everybody in the world saved. That was the philosophy and the gospel of a strong movement emerging in the 1920s. It was not the only kind of Christianity, but the mass of working-class Evangelicals considered it to be the most valid brand. The invalid kind of Christianity was modernist, mainly for university, well-fixed people whose pastors went to seminaries, not Bible Institutes.

[Winter goes on to describe wide-ranging historical and social developments with several fascinating examples.]

On Micro-Enterprise:

…micro-enterprise is rarely a good idea. I have no doubt that Muhammad Yunus who wrote the book Banker to the Poor is a goodhearted person. But you know what he’s mainly done? He’s mainly proven that banks can make money off of the desperately poor. As I was reading in Time magazine, after Yunus got the Nobel prize, a whole new banking industry exploded into existence all over the world. His investment in Bangladesh of $1 billion practically overnight became $350 billion lent by hundreds of banks all over the world. They said, “Great, here’s another way to make money!” Were they really thinking about helping poor people do things that globalization would not soon replace? Rarely. They are mainly getting people into debt.

Conclusions

…There is still a very good reason to convert people around the world (the honesty of transformed people is still essential), but by and large we Christians have the hope and the world has the work. It is not the church but the world who is fighting the major problems. Our missions are not doing what they did in the 19th century.

…The tragedy is that it has taken Evangelicals so long to come back into the picture of fighting the real problems of this world that many of the options are no longer ours. We are in the minority in the universities. George Marsden, one of the most famous Evangelical historians of Christianity in the USA, says that in 1870 Evangelicals were very highly respected in the halls of Washington and among educated people in general, but that by 1920 Evangelicals were the laughingstock of America. (Marsden 2006:x) I’m not saying education is the solution. It’s just that in Moody’s day, only 2% of the people went to university, and they were from wealthy and influential families. That level was not an option for most of the Moody converts, and the polarization reflected to a great extent the kind of theology that corresponded to the capacities of the two different class levels.

I have not changed my mind at all about the primacy of evangelism and church planting. But I see that we are, to too great an extent, producing a self-collapsing Christianity, insofar as our converts are told that the only important thing to do is to win more converts. It’s like getting the people into the armed forces, and they ask what they are supposed to do. “Oh, well, you are supposed to recruit.” Then they recruit more and more people, and set them also to recruiting still other people. Some day someone says, “Aren’t we supposed to be fighting a war?” “Oh yeah, there’s a war.” We sing songs all the time as if by repeating the same words a hundred times we can make them come true. Christ is so great for us, His cross is so important. All these things are true, but if that’s all we sing, if we don’t turn in the other direction to do God’s will in this world, singing is not enough. One of the pastors at my church said Christians argue all the time how to do church. They don’t talk about how to be church in the world. And that to me is a result of the impoverishment for many years of a lower-class standing and no opportunity to make major changes…

…Evangelicals fritter away more money per year than Bill Gates gives away. Evangelicals often don’t think clearly about what they could do with the resources they have. They have been buying boats and second houses and adding on to their homes. Yet, in the real world it’s the sixth grade kids that are thinking about slavery in Africa. It seems like everyone is thinking about demolishing world problems—except the church. It is as if one could go to church for another 100 years the way things are going and never hear about poverty in Africa, never hear that 45 million people every day in Africa are withdrawn from the workplace because of malaria alone, either because they are sick or are caring for someone who is sick. If we did hear, we might not hear how Evangelicals can deal with it. When we are losing 45 million people in Africa out of the workforce every day, even if Africa had no other problems, it would be a poor continent. We don’t ever hear about that. [Editorial insert (Ben): On the other hand, all people seem to hear about Africa—if they hear anything—is the poverty, war, and crisis.] We may not even pray for malaria scientists. You are supposed to go out of your church door, stay legal, be generous and thoughtful. Don’t mess with society.

A second step would be for the pastor to say, “Ask God if you are serving the Kingdom as effectively as you could. You have no right to do anything, make a living or whatever, if you are not sure what you are doing is the most urgent thing you are able to do for the Kingdom of God—and still make a living. Get rid of the job, get a lower-paying job, do the thing that will advance the kingdom more than any anything else.” This would be about individuals changing or confirming jobs.

A third step would be for pastors to tell their people, “Don’t go out the door, stick around and I want all the attorneys to get together and talk about how they can help the International Justice Mission.” Or, he gathers them to start a new organization to fight some other insidious evil in this world. This is not what you hear in church. Rather, at best, we are thinking of ways to extend the church to the last unreached people group. Church Mission, which is absolutely basic and absolutely valid, is to extend the faith, and transform people into reliable people of integrity. Kingdom Mission is when the church stops thinking about itself and its members and pursues God’s will in this world, not just pursues more members. In his book Church Shift, Sunday Adelaja, the pastor of the largest church in Europe, says that when members do things like help in the nursery and direct traffic on Sunday, that’s not mission. It’s church housekeeping. The church exists to extend the glory of God and His will in society whether or not it makes advances in church membership. Many people are leaving the church today because what secular people are doing is more exciting, more relevant, more concrete, and may seem to be more Biblically valid. But, I still believe that those people need to keep in mind that everything they do out in the world will flounder if they don’t have the church’s redeemed souls right at the heart of it.

Understanding the Polarization Between Fundamentalist and Modernist Mission (International Journal of Frontier Missions 26.1 Spring 2009)

This paper was originally presented at the 2008 meeting of the International Society for Frontier Missiology in Denver, Colorado Sept. 27-28.

Cooperatives Brew Success with Hibiscus Cultivation

2009-10-15T06:57:00.004-06:00

interesting story on using a simple crop in Senegal...
anyone that has been in Senegal can attest that Bissap juice is the best!
Now, if farmers can produce this crop organically and find local and international markets...I saw in Whole Foods that about 4 oz of this goes for 7.99!

Cooperatives Brew Success with Hibiscus Cultivation

On a bright morning in a dusty corner of Senegal, Viviane Badiane and the growers of the Nioro cooperative sorted their freshly harvested hibiscus flowers with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Greatly exceeding the expectations of their neighbors, the women had been guaranteed a good price for their hibiscus while having become one of the few local producers to earn organic certification.

This positivity was mirrored by Abdoulaye Aidara, the head a grower's cooperative in a nearby community: after years of work these farmers were now seeing good returns for themselves and their families.

The successes of these two cooperatives have not come without hardships. Agriculture in Senegal's dry tropical savanna relies on weak soils and sporadic seasonal rains. Most local farmers need heavy doses of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to coax common crops like millet and peanuts from the land, damaging the already poor soils. Hibiscus cultivation offers an alternative to dependence on such inputs being a hardy crop that requires little water, but it comes with its downsides as well, such as a lack of prestige. "When we began to cultivate bissap [hibiscus] people laughed at us," explained Ms. Badiane. "We were ashamed of what we were growing." Hibiscus is generally seen as a secondary crop and as such is not believed to earn farmers any real revenue.

Viviane Badiane of Nioro with freshly harvested hibiscus flowers.

Rather than to accept this notion the Nioro and Latmingue cooperatives joined with ASNAPP and its local partner AES (the Senegalese First Lady's Education and Health Association) to experiment with hibiscus cultivation and its potential as a cash crop. For hibiscus to emerge from its secondary status a package of agricultural techniques and quality control methods were encouraged through ASNAPP's rural extension program. These steps not only greatly increased yields - the Nioro growers increased their harvest by 75% from 2005 to 2006 - but also steered the cooperatives towards organic agriculture. The approach was explained by Ms. Badiane: "all crops are good, but bissap is adapted to local conditions and better suited to our reality. We don't have money for chemical fertilizers, but bissap grows well with organic fertilizer, so we made a lot of compost and produced a large crop." As ASNAPP's partners have recognized the benefits of increased yields and improved quality they have readily devoted more land and resources to hibiscus cultivation.

Women of the Latmingue cooperative

By adopting new production and processing techniques encouraged by ASNAPP, the cooperatives produced high quality and high value organic hibiscus while lowering production costs. The average price for a kilo of conventional Senegalese hibiscus earns 500 West African Francs (roughly $1) while organic hibiscus earns nearly twice that amount: 900 Francs. "Organic farming is a true partner in raising the quality of production and our standard of living," Mr. Aidara explained. "Our successes with organic farming have passed on practical understanding of low input and low impact agriculture to our members and our neighbors as well. People see that it's not only good for production, it's good for the soil and water and therefore the community."
the Women of the Latmingue cooperative

Like most of their neighbors, the members of the Nioro and Latmingue cooperatives primarily rely on agriculture for their livelihoods. There is therefore a need to harness the potential of native plant products to fuel economic development in rural areas. While providing the basis for sustainable production, the hibiscus grown by ASNAPP's partner cooperatives promises to lead growers away from poverty and towards healthier communities. The Nioro growers envision that successful hibiscus cultivation and sales will enable them to target pressing development priorities: "We plan to use the premium from our bissap to improve the education and health of our children." declared Ami Ba of Nioro to the applause of her cooperative. "We have worked hard to make a better life for our youth and we are thankful that bissap makes this possible."

While hibiscus cultivation has raised the hopes of these cooperatives, marketing measures are needed to transform the plant into a cash crop. In addition to helping farmers improve yields and quality control standards, ASNAPP opens the door to new and sustainable relationships with hibiscus buyers by creating market linkages to respond to the demand for high quality organic goods. In this way, the co-ops are not only guaranteed that their entire crop will be purchased, removing much of the risk inherent to agriculture, but moreover they are guaranteed a fair price for their crop. Perhaps the most fruitful market relationship forged since the beginning of ASNAPP's hibiscus program has been with Adina for Life Inc., a beverage and lifestyles company based in San Francisco. Each year, Adina buys nearly all of the light pink hibiscus produced by ASNAPP's partners, rewarding sustainable and organic farming by consistently placing a high value on the crop.

Viviane Badiane of Nioro with freshly harvested hibiscus flowers

The success of the cooperatives has come thanks to the adoption of organic production practices as well as the relationship with buyers who support fair and ethical trade. Because these practices have developed to the point where they meet international standards, ASNAPP has recently begun to facilitate organic and Fair Trade certification for their partners. Thanks to these efforts, which are the culmination of several years of rural extension and training, the 2006 hibiscus crop for 71 partner cooperatives was certified organic for the first time and their 2007crop has successfully passed inspections. The next step is to obtain Fair Trade certification to bestow official recognition upon the efforts of the farmers, of ASNAPP, and of buyers such as Adina. Together they have insured that the cooperatives earn a just price, and that their labor and diligence is treated with dignity and esteem.

Abdoulaye Aidora of Latmingue (left) with ASNAPP country director, Babou Diouf

More than just contributing to economic and ecological development, hibiscus production has forged a new sense of community among farmers. "Once we started cultivating bissap we formed an organization that allowed us to grow and sell our produce as a team," said Abdoulaye Aidara of his Latmingue cooperative. The collective use of materials is highly important in this setting, where farmers have very limited resources. "People are not productive on their own. The co-op allows us to optimize our production and at the same time address issues of health and environmental sanity. We are a community organization. One of our activities is to clean our community for ourselves and for our neighbors, whether or not they are members. It also lifts up our more marginalized members and helps get them on the path out of poverty by evenly distributing our collective earnings." Viviane Badiane and her all woman Nioro cooperative shared this sentiment: "Before we grew bissap as a co-op we didn't know each other! Now we rely on each other for everything. The fields brought us together."

Ms. Badiane and Mr. Aidara have witnessed a slow and positive transformation in their communities, one they can attribute to the successful cultivation and sale of hibiscus. Once a crop that inspired the ridicule of their neighbors and little promise of earnings, their hibiscus is now an object of respect, due mainly to the fact that ASNAPP has encouraged their partners to treat it differently. Babou Diouf, the country manager of ASNAPP's Senegal program, describes this shift in perception: "Once the growers began to grow organic bissap, raise its quality, and sell it for a good price, their neighbors began to see both the true value of the crop and of going organic. The bissap brought in more than money to the community: it made people proud."

This new perception of hibiscus and its promise to spur rural development was reinforced after poor rains recently led to the failure of staple millet and peanut crops across Senegal. While these crops require consistent annual rainfall to flourish, hibiscus fared relatively well due to its adaptability to drought, making it less susceptible to the risks of non-irrigated agriculture. Indeed, these circumstances have proved hibiscus to be much more than a secondary crop. "Bissap saved us this year," asserted Mr. Aidara of Latmingue, whose relief was echoed by other ASNAPP partners who have come to rely on the crop for their livelihoods.

Now that the co-ops have seen the potential by all Senegalese of hibiscus cultivation and sustainable marketing partnerships, there is more hope for the future. Inspired by the success of the 2007 crop, the farmers envision many changes in their communities. "We would like to build a new health center and fill it with medicine for ourselves and our children," said the women of the Nioro cooperative. "We'd also like to dig a well so we can cultivate bissap and other crops year round." Indeed, crop diversification is a goal of the cooperatives, as is food security and sustainability. "Today things are improving and we are seeing to it that these improvements last!" said Mr. Aidara. ASNAPP shares the goals of its partners and will continue to strive to make them a reality.

Non-U.S. Christians Identify Problems in American Missions | Christianpost.com

2009-10-15T06:28:00.002-06:00

Non-U.S. Christians Identify Problems in American Missions | Christianpost.com

Christian leaders from around the world recently met in Dallas to share how the American church is viewed by believers in the Global South.

Many of the more than a hundred pastors gathered noted that though the support of the U.S. church is still needed, American Christians should understand and help foster local leadership instead of imposing its own model of church overseas.

The Rev. Reuben Ezemadu of Nigeria, continental director of the Movement of African National Initiatives, said that it seemed that U.S. Christians in the past 15 to 20 years were trying to force its own church structures on the Global South, but that that hasn’t worked.

The African leader asked Americans to recognize the maturity and intelligence of other cultures, and called on American Christians to play a supporting role and allow Africans to take leadership roles.

Similarly, David Ruiz of Guatemala, associate director of the World Evangelical Alliance Mission Commission, said Latin American Christians have felt ignored or overlooked by Western Christians.

He said Hispanic Christians want to see more humility from their Western counterparts and hope that the West will recognize Latin America’s potential to reshape Christianity worldwide.

The diverse group of pastors from Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America were taking part in the North American Pastors’ Consultation on “The Changing Role of the American Church in World Evangelization” on Sept. 22-23.

Church leaders discussed the need for the American Church to have humility and to learn to work together in authentic partnership with other churches around the world.

During the consultation, Dr. Patrick Fung of OMF International, who represented the Asian perspective, recalled the story of missions in China in the years following 1949 when all foreign missionaries were expelled.

Despite no missionary presence, Fung highlighted, the church grew and thrived. Now, the Chinese Church globally is the largest church in the world, he said.

Following each presentation, the pastors held roundtable discussions and concluded that the role of Western Christians in the “glocal” (simultaneously global and local) world is changing dramatically. They said partnership will be key to establishing stronger, mutually supportive links.

Similar meetings will be held around the world to lead up to the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, which is being held in Cape Town, South Africa, Oct. 16-25, 2010. The event, sponsored by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization in collaboration with the World Evangelical Alliance, expects 4,000 participants from around the world.

The original Lausanne Congress, convened by Billy Graham, was held in 1974 and brought Christians from around the globe to focus on world evangelization. A second congress followed in 1989.

Organizers hope the 2010 Congress will help equip the Church for the next decade for world evangelization.

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IDE - International Development Enterprises

2009-10-14T19:19:00.001-06:00

IDE - International Development Enterprises

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mission resource international

2009-10-02T16:18:00.000-06:00

Mission Resource 2009 Video from Mission Resource on Vimeo.

Africa agreement hard to stomach

2009-09-28T12:54:00.000-06:00

G8 food initiative undermined by failure on water and sanitation

David Parry/PA

As G8 and African leaders launched a key initiative to tackle the food crisis, End Water Poverty warned that the failure to deliver a promised plan on water and sanitation will derail the battle against malnutrition, and fail to prevent 4,000 children dying of diarrhoea each day.

A staggering 50% of child deaths from malnutrition are caused by repeated bouts of diarrhoea, due to unsafe water and sanitation.

Khumbuzile Zuma, a South African spokesperson for End Water Poverty said “Fighting hunger without providing clean water is like building a house without foundations. For the people of Africa the G8 have undoubtedly failed.

The G8 have abandoned the poor at the very time they are needed most. They had long promised that this summit would see firm action to end the water and sanitation crisis, but they have chosen not to deliver on a commitment that could have transformed the lives of millions.”

Oliver Cumming from WaterAid said “Given that 30% of all child deaths are caused by poor water and sanitation, it is seriously short-sighted of the G8 to ignore this critical issue. The cost of this neglect will ultimately be paid for by the poor, whose health, education and nutrition will all be hurt by the G8’s gross poverty of ambition.”

Paul Cook from Tearfund said “Since the last G8 summit, 1.4 million children have died needlessly of diarrhoea. How many more lives will be lost before the G8 finally decide that enough is enough?”

The intention to launch a G8-Africa Water Partnership was also announced today in a statement between African and G8 leaders. Originally promised to be a centrepiece of the Summit, it contained no specific actions and no extra finance.

A G8 progress report outlining actions on water since the launch of the G8 Evian Water Plan in 2003 shows that the bulk of reported funding increases have gone to Iraq and other regions of political and economic interest rather those of greatest need.

Globally 884 million people have no access to clean water, and 2.5 billion have no access to safe sanitation.

In addition to its impact on nutrition and child mortality, 443 million school days have been lost to poor water and sanitation, while GDP in Africa has been reduced by 5%.

Notes to editors

Oliver Cumming and Khumbuzile Zuma are both at the G8 Summit and available for interview.

For all media requests contact Chloe Irvine +44 75 1494 1577 OR +44 777 1654 544 OR Steve Cockburn +44 79 2008 0855 (all based in L’Aquila).

Khumbuzile Zuma is a water and sanitation worker and campaigner from South Africa. She has worked on various projects with universities and civil society organizations in South Africa, the Netherlands and Tanzania. She is a board member of the End Water Poverty campaign, which is campaign supported by over 150 NGOs in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America.

The AfriPump

2009-09-28T12:37:00.000-06:00

http://www.handpump.org/welcome.html

INCREASE WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION

2009-09-26T05:58:00.000-06:00

NCREASE WORLD FOOD PRODUCTION
with Low-cost irrigation technology for small farmers

The green revolution has tripled world grain production using fertilizers and irrigation but has now come to limits like availability of water, salinity, unsustainable mechanization, energy consumption, etc. 1 Billion people still experience hunger and the world population is growing, so new approaches and technologies are needed.

Barriers for small farmers
Some 75% of the farmers in developing countries have less than 5 Hectares of land and a yearly income of US$ 300 to US$ 800. A single disastrous crop failure can turn them into landless laborers or send them into the urban ghetto. They have no access to technology like tractors or harvesters. Irrigation pumps to pump from rivers or shallow wells cost US$ 300 or more. Motorized pump options for wells deeper than 8 m. costs US$ 800 or more. Small farmers normally cannot afford these technologies, and subsidies on wells and irrigation schemes often have not worked, or only reached bigger farmers. In general technology designers do not see small farmers as customers.

Low cost irrigation from shallow wells
However , the potential of small farmers to increase production by irrigation is enormous and using the right varieties and technologies, food production worldwide could be tripled, but as Paul Polak of IDE states:
"The most important barrier is lack of affordable irrigation technology".
Modern irrigation technology has been developed for the middle and high income farmers that have enough land. However there are promising developments for farmers with a few acres. For instance in Bangladesh a hand sludged well and a "Treadle pump", (pedal powered) cost US$ 20. With low cost of labor and rising cost of fuel, irrigating with this Treadle pump is much cheaper than with a motor pump. The organization IDE informs that more than one million farmers already irrigate rice or dry season vegetables with Treadle pumps and so earn an additional income of US$ 100 annum year, adding a total of US$ 100 million to the national income of Bangladesh.

Low cost irrigation from deep wells
The Treadle pump works in areas with water levels less than 8 meters below ground level but for deeper wells, a different pump technology is needed. For wells down to 70 m. the Rope pump is now considered a good option. Similar to the Treadle pump the Rope pump has low production costs and is easy to install and maintain. Because its high pumping capacity (40 l/min. for a 10 m. well) the use of the hand Rope pump for small scale irrigation is increasing. For larger scale irrigation, Rope pump models "powered by" wind, horse, pedals or motors have capacities of 60 to 180 liters per minute. From wells of 10 to 40 meters deep, 2 to 0.5 Ha. can be irrigated with furrow irrigation. If the newer low-pressure drip irrigation technology is used irrigated areas could be doubled.

MORE systems

2009-09-26T05:44:00.000-06:00

This is an interesting approach to reaching small farmers in Africa.

Lead International

2009-09-06T09:08:00.004-06:00

LEAD International is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization that is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty by employing entrepreneurial business principles in a revolutionary way. LEAD provides technical training, proven principles of reliable relationship development, long-term hand in hand mentorship, and various forms of capitalization. Our goal is to create holistic community development that impacts public health, spiritual development, leadership creation, and empowers people to be the sustainable answer to their own need. LEAD helps various forms of leadership from national and local governmental groups, to local churches and community groups of all faiths, to make decisions that help people at the grass roots level. Our work is a work of faith, collaboration, and mutual accountability.

Go to Lead's Website to learn more about breaking the cycle of poverty with empowering nationals.

Women are not the Problem-they are the solution along with men

2009-09-06T07:01:00.004-06:00

Saima Muhammad, shown with her daughter Javaria (seated), lives near Lahore, Pakistan. She was routinely beaten by her husband until she started a successful embroidery business.

The Best Way to Fight Poverty and Extremism is to Educate and Empower Women and Girls

Half the Sky lays out an agenda for the world's women and three major abuses: sex trafficking and forced prostitution; gender-based violence including honor killings and mass rape; maternal mortality, which needlessly claims one woman a minute. We know there are many worthy causes competing for attention in the world. We focus on this one because this kind of oppression feels transcendent – and so does the opportunity. Outsiders can truly make a difference.

So let us be clear up front: We hope to recruit you to join an incipient movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty by unlocking women's power as economic catalysts. It is a process that transforms bubbly teenage girls from brothel slaves into successful businesswomen. You can help accelerate change if you'll just open your heart and join in.

Learn more about this movement and get the book here

Go To the article in the NY Times -Saving the World's Women here

Blue Fish TV-Business as Mission

2009-08-13T09:56:00.000-06:00

Stanford Social Innovation Review : Articles : Just Say “No” (August 5, 2009)

2009-08-12T14:50:00.001-06:00

Stanford Social Innovation Review : Articles : Just Say “No” (August 5, 2009)

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Rain In Senegal

2009-08-09T07:28:00.004-06:00

While in Senegal in late June, I anticipated see the first rain in Senegal for the season and my first time seeing rain ever in Senegal.
While returning from a village in the bush, we were four Americans and four Africans in a seven seater taxi. As the clouds began to swell on our return, I was very excited to see the first rain drops hit the windshield of our seven seater. However, the next five hours were full of adventure. What should have taken 45 minutes to return to the village, it took five hours to get back.
You see, when it rains there...it rains! Oh my, it came down so fast and furious that while driving on what is essentially a horse path through sandy soil, it became a little nerve racking. The water tends to run all to the low spots. Unfortunately, most low spots are what happens to be the makeshift road.
We were going through two feet of water in a matter of minutes.

I could feel the water hit the floorboards of the seven seater as the driver navigated in which now had become a James Bond type of vehicle....part boat...part seven seater!
The other problem was it was getting dark, and anyone knows that when you are in the bush at night...it is dark. The driver was sweating profusely as he done a wonderful job of navigating these unbelievable disappearing roads. But, the problem was that the seven seater didn't like all this rain. We eventually got stalled in a village. Hmmm...none of us knew what village however. So one of the Africans got out and talked to a few villagers to find out where we were. When we found out, the other trick was to call for help. Thank the Lord for cell phones. We got in touch with someone to come and 'rescue' us. However, the other problem was, "how do you find this village in the dark and rain" You see there are no road signs. Its just a path.
Then our ride got stuck in the mud.
After hours of being stuck in the seven seater, our wait was filled with laughter and story telling. What could have been a long wait, turned into a cross cultural experience my whole family will never forget.
We will never forget our first rain in Senegal!

Grandma

2009-07-14T06:49:00.000-06:00

Ever since my first visit into the village in 2002, this woman has been so dear to our hearts. She is the glue of the compound. She continues to nurse children. No, I'm not kidding. She is the enforcer too. She has the respect of all the children.

I'm not sure how old she is and maybe shes not sure either,but with her physical limitations she continues to work hard every day.

She has taught me some language and she is always somebody I look for first on returning, thinking that one day she won't be there.

People like this need to hear and see the gospel...clearly...contextually...

Business as Mission (BAM) in the Unreached World

2009-07-12T16:23:00.002-06:00

Today there are BAM networks and consultations in Central
Asia, Turkey, several countries in the Middle East, Southern Af-
rica, East Africa, China, Latin America, United Kingdom, USA,
etc. Also several major mission agencies and churches around the
world have incorporated BAM into their mission and strategy.
The Lausanne movement recognizes BAM and so does the World Evangelical Alliance.

Three things correlate and stand out:
1. Most unreached peoples are found in the Muslim, Hindu
and Buddhist world. Most of them live in the so called 10/40-
Window.
2. Here you will also find a large percentage of the world’s
poorest of poor.
3. These areas – where you’ll find most unreached peoples and
many poor – also often have unemployment rates ranging from
30, 50 to 70 percent.
The mission is to take the whole Gospel to all peoples
and nations, preaching and demonstrating God’s Kingdom.
How then can the Kingdom of God be manifested among the
unreached, among the poor, among the jobless—in the 10/40
Window and beyond?
Traditional mission responses will not suffice. We need to be
church and do missions in a renewed way; recognizing the gifts
and callings of entrepreneurs and business peoand deploy them to do Business as Mission.

More Photos...more stories to follow

2009-07-10T20:21:00.004-06:00

My wife and her best friend in the village

My daughter and her best friend in the village

My daughter Sadie in the new community garden

My wife with one of our best friends in Senegal- We love you Charles!

A neighboring Fulani village and their prize possessions

Get out of the rain!. It was so cool to see it rain!

Hydro Missions

2009-07-10T20:01:00.001-06:00

Mission Statement: The goal of Hydromissions is to further the gospel of Jesus Christ worldwide by providing clean water through low-tech and/or technologically appropriate products and services.

First, we want to be very clear that our primary purpose is "to further the gospel of Jesus Christ." Hydromissions is a Christian, non-denominational organization.

Second, Hydromissions functions "worldwide". We are a global, humanitarian organization, and as such, we service all countries and people groups regardless of their religious affiliation. We work with a wide variety of NGO's, for-profit companies, non-profit organizations, religious groups and government agencies.

Third, we "provide clean water" as our focus of operations. Hydromissions is a great way to share the love of Christ while meeting a desperate physical need. The practical component of water ministry is often the passport for bringing the gospel into countries otherwise closed to traditional missionary activity. We are involved in all aspects of the water cycle, including water acquisition, drilling, filtration, treatment, irrigation, hygiene and sanitation.

Finally, through our profit company (Hydromissions International, LLC), we provide products and services that are "low-tech and/or technologically appropriate." Our products are unique because they are designed to be operated, reproduced, repaired and maintained by the local people in whatever country is served. In addition, our products are designed to be extremely portable, allowing others to expand their water ministries into new areas that would be difficult to reach by other methods. We emphasize non-electric, non-motorized equipment whenever possible, but we will utilize other methods if they are technologically and economically appropriate for the situation.

Hydromissions has always been, and will always be about the "little guy." We are committed to helping missionaries and churches establish or enhance their own water ministries as God leads. Together, we can make a difference!

Go to their website here

back in the US of A

2009-07-10T18:11:00.005-06:00

Greetings-
We arrived back in the US a little over a week ago. We had in our opinion a very successful trip.
We can't thank those who prayed for us during this time enough. We felt covered in prayer many times as we faced a number of challenges.
We are still processing our time in Senegal. We were able to spend 7 days and 6 nights in the village and to tell the truth we could have stayed longer. It was some of the hardest good byes we have ever made. We strengthened existing relationships, made new ones and did a whole lot of listening.
When we arrived in the village, they had a HUGE party arranged. They had village chiefs and elders from surrounding villages sitting under a large tarp just set up for this event. And to go further the woman of the village had special outfits made and presented Dawn my wife with one. They also had a number of young girls in special outfits and presented my daughters with the same. Then they presented me with a special out fit. It was pretty cool.
They were all given a chance to speak and we celebrated the fact that this village now has running water for over a year now and the neighboring village as well. The chief was there from that village too. We were so humbled by this afternoon. We could really feel their heartfelt thanks.
The second my wife and children got out of the truck they were mobbed by children awaiting there appearance. It was so neat...it felt like we were home!
The party went on with a big meal...and dancing into the cool Senegal night..in fact it went on till midnight. We were fairly exhausted by this point.
The next day we able to witness eight people get baptized in a local church...what a great day. We met some new friends and of course a large meal followed.
On Sunday we took the horse cart to church and had a wonderful time.
The rest of the week we did life with the village. We witnessed the first rain of the year (also the first time i have ever seen it rain in Senegal) and got to plant some peanuts in the field the following day.
We met with the elders/lead men of the village and listened to their challenges in the village. Likewise with the woman. it was interesting to learn on how each group rated their biggest challenges. For example, the men listed latrines as a pretty big issue. This village has 18 compounds with only one compound having a latrine in it. The woman however didn't even list it. We were shocked!
We just listened and hope in the future to help them discover how to meet their needs on their own. That's our prayer.And then we have the spiritual needs...

Home for a while

2009-06-13T07:56:00.004-06:00

On Tuesday we depart for Senegal for two weeks. Great anticipation rules in this house right now.
This will be our home in the village for a week. Years ago, I bought this tent. Bigger is better right?
We only used it a few times and especially now as a lightweight backpacker (my backpacking tent weighs 1.5 lbs.) this tent was put on the shelf for a long time.
We have decided to shake the dust off and bring it to Senegal. We can all fit in here. We will become f-a-m-i-l-y....
We will be in the village starting next Friday and returning the following Thursday.
We are excited to visit them during this time of the year. I have never been there while they prepare their fields and it could possibly rain. It will be the beginning of the rainy season. This also could mean warmer temps and more humidity. But being a northerner and going from winter into this climate in February and going into this climate in June should be easier to take....i hope!
We have many things we are taking with us, including an over flowing abundance of school supplies that Dawn received from her school. The feedback was overwhelming from the faculty and students. We hope to visit the local school that only a handful of kids attend from our village. We hope to tour the school.
We also will be having some 'town hall' meetings with the elders from the village to discuss life in the village. An approach that we want to implement is that we want them to discover how to solve some of their own problems. For example, there is no latrine in this village. I want to understand how this can be. Years ago they did have a 'hole' but that does not exist anymore. Dawn and I have been reading some material that we received from Equip and Hesperian. We hope they can start moving to a solution. In this context, this takes patience and prayers.
We hope to assist them in discovering their own issues and see what we can do in that process.
We hope to help them in the fields and get a better idea of agricultural practices used and how they do things.
I am bringing some irrigation from Chapin Living Waters Foundation and hope to introduce them this simple form of dry season gardening.

We hope to be posting on our trip...be sure to come back a few times or we will give a review of our trip after our return.

Bon Voyage!

kiva- sengegal

2009-06-13T07:46:00.002-06:00

I have been supporting Kiva for a number of years now.This video was sent to me with a 'video report' of my donation to Senegal. For $25, you and others join in and help entrepreneurs like the one in this video. Hand up..not a hand out.
However, as a follower of Jesus Christ, my prayer is that this woman would put her 'destiny' into her creator.

Our Itinerary...

2009-06-13T06:45:00.000-06:00

Our Itinerary...

WEDNESDAY, 17
7.55 p.m. ARRIVAL AIR FRANCE

Night at BOH
THRUSDAY, 18

8.30am Breakfast at BOH
10.30 Departure to Thies
1.30 pm LUNCH at office
Cultural orientation
DVD MIS
Settle down at Oliveira’s
7.30 p.m. Diner at Massa Massa
Night at Oliveira’s

FRIDAY, 19

8.00 Breakfast at Oliveira’s
Departure to Ndoutki
Night in Ndoutki
SATURDAY, 20
Breakfast
Hygiene with women
Lunch in village
Children’s program
8.00 p.m. Diner in village

JESUS FILM Night in Ndoutki

SUNDAY, 21
8h00 a.m. Breakfast in village
Church service in village
Lunch in village
Diner in village

Night in Ndoutki

MONDAY, 22
8.00 a.m. Breakfast
Program with women
Work in field’s
Lunch in village
Night in Bambey

TUESDAY, 23

Visit GODEL

WESDN., 24
meal in Ndoutki y

THURSDAY, 25 Departure to Thies
Back to Oliveira’s

Night in Thies with Oliveira’s

FRIDAY, 26

Visit Barthimee
Lunch with Oliveira
Market day in Thies

SATURDAY, 27
Time with Mashburns

SUNDAY, 28

Rest and visit in Dakar

Night at BOH

MONDAY, 29

Rest and visit Dakar ?

TUESDAY, 30

Rest and visit Dakar

7.30 p.m. Departure to Airport

Air France

DEVELOPMENT-SENEGAL: Water Still A Problem In Dakar

2009-05-30T21:02:00.003-06:00

DEVELOPMENT-SENEGAL: Water Still A Problem In Dakar
By Koffigan E. Adigbli

DAKAR, Aug 4 (IPS) - Dakar's suburban communities still deal with irregular access to water. The problem is especially pressing for neighborhoods such as Yeumbeul, Diamaguene et Cambérène.

Many households in those neighborhoods lack access to potable water. However, the Sénégalaise des eaux (SDE), a water-distribution corporation, guarantees that water problems will become a distant memory once technical issues have been resolved.

In Diamaguene, a suburb not far from National Highway 1, few homes are connected to the SDE. Residents have to travel with jugs to other neighbourhoods for drinking water.

Astou Diagne brims with rage. "Politians came around with well-oiled speeches on local issues, especially concerning water. But despite requests put in to the SDE we still don't have any water lines," she complains.

There's only one water fountain in the neighborhood, managed by Malick Ndiaye. Women start lining up first thing in the morning to increase their chances of getting water. Fatou Diop Gueye, a mother from the neighborhood told IPS: "The early birds are luckiest, they can get water for the whole day."

Ndiaye doesn't it find it much easier, since he rarely gets a full night's sleep. "I get disturbed all hours of the night by women who want me to check the water faucet, and since at midday the water gets cut off they have to turn to the wells for water for cooking."

Adama Niang, a law student at Dakar's Université Cheikh Anta Diop, knows all too well how dangerous is could be to drink well water. "Well water should be treated, but there's no alternative -– we don't even have faucets and plumbing in the house."

Residents are in such a bind they can't even complain about the price of water. Malick sells 5 litres of water for 25 CFA francs (approximately 6 cents), 50 litres for 150 CFA (36 cents). It is slightly more expensive than in other neighborhoods.

In Cambérène, a neighborhood 10 kilometres from the city centre, families have to deal with drainage and pipes laid about randomly -– often dangerously close to toilets and ablution facilities. Adama Dièye, an SDE technician, told IPS this not only violates standards, it poses a great risk of contamination if ever any pipes burst.

This is a suburb with very narrow streets, because it was not mapped out by the municipal topographical office. Tap water sometimes has a reddish color. According to Marthe Ndong, a local teacher, service is irregular and the water has an aftertaste. "The water here is something special. Sometimes you turn on the faucet and nothing comes, or its red and tastes really bad. But we deal with it," she told IPS jokingly.

However, the administration at the Sénégalaise des eaux insists that water access problems will soon be resolved. SDE's director, Mamadou Dia, notes that the increased unreliability was due in large part to the Société nationale des eaux du Sénégal (SONES) having replaced a large water conduit originally built in 1958. The initiative had two goals: improve both the quality and quanity of water available, especially in the suburbs.

Dia also added that Dakar needs 295,000 cubic meters and utilities provide 300,000. Hence, the slightest technical difficulty –- such as a power outage -– can cause disruptions in service.

Cheik Fall, director of SONES, announced that new water treament stations are being built and should be operational by December. The SONES is a public utility charged with planning and investing in water infrastructure.

Fall laid to rest any fears of price hikes. "There have been increases in production costs since 2003, yet the price of water has stayed the same," he pointed out. The reddish colour of suburban water by no means suggests unsanitary conditions. The water is verified by laboratories such as the Institut Pasteur and more than 90 percent of the water tested meets the standard."

According to SDE archives, the average Senegalese citizen receives 35 litres of water daily, and not all users pay the same price. If the average cost of water is 419 FCFA (1 dollar) a cubic metre, it costs gardeners 268 FCFA (64 cents) for farmers, households 372 FCFA (89 cents) and commercial users 639 FCFA ($1.5 dollars).

Water distribution also relies on electricity to run the pumps; but with increasing blackouts, lineups at neighborhood wells will probably grow longer, as all seek this precious commodity.

Chapin Living Waters-Featured Ministry

2009-05-29T19:11:00.004-06:00

Recently, I met a represenative for Chapin Living Waters. I had heard about this simple drip irrigation from Echo and Equip International.
They sent me atrial bucket kit at no charge. I set it up in my own garden to see how this works. I was very pleased at the simplicity and the final result . I'm watering a row of beans and some tomato plants. I will test it out all summer. Now, i have communicated to them that I would like to take two kits with me to Senegal and try to implement them in a small community garden in a rural village.
On their website they say:

"Chapin Living Waters exists to help poor people in third world countries grow vegetables when there is insufficient rain. We offer simple, sustainable technologies like drip irrigation with the use of "Bucket Kits" for subsistence farming, bringing hope to the poorest people in over 150 countries and the opportunity to solve their own problems."

I hope to post a few pics of the bucket kit installed in Senegal. But,
I am going to introduce it to my friends in the village and let them determine if they want to try it...if so...i will be glad to share my knowledge of how this works.
Stay tuned...

Faith Working Through Love in Senegal

2009-05-23T06:58:00.016-06:00

Mt Rachel Baptist church in Dalton, Georgia has maybe 450 people in attendance any given Sunday. They have fallen in love with three villages in Senegal outside of Kaffrine among the Fulbe people. Mt Rachel came to know about these folks through their former pastor Tom Smith after he became a missionary with the IMB (International Missions Board of the Southern Baptists). Tom took current pastor Marty Greene to Kaffrine on a vision trip in 2007 and they visited some villages which have had only minimal contact with Christians. Senegal is a country that is 95% Muslim and many of the rural areas have no exposure to God's Word.

Twice a year Brother Marty takes teams there and they're shooting for four to five times a year. These teams do seventeen weeks of preparation for the trips, 1.5 hours/week on Sundays. They read "All The Prophets Have Spoken" and do language work so that they can greet and visit when they arrive. They do Bible study to learn stories to share (for the June trip they are studying John). For some team members, this is the first time they have studied the Bible intensely, for a reason. Most everyone who's gone on the trips, when asked why they want to go reply, "Because I want a new experience with Christ." That's what they've heard from others who have gone. They complete a 6 week training on missions from the IMB and do some training on safe travel solutions in dealing with unfriendly government officials. They were detained one year and found they needed that training. They run background checks on team members, those typical for people who work with children. This was suggested by the IMB after some field experiences the IMB had with other short term teams. Teams average about nine people.

When Brother Marty was on his vision trip with Tom, as he prayed about what to do, he felt led of God to use a strategy where they do not bring material gifts or projects. "We don't want them coming to us hoping to get something tangible." Brother Marty says, "This doesn't mean other strategies are invalid. This is just what God led us to do." They did do one project with a dental hygienist and donation of toothbrushes, and another project where they gave seeds and some soccer balls, but in the case of the seeds they gave based on the receivers agreeing to give seed back into a seed bank at harvest.

In place of major projects, Mt Rachel's teams visit with people and ask them for prayer requests. They come back to Georgia, give the prayer requests to their whole church when they come back and pray. When they return six months later, they go back and find out how God has answered. On one early trip they heard, "We need water." They replied, "We're just men, there's really nothing we can do about that, but we will pray to our God." Within a year the town had water. The team from Mt Rachel sits down with people and listens to their stories, tell their own testimonies, and pray for people in person. They tell Bible stories. The villagers love to share stories with them. During their last trip they worked in fields of the village pulling weeds.

Mt Rachel has found that this work in Senegal has had a big impact on their church as they have seen their own prayers answered. In Senegal, it's common to receive a new name from your friends in a village. Folks at Mt Rachel greet each other with those names on Sunday. Brother Marty has become accustomed to an occasional cry of "Alhamdoulilaye!" in the midst of the more common "Amen" and "Halleluyah" during his sermons. Many team members have launched into outreach in their local community on return to America. Missions abroad, outreach at home - think globally, act locally. They are struck by the issue of lostness and have launched VBS programs in the schools out in their community. The short term trips have been spiritually challenging and most have grown in response to the challenge. Mt Rachel just erupted when Bass Ba and Kanta Soh got saved. Persecuted believer Mayacine has really had an impact on the people from Mt Rachel.

Mt Rachel's goal is to encourage nationals who have accepted Christ to reach their own countrymen, and they are helping one young Senegal man now who is using literacy training in the villages to teach the Bible.

After one of their trips, the local marabout (spiritual leader in folk Islam) came and told the village not to let Mt Rachel come back.

The townspeople refused the marabout.

by Rick Randall, Broomfield, Colorado

Business as Mission

2009-05-16T05:49:00.000-06:00

THE BUSINESS AS MISSION MANIFESTO

The Lausanne (LCWE) 2004 Forum Business as Mission Issue Group worked for a year, addressing issues relating to God’s purposes for work and business, the role of business people in church and missions, the needs of the world and the potential response of business. The group consisted of more than 70 people from all continents. Most came from a business background but there were also church and mission leaders, educators, theologians, lawyers and researchers. The collaboration process included 60 papers, 25 cases studies, several national and regional Business as Mission consultations and email-based discussions, culminating in a week of face to face dialogue and work. These are some of our observations.

Affirmations

* We believe that God has created all men & women in His image with the ability to be creative, creating good things for themselves and for others - this includes business.
* We believe in following in the footsteps of Jesus, who constantly and consistently met the needs of the people he encountered, thus demonstrating the love of God and the rule of His kingdom.
* We believe that the Holy Spirit empowers all members of the Body of Christ to serve, to meet the real spiritual and physical needs of others, demonstrating the kingdom of God.
* We believe that God has called and equipped business people to make a Kingdom difference in and through their businesses.
* We believe that the Gospel has the power to transform individuals, communities and societies. Christians in business should therefore be a part of this holistic transformation through business.
* We recognise the fact that poverty and unemployment are often rampant in areas where the name of Jesus is rarely heard and understood.
* We recognise both the dire need for and the importance of business development. However it is more than just business per se. Business as Mission is about business with a Kingdom of God perspective, purpose and impact.
* We recognise that there is a need for job creation and for multiplication of businesses all over the world, aiming at the quadruple bottom line: spiritual, economical, social and environmental transformation.
* We recognise the fact that the church has a huge and largely untapped resource in the Christian business community to meet needs of the world – in and through business - and bring glory to God in the market place and beyond.

Recommendations

We call upon the Church world wide to identify, affirm, pray for, commission and release business people and entrepreneurs to exercise their gifts and calling as business people in the world – among all peoples and to the ends of the earth.

We call upon business people globally to receive this affirmation and to consider how their gifts and experience might be used to help meet the world's most pressing spiritual and physical need through Business as Mission.

Conclusion

The real bottom line of Business as Mission is AMDG - ad maiorem Dei gloriam – for the greater glory of God

Business as Mission Issue Group - October 2004
Convening Team: Mats Tunehag Wayne McGee Josie Plummmer

_____________________________________

THE BUSINESS AS MISSION
-
Occasional Paper No.59

Produced by the Issue Group on this topic at the 2004 Forum
hosted by the
Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization
In Pattaya, Thailand, September 29 to October 5, 2004

“A New Vision, a New Heart and
a Renewed Call”

This Occasional Paper was prepared by the whole Issue Group and

Edited by Mats Tunehag, Wayne McGee and Josie Plummer

_____________

In a Senegalese Slum, a Building Material Both Primitive and Perilous

2009-05-09T20:37:00.002-06:00

May 3, 2009
In a Senegalese Slum, a Building Material Both Primitive and Perilous
By ADAM NOSSITER

GUÉDIAWAYE, Senegal — Aba Dione, 7 years old, met his end six weeks ago in the trash-filled corner of an abandoned dwelling here, as good a place to play as any, it seemed, when the other options were garbage and more garbage.

Except that in this case the thick carpet of crushed plastic bottles and bags, clothing shreds, old flip-flops and muck was deceptively floating on several feet of water; unknowing, Aba fell in and drowned.

Garbage might have seemed safe to the boy because it is everywhere in this forlorn, dun-colored slum abutting Dakar, the capital. Delivered on order for a few pennies a load by rickety horse-drawn carts speeding through the dirt streets of the Médina Gounass neighborhood of Guédiawaye, it is as pervasive as the hot midday sun in which it bakes. The people use it to shore up their flood-prone houses and streets in this low-lying area near the Atlantic coast; they have no choice.

Garbage, packed down tight and then covered with a thin layer of sand, is used to raise the floors of houses that flood regularly in the brief but intense summer rainy season, and it is packed into the dusty streets that otherwise become canals. The water lingers for months in the low-lying terrain of this bone-dry country.

Garbage is a surrogate building material, a critical filler to deal with the stagnant water — cheap, instantly accessible and never diminishing. The plastic-laden spillover from these foul-smelling deliveries pokes up through the sandy lots, covers the ground between the crumbling cinder-block houses, becomes grazing ground for goats, playground for barefoot, runny-nosed children and breeding ground for swarms of flies. Disease flourishes here, aid groups say: cholera, malaria, yellow fever and tuberculosis.

Ten miles away in the capital, piles of refuse are merely an intermittent feature of the dusty cityscape. Garbage in Dakar is dumped under tattered signs warning “Dump no garbage,” and trash fires burn all night in neighborhoods by the beaches. Torn black plastic bags festoon Dakar’s shrubbery, trees and fences in a metropolis of often do-it-yourself services.

But here in Médina Gounass, the unrestrained garbage tide finds its apotheosis.

“It’s not the best way,” said Pape Yabandao, a mason who was working on the walls of a house here. “But what can we do?”

Garbage had been an indispensable building tool for him, too.

Why?

“I don’t have the means,” he said. “If you don’t have other solutions, and if everybody here uses garbage, you have to, too. There’s water in the house and in the rooms.” As he spoke, a garbage cart charged up a street in the distance to deliver its load.

“It’s a problem of money,” said Zale Fall, standing nearby. “The people who live here don’t have the means for sand or rubble, so they are obliged to call the cart-drivers for filler. It’s for our children’s sake. Better to have illnesses than death.”

Ami Camara, Aba’s mother, was not the first to lose a child to the hidden bogs of Médina Gounass. Hanging her head in the courtyard of a four-room shanty where she and 15 family members live, she quietly recalled bathing her young son after lunch and sending him out to play. Then his friends found his shoes, and his body.

“Everything that happens is the will of God,” said the boy’s grandmother, Yaline Ndaye. “We can’t do anything about it.” She turned away.

Mrs. Camara’s four remaining children were playing in a corner. Almost cater-corner was another darkened, abandoned house filled with water and garbage, nearly to the roof.

Local officials accept this near-worst-of-several-worlds with almost the same fatalism. “We wanted to stop this, because it is risky,” said Amadou Gaye, deputy mayor for Médina Gounass, which has a population of around 85,000. “But the people are too poor. If these areas are filled in, there’s less risk.”

One risk quickly replaces another, however. Living in garbage — eating, washing and playing in it — “has harmful consequences,” said Abdou Karim Fall, of the antipoverty development agency Enda — Tiers Monde, which is based in Dakar.

“All the diseases come with it,” he said, “and they are so far advanced in these neighborhoods. Children are the most exposed. People live all year long right up against stagnant water and garbage.”

In an upside-down world where garbage is sought for and dumped among homes, not removed, “people have no alternatives; they are left to themselves; they can only count on themselves,” said Joseph Gaï Ramaka, a leading Senegalese filmmaker, who made a documentary about an incomplete government effort, the Plan Jaxaay, to build modern housing for people in vulnerable neighborhoods.

“These are people who are proud of being clean,” said Mr. Ramaka, who now lives in New Orleans. “When they have to buy garbage, it’s because they don’t have any choice. The garbage, at least, allows them to sleep with their feet out of the water, and in their own house.”

The practice has persisted for years. Médina Gounass was first settled in the early 1960s by rural people flocking to the city’s outskirts, people who were not “educated in the culture of trash disposal,” said Fatou Sarr, a socioanthropologist at the Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, who has written about the area. Blessed by a marabout, or Muslim holy man, the territory attracted more settlers in the 1970s during a period of great national drought, when the problems of flooding seemed nonexistent.

Over the years, layer after layer of garbage was added, sometimes as much as 13 feet, to keep floors above the floodwaters, said Mansour Ndoye, an official at the Ministry of Urban Affairs, Lodging and Construction who helps run the Plan Jaxaay.

“These are people of extremely low income,” he said. “They put down garbage, and they built on top of it. And they are still putting down garbage, in order to live.”

Back in Médina Gounass, Mr. Gaye, the deputy mayor, poked one of the deceptive bogs with his foot. “You see, it’s not filled in here,” he said. “If someone fell in, it would be all over for them.”

Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Ministry Focus

2009-05-09T18:17:00.007-06:00

Recently I visited a ministry located in the foothills of the blue ridge mountains. This ministry, Equip International, is a unique ministry. It's nestled on about twenty acres.
It has numerous cabins for 'missionaries in training' and other people interested in training courses they have to offer.Training courses include: Community Health evangelism,Water technologies,food production, building energy efficient shelters and an intense two week training on medicine /medical training. During a week stay, people in training will interact with poeple that have similar passions.

On Equips website they write-
Equip seeks Christians who have chosen to work in service-oriented vocations out of a desire to help others, men and women with a unique sensitivity to their responsibility for sharing Christ with their neighbors through actions as well as words. But Equip is selective; we want Christians who choose to apply their efforts through the local church in its ministry to the community rather than just work in the community apart from the church."
I was able to observe the end of a hygiene training class and the beginning of the water drilling class. I seen the class's bio sand filter that was constructed by the team. They instructed me on how the bio sand filter works and the importance of the 'right flow per minute' to get the best protection for bacteria and viruses. In fact, if this filter is set up right, it can be 99% effective.

The second week, we gathered on Sunday night to listen to a local hydrologist who has worked in developing countries drilling for clean water.
Then the following day, the class wastes no time in beginning drilling with the LS-100 drill. This unique drill is manufactured by Little Beaver.
If you are interested in getting any training for these courses, go to website for info.

"It's all about relationships"

2009-05-09T17:45:00.003-06:00

Recently friends revisited a village we have been building a relationship with for over five years. It's amazing how relationships continue to grow and new ones begin. Though we cross cultures...we are still connected by God's grace...here's a note from my friend regarding one relationship.

In so many ways this was a very sweet trip. The relationships we have with our friends in the village grow deeper every year. While we care deeply about the humanitarian projects that could improve our friends' physical lives, these trips are really about people and relationships.

We continued with a relationship from last years trip.He is a 25 year old who is apprenticing to become a bus driver. He has a girl that he is engaged to but he won't be able to marry her until he is able to drive. He rides in the back of the mini-bus we use to travel while we're in the country and unloads the baggage with the hope of someday being allowed to drive the bus.

"A"is an incredibly sweet guy. We made every effort to make "A" part of our "family" during the week in Senegal. We invited him to join us in just about everything we did from our morning devotionals to meals to our dance parties in the village. We wanted him to know that he was loved.

On our last night in the country, just hours before we left, we learned that "A' is not paid for his apprenticeship. He will occasionally get a tip from the owner of the bus but that doesn't amount to much of anything. We all chipped in and came up with a "tip" and gave it to him shortly before we all left for the airport.

As we were riding to the airport, "A' was sitting in his customary place at the back of the bus. His head was buried in his arms. He was sobbing. When we arrived at the airport we all got out, 'A' gave us our baggage and we all stepped forward to give him a hug. As we did so, he whispered to each of us in English - "Thank you. I love you."

It doesn't take much to bridge the gap between Black and White, Muslim and Christian, African and American. Just a little love.

Congo Initiative new video

2009-05-06T20:13:00.000-06:00

Is it me...my brother or long lost cousin or is it not...you be the judge.

2009-04-17T20:46:00.003-06:00

here is the note from my friend claiming this is me... :)

Go to Steve's blog here...
Rick,

The angle on these photos isn't so helpful, but, I swear, the guy and
you are somehow related. He is a little chubby though. ( thanks Steve for not claiming he is chubby as me ;)

Blessings,

steve

ps. the ad is for a local tabloid. The sign says, "We are in the know
about everything: the world of stars, politics, entertainment, people
happenings, sports.

In Brief: More than $300 million wasted in water projects

2009-04-17T20:19:00.000-06:00

In Brief: More than $300 million wasted in water projects

DAKAR, 23 March 2009 (IRIN) - Donors, governments and NGOs have wasted hundreds of millions of dollars in rural African water projects by not maintaining wells and boreholes they built, according to an International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) report.

As a result, 50,000 water supply points are non-functioning across rural Africa, wrote Jamie Skinner. Only one third of the water supply systems built by an NGO network in Senegal’s Kaolack region since the 1980s are still working; 58 percent of water points in northern Ghana are in disrepair.

“It is not enough to drill a well and walk away. Water projects need to support long-term maintenance needs and engage local communities. Without this it is like throwing money down the drain,” stated the IIED report. Up to US$360 million has been lost in wasted water projects in recent years.

“Every day a borehole does not provide safe water, people are obliged to drink from unclean pools and rivers, exposing them to water-borne diseases,” Skinner said.

aj/pt

Themes: (IRIN) Aid Policy, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) In Brief, (IRIN) Water & Sanitation

Copyright © IRIN 2009

The Congo Initiative is impacting the Democratic Republic of Congo

2009-04-17T20:10:00.003-06:00

Here is a testimony from a UCBC Student Testimony: Amani, 18 yrs., 1st Year Student
Go to Congo Initiative to find out more about this transformational ministry.

Why did you come to UCBC?

I came because I have a plan in my life. I want to use computers in all the ways it can be used. The first reason I came to UCBC was to get a degree in Computer Science. This faculty does not exist in this region of Congo.

Second reason is because it is Christian and all human values are respected. UCBC will help me go ahead in Science. It is advanced with Internet, library, and English language. But, having values with Science is important.

What makes UCBC different from other universities?

In the town I am from, Butembo, I am afraid of the universities. Students are aggressive, many of them do drugs and drink and are sexually promiscuous. Students at UCBC are being transformed. Student's from other universities that come to UCBC change.

Example...we were in a small accident with the van. Students from other universities would have beaten or killed the driver. Our students acted differently-- we were transformed, different. Teachers come with their own ways of teaching that are not necessarily the best. They are getting used to our philosophy and education here and also transforming the way they teach. My hope is that we continue to all be transformed. This is why I am committed to UCBC.

Why is UCBC important for change in Congo?

We don't want to continue having the same type of leaders we have had in the past. We need new leaders in all aspects of society to avoid corruption and immoral values that currently exist. We have many intellectuals, but they do not know how to apply their studies practically. It will be good if I can apply my knowledge of computer science into society with moral and ethical values. I want to leave UCBC when I know I have the knowledge and the values instilled in me. We need people who are transformed to transform this country. If we can have such a university it is good for the country. Nothing is impossible.

How has UCBC impacted you personally?

Since I came here, I didn't know anything about university, English, or computers. Also, inside myself, my heart, I'm growing step by step as I learn at UCBC. Chapel time, sports, and all the activities we have here help me grow. When I came here, I had my personal time for things such as prayer, but here I'm constantly reminded that I have someone who is leading my life.

A day before school began I was supposed to go to Bukavu for studies, but I was able to visit Beni and decided to attend UCBC. I thank the Lord because I am here.

I thank the Lord for bringing Congo Initiative and UCBC to Beni and our country. I believe it is helping our country develop. I hope all the projects we have will succeed.

god is working

2009-04-17T19:57:00.003-06:00

( a story from a young senaglese missionary)

i wanted to share a little bit about my last medical team in my home town and surrounded villages.
Every year since four years, i am hosting a team from the US. Usually, i put them together with Africans brothers and sisters working for the same goal which is God to be glorify.
As many people knew, in our country before you show the Jesus film, you need to ask permission at the mayor or the local government represent but personally i didn't. I showed the Jesus film right in front of my dad (who was a retired coranic teacher) compound at the stress. There were over to 500 or 600 people watched this film included a five years girl named 'A'. She is my friend' daughter. When the film started 'A' asked her mom and her uncle wife if they want to go to watch the film, basically they replied no. She left by herself. She watched the film until the end. She followed the crowd who she can go back home during the night in the dark of course. 'A'said to her parents you should see this by yourself how they killed him on the cross. When 'A' mom reported these things to me i almost cry because of joy. Personally, i never met a christian until i was 17 years old. Praise because the gospel is preaching where they never hear this wonderful news about the way of salvation through Jesus-Christ.

'Taken over by Satan'

2009-04-07T19:01:00.001-06:00

BBC NEWS
'Taken over by Satan'
In 1994 in the village of Nyarubuye, Rwanda, the Hutu majority went on a killing spree in the local church, slaughtering neighbours and friends.

Gitera Rwamuhuzi is one of those who took part in the genocide. This is his story.

Before the genocide, life was normal. For us, as long as there was a harvest good enough to save us from buying food from the market, I would say that we were happy.

I heard that Tutsis were regarded as superior towards Hutus. For example a Hutu could only change his social status by serving in a Tutsi's household. The rest were low-class Hutus.

“ Some people did not even find someone to kill because there were more killers than victims ”

Because the RPF were blamed for the death of President Habyarimana, we thought that they had started with the high-ranking officials and that they were going to end up doing the same to us ordinary people.

We thought that if they had managed to kill the head of state, how were ordinary people supposed to survive?

On the morning of 15 April 1994, each one of us woke up knowing what to do and where to go because we had made a plan the previous night. In the morning we woke up and started walking towards the church.

No life

After selecting the people who could use guns and grenades, they armed them and said we should surround the church.

They said one group would go south and another group would go to the north. There were so many of us we were treading on each others' heels.

People who had grenades detonated them. The Tutsis started screaming for help.

As they were screaming, those who had guns started to shoot inside.

They screamed saying that we are dying, help us, but the soldiers continued shooting.

I entered and when I met a man I hit him with a club and he died.

You would say why not two, three or four but I couldn't kill two or three because those that entered outnumbered those inside.

Some people did not even find someone to kill because there were more killers than victims.

When we moved in, it was as if we were competing over the killing. We entered and each one of us began killing their own.

Each person who we cut looked like they had been hit by the grenades. They looked traumatised. They looked like their hearts had been taken away.

No one was asking for forgiveness. They looked like they had been killed already.

My neighbours

Those you cut were just not saying anything. They were scared that no one said anything. They must have been traumatized.

Apart from breathing you could see that they had no life in them. They looked like their hearts had been taken away.

“ These people were my neighbours - the picture of their deaths may never leave me ”
I saw people whose hands had been amputated, those with no legs, and others with no heads. I saw everything.

Especially seeing people rolling around and screaming in agony, with no arms, no legs. People died in very bad conditions.

It was as if we were taken over by Satan. We were taken over by Satan. When Satan is using you, you lose your mind. We were not ourselves. Beginning with me, I don't think I was normal.

You wouldn't be normal if you start butchering people for no reason. We had been attacked by the devil.

Even when I dream my body changes in a way I cannot explain. These people were my neighbours. The picture of their deaths may never leave me. Everything else I can get out of my head but that picture never leaves.

Panorama: The Killers was broadcast on BBC One on Sunday, 4 April 2004 at 2215 BST

15 year anniversary of the Genocide in Rwanda

2009-04-05T16:59:00.003-06:00

Genocide in Rwanda - 1994 - 800,000 Deaths

Beginning on April 6, 1994, and for the next hundred days, up to 800,000 Tutsis were killed by Hutu militia using clubs and machetes, with as many as 10,000 killed each day.

Rwanda is one of the smallest countries in Central Africa, with just 7 million people, and is comprised of two main ethnic groups, the Hutu and the Tutsi. Although the Hutus account for 90 percent of the population, in the past, the Tutsi minority was considered the aristocracy of Rwanda and dominated Hutu peasants for decades, especially while Rwanda was under Belgian colonial rule.

Following independence from Belgium in 1962, the Hutu majority seized power and reversed the roles, oppressing the Tutsis through systematic discrimination and acts of violence. As a result, over 200,000 Tutsis fled to neighboring countries and formed a rebel guerrilla army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front.

In 1990, this rebel army invaded Rwanda and forced Hutu President Juvenal Habyalimana into signing an accord that mandated that the Hutus and Tutsis would share power.

read the rest here

The Incredible shrinking Dollar

2009-03-27T18:43:00.005-06:00

One thing I noticed on my last few trips to Senegal was the shrinking dollar. While the dollar has shrank about 30% (correct me if I'm wrong Senegal friends)in Senegal since 2001, we in the US really haven't noticed it. Until now...
My missionary friends and colleagues have been weathering through this storm for a number of years.Unnoticed, because we were all living in fantasy land here in the US.
Now, the US being in a recession has made things more interesting. One missionary told me "they are very concerned...not only for their support level, but the well being of their supporters". Being on the field, the missionaries can only read about our troubled economy and wonder..."am i going to be able to make it"
I think their is no greater time in our life time to get behind field missionaries, faith based organizations and efforts to reach the lost with word and deed than ever before.
The other night I listened to President Obama talk about sacrifice. Most Americans, including myself, have no idea what that means.
Maybe our friends around the world , especially ones living in developing countries, can teach us about sacrifice. Maybe we don't need to go out to eat once or twice a month. Maybe we cut back on our recreational activities...
Think twice before you cut off your support and your charitable giving in these tough days...your reward is in heaven.

The Church and Its Money

2009-03-27T05:55:00.003-06:00

The Church and Its Money

This is a fascinating bunch of statistics...go to this website ...Generous Giving...for the whole story and many other resources.

1. American Christians enjoy unprecedented financial prosperity.
Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission. Total Christian [including nominal] income in the United States is $5.2 trillion annually, nearly half of the world’s total Christian income. In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income. In comparison, America’s gross domestic product in 2002 was estimated at $10.45 trillion.

2. American Christians are increasingly burdened by debt.
How have Christians fared in the midst of the financial chaos of record U.S. consumer debt? Not any better, said Christian financial advisor Larry Burkett: “The Christian world is no different from the secular world when it comes to debt, bankruptcy and divorce because priorities are misplaced.” Thirty-three percent of U.S. born-again Christians say it is impossible for them to get ahead in life because of the financial debt they have incurred. From another source, “Money is the number one separator of families today, even among Christians.”The disruption to relationships and the bondage that debt brings testify to the gravity of this growing problem.

3. American Christians are keeping all but a tiny fraction of their wealth for themselves.
While the amount of money that American Protestants give to churches has risen steadily since the end of Second World War, our rapidly increasing wealth has far outpaced any increase in giving. “Giving to religion has averaged annual, inflation-adjusted growth of 2.3 percent since 1963,” but in the same time period, disposable personal income has increased even more rapidly—by an average of 3 percent.Statistics show that the American church is less generous now, after a half-century of unprecedented prosperity, than it was at the depth of the Great Depression. Our church giving over the last two decades has remained stagnantly around 2.5 percent whereas 40 years ago Christians were giving 3 percent, and 80 years ago 3.5 percent. Our giving has fallen behind that of previous generations, and more importantly, behind the biblical standard. Only 6 percent of born-again Christians even tithed in 2002. And all the while, Americans own approximately 40 percent of the world’s wealth.

4. The Christian population is exploding worldwide.
The church has grown more in the 20th century than in all the previous centuries since the time of Christ combined, with almost 2 billion adherents worldwide. Every day 166,000 people hear the good news of Jesus Christ for the first time. Every year, 27 million people profess faith in Christ as Savior for the first time. The current ranks of 81 million believers in China are expected to swell to 135 million by 2025. The 50 million faithful in India could mushroom to 125 million by 2050. And today’s census of 90 million Christians in Africa is likely to explode to 1 billion in 2050.

5. The church’s geographic center is no longer in the developed West.
During the last century, the world’s Christian geographic center has been moving south. Currently, the largest Christian communities are in Africa and Latin America. “The country with the fastest Christian expansion ever is in China, now at 10,000 new converts every day.”

6. Mega-churches increasingly have no denominational affiliation.
“For the majority of megachurches, denominational affiliation is an insignificant matter. The church itself (its size, pastor, programs, and reputation) attracts adherents, not its denominational ties. Consequently, almost one half of all megachurches are independent and non-denominational. ... Actually, there are few overt differences between megachurches with denominational ties and those without them. Many of the large denominational congregations can be seen as functionally nondenominational. They have an appealing identity as a congregation, regardless of their ties to a denomination. These congregations often downplay their denominational connections by dropping reference to it from their name and literature. Neither do they have need for the denomination’s resources. If anything, the denomination benefits more from their presence and that of their gifted leaders. “The primary identity of a large Protestant congregation in America today is more likely to be caught up in the name, face, and personality of a long-tenured senior minister ... rather than in the denominational affiliation, theological convictions of the members, social class status of the lay leadership, or history of the congregation.”

7. Ministry leaders measure their own success by the size of their ministries.
“The vast majority of ministry leaders would never subscribe to a prosperity gospel ideology, but they are deeply infused with an American capitalist cultural understanding of the gospel—that God measures success by the numbers, that more money means more ministry, which means more success for God’s kingdom. So they tend to measure their own success as disciples and servants of the Lord by the size of their ministry. The ones whose ministries command millions are introduced on the prayer breakfast rostrums as God’s ‘choice servants.’ ”

8. Christians largely squander opportunities to invest where the harvest has the greatest potential.
In a world of 6.35 billion people, there are 2.51 billion who live among the “least-reached people groups”—populations where there are less than 2 percent evangelical Christians. In these places there is “no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize [its own] people group.” Consequently, the need for missionaries is great, and the work, though difficult, has great potential for spiritual harvest. Unfortunately, North American missions organizations tend to target population groups in already-evangelized countries, where converts come more quickly and easily. “96 percent of all foreign missionaries work among existing churches; only 4 percent work where no church exists.” And “40 percent of the church’s entire foreign mission resources are being deployed to just 10 over saturated countries already possessing strong citizen-run home ministries.” Thus, it is not that we lack the resources to evangelize the unreached but that we fail to make it a priority.

9. Churches are spending more on themselves, less on global mission outreach.
In North American churches, the percentage of church monies devoted to benevolences (ministries outside the local congregation) has fallen steadily since 1968. Many studies confirm that benevolences now make up only 15 percent of a church’s budget. A study by John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, however, puts this figure in its larger context. According to their research, benevolences made up 21.2 percent of a church’s budget in 1968. The figure has declined steadily over the years to its current 14.5 percent, even as giving to the church has made an upswing. When home missions are subtracted from benevolences, we find that only about 5.6 percent is left to operate foreign missions. Thus, in 2000, nearly 97 percent of the entire income of all Christian organizations was spent on, and primarily benefited, other Christians at home or abroad: $261 billion spent on ministering to Christians, $7.8 billion on already-evangelized non-Christians, and $0.81 billion on unevangelized non-Christians. It is no wonder that “one of the reasons churches in North America have trouble guiding people about money is that the church’s economy is built on consumerism. If churches see themselves as suppliers of religious goods and services and their congregants as consumers, then offerings are ‘payment.’ ” Meanwhile, many churches say they don’t have enough money to support missionaries.

10. In the 20th century, resources and influence have shifted from churches to para-church organizations.
“Before the year 1900, over 90 percent of Christian giving was channeled through the churches and denominations.” But the 20th century has seen the rise of some 40,000 para-church organizations with finances independent of churches. Christian giving to Christian causes independent of churches and denominations rose from 36 percent in 1980 to 60 percent in 1995. “One major example and cause of this that springs to mind is Christian broadcasting,” which by 1977 accounted for $500 million in the United States alone. On average, only about a third of Christian giving goes to denominations and local churches. The rise of para-church organizations may partially explain why the practice of tithing is more and more uncommon among Americans.

11. In the 21st century, resources and influence may revert from para-church organizations to local churches.
The Maclellan Foundation (Chattanooga, Tenn.) has observed an emerging change in thinking among churches and ministries about who is best suited to send missionaries, though not yet an actual shift in resources or influence per se. “More recently there has arisen a strong voice promoting one model as the correct one—for the local church to be the only biblical structure.” While in the last several decades churches have relied on ministries to train and place missionaries in the field, churches are increasingly looking to do this themselves due to concern about high attrition rates among missionaries, questions about the para-church’s theological basis for existence, and concerns about the para-church’s high overhead costs. “There has been a reaction to the historical fact that all too often the missions agencies were not only perceived to be the sending structure, but also, in practice, had become the only sending structure with the local church ignored or spurned.” Once this trend gains momentum, this could result in a shift of financing and staffing away from ministries if they fail to articulate the value they bring to the body of Christ (e.g., oversight capacity, foreign contacts, cultural familiarity). Para-churches should respond to this trend by viewing themselves as providers of knowledge, not so much as providers of personnel, and seek to work alongside local churches in the missions endeavor. While in the past, the para-church was primarily focused on evangelism through sending Western missionaries, today the successful ministries are shifting from sending agencies to resource ministries.

12. Christians are increasingly aware of the biblical mandate on generosity.
While pastors seldom discuss money, much less giving, with their congregations, Christians are being awakened to the Bible’s rich teaching on generosity. A number of organizations have been formed in the last several years promoting smarter money management and greater generosity among Christians, including Crown Financial Ministries, The Gathering, Generous Giving and Christian Financial Planners Network. These and others groups like the Christian Stewardship Association have gained momentum in the frequency, attendance and quality of their conferences, programs and publications. Crown’s cofounder, Larry Burkett (1939-2003), was influential in teaching Christians about wise money management since leaving the business world in the 1970s. “Larry was a prolific writer, authoring more than 70 books including several best sellers. Larry’s daily radio program was carried on more than 1,000 stations in the United States. ... His greatest desire was to see Crown Financial Ministries fulfill its God-given vision of teaching 30 million people in America and 300 million around the world to handle money God’s way.” Crown’s most recognized vehicle is a very well-attested small group Biblical Financial Study designed for use at the local church level. Among affluent donors, the National Christian Foundation and its national network of local Christian community foundations have popularized the use of donor-advised funds as a means to give easily, efficiently and effectively to Christian causes. In churches, several high-profile pastors preach regularly on Christian generosity, their influence extending well beyond their own pulpits (e.g., Andy Stanley, David Jeremiah, John Piper, Brian Kluth, Rick Warren). There are examples of pastors and theologians openly turning from their longstanding silence on money and possessions (e.g., R.C. Sproul, Bob Russell). Author and pastor Randy Alcorn’s small book, The Treasure Principle: Discovering the Secret of Joyful Giving (Multnomah, 2001), remains on the Christian best-seller list four years later. Several initiatives to raise stewardship awareness are at work in various U.S. denominations.

13. Faith and generosity are linked.
Generally speaking, evangelicals have a greater reverence for Scripture’s teachings and a greater sense of urgency about Jesus’ Great Commission than do their mainline counterparts. Among U.S. evangelicals, almost 90 cents of every donated dollar goes to their churches. The proportion drops, however, as people’s spiritual intensity and commitment to Christ decline.American evangelicals gave a mean of $3,601 per capita to nonprofit organizations in 2001, which is high when compared to other demographic groups. From 1968 to 2000, members of U.S. evangelical Protestant denominations gave larger dollar amounts and larger portions of income to their churches than did members of mainline Protestant denominations.26 In 2001, American evangelicals gave four times as much, per person, to churches as did all other church donors in 2001. Eighty-eight percent of evangelicals and 73 percent of all Protestants donated to churches.

14. Growing churches are missions-focused.
After visiting growing churches for five weeks, Moravian minister Steve Nicholas wrote, “Growing churches are ... mission minded. They make a special effort to serve those in other countries and other cultures. Their members take vacation time to go on trips to Jamaica, Honduras, and Africa. They go to repair churches and teach Vacation Bible Schools. They ... have personal connections with missionaries. Missionaries are supported with money, prayer, and even visits with them on the mission field. It is these connections outside themselves, which helps to stretch growing churches and keeps them from being selfish. ... They are generous and outwardly focused.” Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Community Church in California, says that church health, not church size, ought to be a pastor’s focus. Yet health and growth are linked. “If [churches] are healthy, growth will naturally happen.” When asked how one can tell if his church is healthy, Warren’s response was, “The percentage of members being mobilized for ministry and missions is a more reliable indicator of [church] health than how many people attend services.” In Warren’s mind, church growth and missions go hand in hand. “As long as there is one person in the world who does not know Christ, the church has a mandate to keep growing. Growth is not optional; it is commanded by Jesus. We should not seek church growth for our own benefit, but because God wants people to be saved.”

15. Seminaries are not teaching pastors the basic principles of financial stewardship.
Only 2 to 4 percent of U.S. seminaries and only 1 to 2 percent of Christian colleges and universities teach biblical financial principles at all, and that the theology of giving is rarely a significant part of even those curricula. Eighty-five percent of pastors are untrained in the theology of stewardship and have no books in their libraries on Christian stewardship, money or giving. Traditionally, seminary curriculums have been more focused on doctrinal preparation than on the “practical” aspects of running a church. The subject of stewardship has generally not been considered an academic topic and is seen as peripheral to a theological education.

16. Pastors are largely silent on the topic of money, possessions and giving.
Generous Giving has encountered several explanations for this trend: (1) the fear that members of the church will misconstrue the pastor’s motives for talking about giving; (2) the high-profile abuse by some pastors and teachers in the church today when teaching on money and giving, i.e., prosperity theology; (3) the lack of seminary training on a biblical theology of money and possessions; (4) the personal financial struggles of many pastors who feel hypocritical in addressing the topic when their own financial house is in disarray.

17. Ministry leaders are not trained in biblical stewardship principles.
Between 75 and 90 percent of Christian leaders and professional staff of Christian ministries say that they have never been professionally or biblically equipped to raise funds for ministry.

18. An increasing number of churches have stewardship pastors on staff.
Many churches have responded to the renewed interest in biblical teachings on finances by hiring “stewardship pastors.” These ministers oversee financial education programs at their churches and offer counsel in areas such as debt elimination and tax and estate planning. Stewardship pastors also coordinate seminars, small groups and other opportunities to study biblical financial principles, as well as teaching and providing personal advice. In our current climate of affluence, those who can offer insight into the relationship between faith and money play an important role. Examples include the Rev. Jerry Schriver at Perimeter Church in Duluth, Ga., which has about 4,000 members. Also, the Episcopal Network for Stewardship, based in Wichita, Kans., has been building up a network of dedicated stewardship ministers to serve congregations.

19. Tithing as a practice continues to decline.
“The proportion of households that tithe their income to their church—that is, give at least ten percent of their income to that ministry—has dropped by 62% in the past year, from 8% in 2001 to just 3% of adults during 2002. Born again adults, who represent 38% of the nation’s population, also sustained a decline in generosity during the past couple of years. In 2000, 12% of all born again adults tithed. The percentage rose to 14% in 2001, but dropped to only 6% in 2002. The Barna study discovered that several people groups are more likely to tithe than are others. Groups with the highest proportion of tithers were people 55 or older, college graduates, middle-income individuals, Republicans, conservatives, residents of the South, evangelicals, Protestants, and those who attend mainline Protestant churches. The group that had the highest proportion of households tithing was evangelicals. While that group represents just 6% of the public, nearly 9% of the group tithed in 2002 roughly three times the national average.” Reasons for this decline include concern about financial security, fear about terrorism, failure of parents to pass along this practice to their children, the Catholic church’s pedophilia scandal, the rise of para-church ministries and the rapid growth of Hispanics, very few of whom give generously to their churches.

20. Churches and families are increasingly comfortable with technology.
“In AD 2000, individual Christians owned and operated some 332 million personal computers, including laptops, notebooks, palmtops, and personal digital assistants. ... The latest mega-activity to be added to types of evangelism comes from the enormous expansion of electronic mail and online network activity, particularly over the Internet with its 277 million users in AD 2000 (198 million being Christians). ... The influence of Christians through chat groups, bulletin boards, and through personal and corporate e-mail increases exponentially year by year. ... Christian e-mailers and net-workers thus originate 2 billion evangelism-hours a year.” “The church has an opportunity to embrace technology for global missions and expedite the command to go forth and make disciples of all men.”

21. Knowledge of kingdom opportunities is becoming widespread.
Globalization has provided the means for faster communication between churches, foundations and individuals. The Internet has allowed knowledge of kingdom opportunities to spread quickly between nations and continents. Globalization has compressed time and space so that “we feel somehow closer to those people on the other side of the world.” This is a challenge to the American church to be more missions-minded than ever before, for with increased knowledge comes increased responsibility. “We are members of a universal church which transcends national boundaries and calls us to live in solidarity and justice with the peoples of the world.”

Is access to clean water a basic human right? | csmonitor.com

2009-03-27T05:19:00.001-06:00

Is access to clean water a basic human right? | csmonitor.com

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Senegal: The 'Missing Middle' - Tackling Youth Unemployment

2009-03-27T04:46:00.001-06:00

Senegal: The 'Missing Middle' - Tackling Youth Unemployment

10 March 2009

Saint-Louis — Ibra Niang, 22, was recently one of the estimated 100,000 young people who enter Senegal's stark job market each year.

After seeing many of his fellow youths end up on the streets hawking used clothing or on a rickety boat headed clandestinely to Europe, Niang decided he needed a marketable skill if he was to gain a decent wage.

Under a new project to restore historic buildings in Saint-Louis, 266km north of the capital Dakar, Niang is one of at least 300 young people receiving professional training, which sponsors hope will make the youths employable for years to come.

The project promises long-term benefits for participating youths and the surrounding community but is costly, highlighting the question of how to tackle youth unemployment in a way that governments and other local institutions in cash-strapped West Africa can maintain.

The project, funded by the Spanish Development Corporation, could be a model in Senegal but only if the government invests more in such efforts, said Gora Gueye, director of the Saint-Louis 'school-workshops'. Senegal's youth unemployment rate is 30 percent.

"The project could be a good model for an active youth employment policy in Senegal but the government will have to show a much greater commitment and ownership of the process," Gueye told IRIN.

The Spanish Development Cooperation is funding the US$4-million project over 18 months, with a small contribution from Senegal's Ministry of Culture and Heritage. The project costs on average $3,800 per youth.

Carlos Gallego, project manager at the Spanish Development Cooperation, said that the project should not be measured only by how many jobs it creates.

"The school-workshops have many different effects, one of which is job creation. We should also take into account the revitalisation of social and economic activities in the town or region."

Qualifications

The project workshops provide training in agri-business, tourism, community development, urban regeneration and historic building renovation.

When Niang left school two years ago, he was blocked by a lack of professional qualifications.

"I did not even look for work because...without qualifications you can do only unskilled labour and [such workers] do not make enough money to live."

Niang is now studying masonry and hopes his new skills will lead to employment back in his village, 250km north of Saint-Louis.

"After this, I will return to my village and help develop it. It is a young district, so there will be a lot of building work to be done, like hospitals and schools, the administrative building, for example."

Gueye said the project's emphasis on practical training, where 70 percent of teaching consists of students actively working in their trade, is a new way to approach Senegal's youth employment problem.

According to Gallego, this 'learn by doing' approach was adapted from a model used successfully in Latin America to tackle youth unemployment and decaying cultural heritage sites.

The missing middle

Mamadou Ndione, an economist at the World Bank in West Africa, said that to tackle unemployment Senegal must reinforce professional training. He sees Senegal's unemployment problem as a pyramid missing its middle.

"At the top of the pyramid is a small group of highly qualified people and at the bottom we have a mass of people with few or no qualifications. In the middle, there is a big gap."

Senegal has a large but unqualified workforce, which is linked to low levels of education and training, Ndione said. "If you look at the whole working population, almost half have no education whatsoever. This means that the level of training is extremely weak."

Babou Faye, deputy director of the governmental National Agency for Youth Employment (ANEJ), said the agency has a clear mission but lacks the resources to do its job. ANEJ - whose mission is to facilitate links between youths and employers - has an annual budget of around $500,000 per year.

"If the [school-workshop] model works then we would like to multiply it elsewhere," he said. "For example, we are aware of the need for employment in the mining area of Kédougou. We could apply this model there and train young people in the skills the mining sector needs. But the question of funding remains critical."

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations ]

Copyright © 2009 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

The Lausanne Covenant - Lausanne Movement The whole church taking the whole gospel to the whole world

2009-03-22T06:24:00.004-06:00

I will be posting the Lausanne Covenant one step at a time in the days ahead...

INTRODUCTION

We, members of the Church of Jesus Christ, from more than 150 nations, participants in the International Congress on World Evangelization at Lausanne, praise God for his great salvation and rejoice in the fellowship he has given us with himself and with each other. We are deeply stirred by what God is doing in our day, moved to penitence by our failures and challenged by the unfinished task of evangelization. We believe the Gospel is God's good news for the whole world, and we are determined by his grace to obey Christ's commission to proclaim it to all mankind and to make disciples of every nation. We desire, therefore, to affirm our faith and our resolve, and to make public our covenant.

1. THE PURPOSE OF GOD

We affirm our belief in the one-eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ's body, and the glory of his name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission, by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that even when borne by earthen vessels the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.

(Isa. 40:28; Matt. 28:19; Eph. 1:11; Acts 15:14; John 17:6, 18; Eph 4:12; 1 Cor. 5:10; Rom. 12:2; II Cor. 4:7)

In the bush

2009-03-13T19:58:00.003-06:00

MAF flies and shares Jesus as Northern Congo is on edge

2009-03-13T17:38:00.003-06:00

MAF flies and shares Jesus as Northern Congo is on edge
19 January, 2009

Congo (MNN) -- In the last month or so, the terrorist group known as the LRA has inflicted a blow on northeast Congo unlike any other.

According to the Mission Aviation Fellowship program manager in Buni, Dave Jacobsson, "The LRA has gone on a complete rampage, killing left and right without any discretion. There's no need to go into details on how people are being killed, but it's absolutely horrific."

Jacobsson says they're systematically going from village to village on a killing spree. And children aren't exempt from the violence. "Anyone 10 and older will be abducted. Anyone younger than 10 is killed. What's happening is just heart-breaking."

MAF is flying people, supplies and the Gospel into these troubled areas. Jacobsson says many humanitarian groups are working in the region, but even those are at risk. "If the LRA finds out that any kind of displacement camp has been set up, they immediately attack it and take the food. So there's really no such thing as a displacement camp."

Because roads are impassable and dangerous, MAF planes are vital to the survival of the villagers.

Despite the violence in some parts, the MAF ministry in Bunia is stable and strong -- so strong that MAF staff are showing the "JESUS" film. Jacobsson says the size of the crowds watching the film has been encouraging. "We draw fairly large crowds - anywhere from 300 people to as many as 2,500."

Jacobsson furthered shares that people are hungry for something spiritual. He says there's only one answer to the chaos: "The only thing that really will change in the Congo and and will make a difference in the long run is Christ and the realization that we all are sinners and need a Savior."

Only then can the country experience true reconciliation, says Jacobsson.

"There are other commercial operators who fly here in Congo, but the difference between us and them is we have the Good News and we're ready to share it when the opportunity arises."

The needs are more than MAF can handle right now. Jacobsson says another plane and more personnel are needed. Pray that God will miraculously meet these needs through you and others like you.

To learn how you can help MAF work in Congo, click here.

Ministry to share smiles

2009-03-13T17:30:00.002-06:00

Ministry to share smiles
12 March, 2009

Senegal (PSI) -- Bartimee Medical Center, a hospital created and managed by ministry partner Inter-Senegal Mission, has been elected to host a cleft lip surgery program for several children. Approximately 20-25 children will receive the operation.

In January, government health authorities elected Bartimee Medical Center (BMC) to host a cleft lip surgery program for children in the surrounding area. Funds were granted for patients needing these services but whose families have no money to pay for it. The cleft lip operation, including a minimum of two days hospitalization, costs US$300.

BMC has already begun screening candidates. Dr. Adamson, the head doctor at BMC, estimates that there are 40-50 potential candidates. The program will grant approximately half of the candidates with the surgery. The other children will be placed on a waiting list for another program or will be recommended to other hospitals in Dakar.

"We are both surprised and honored," said Willy, BMC's administrative assistant. "This will echo our testimony throughout the surrounding area."

BMC was chosen over two other hospitals because of the quality of care their hospital provides. Health authorities said that BMC is better equipped to handle these surgeries than the other hospitals in the area.

ISM has started a program called Operation Bartimaeus, a community development program integrating health care and education, micro-loans, literacy, and agriculture projects.

In 1999, a small medical center in a rented house was opened for patients in a poor section of a major city. Today the medical work has grown, and so has the need, especially in the villages where people have no access to medical care.

Please pray for the surgeons and quick healing for the children. Pray for BMC staff to demonstrate God's perfect love through their words and deeds. Pray that many parents and their children will be touched by God's love through this surgery.

Congo Initiative

2009-02-28T10:38:00.005-06:00

learn more about the Congo Initiative from their website and archived newsletters....

Be sure to visit our website to learn much more about our people, mission and work. For decades, the D.R. Congo has witnessed horrendous exploitation, disease and conflict, but in the midst of it all, a place of hope is emerging in Beni, where a new generation of Congolese leaders is being raised up to transform the country in the name of Jesus Christ. Come and see the new thing that God is doing through the Congo Initiative!
link to archived newsletters

Grand Magal Touba

2009-02-28T10:03:00.002-06:00

This event empties out towns and village as about one million converge on a small city that has no hotels and many restrictions.
Learn more about Touba here

Senegal Road Trip

2009-02-28T07:12:00.011-06:00

I just returned from Senegal about two weeks ago.
On this trip, my main goal was to travel to about seven villages in seven days to help develop a reporting system that will better help the partnerships that have been formed between villages and north American partners.
My visit was full of information and many kilometers in a rental car. I was to visit these villages and spend some time with them, encouraging the faithful there,getting a small snapshot of life in the village and get updates on projects and such.
While I visited some villages for the first time, others I had been to before. It was good to meet new friends and build on past relationships.
The road we traveled on were,well should I say horse cart paths. They were winding and interesting. It always amazes me that these people know where to go. I mean there are no signs, no landmarks...just paths that wind through a sub Saharan landscape. Its like they have this built in gps navigation system. I mean all this terrain is similar, it's flat, scattered varieties of trees, that include the famous Boubob tree and very sandy. The days we traveled the furthest distance were on the warm side. In my estimation it was over 100 degrees. When I asked my translator how hot he thought it was, I got a typical Senegalese response, "it's hot". I have learned over the years that it really doesn't pay to ask them about these type of things. Like " How hot is it?" or "How many people are in this village?", because it's all relative. Its either hot or cold or there's many people or not so many people. For a westerner that takes some adjustment with our local weather forecast that predicts our every weather movement. Here its not important.

Traveling to villages in a rural Senegal setting has its moments. Our 'hertz rental car" had no AC and FM if you know what I mean.
You have to keep the windows up when traveling down these dusty roads or you become consumed with very fine dust. So its either the dust or the heat...You know that if you break down...you are going to be doing one of two things. Walking or hitching a ride on a horse cart. You are in the bush where automobile travel is not the norm.
Our car, by God's grace and mercy, never broke down and our travels were safe.

Food for Thought

2009-02-21T08:31:00.000-06:00

These world statistics from the World Relief Corporation are only a glimpse at
the great challenge we face globally:

For nearly 2 out of 3 people in the world, hunger is a lifestyle.
Industrialized countries compose 20% of the world population but consume 80% of the food resources.
In the United States alone, $30-$50 billion a year is spent on diets and related expenditures to reduce calorie intake.
The imbalance in food distribution is the number one reason for hunger.
1.1 billion people lack access to clean water.
1 out of 4 people lacks access to basic health services.
It is estimated that $30-40 billion a year would provide all developing countries with water, education and basic health care. This is the same amount spent annually on golf.

WEST AFRICA: When there is no village doctor

2009-02-19T06:38:00.002-06:00

Photo: Tugela Riddley/IRIN
One out of four doctors trained in Africa leave the continent in search of more pay and stability (file photo)

DAKAR, 4 February 2009 (IRIN) - An international financial recession threatens to worsen the “severe medical workforce crisis” faced by almost 60 African and Asian countries, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO). The fewer health workers there are, the less chance a woman has to survive childbirth and a child his or her infancy, according to WHO.

In the last such statistics recorded by WHO, the agency in 2006 estimated a shortage of more than four million health workers in Africa and Asia.

The WHO Global Health Workforce Alliance estimates that on average one in four doctors and one in 20 nurses trained in Africa leave the continent to work in wealthier countries for the experience, more pay and better living conditions.

But Mubashar Sheikh, executive director of the workforce alliance, told IRIN prohibiting health worker migration is not a solution. “The movement of health workers can have both positive and negative consequences. [Because] while remittances sent back home contribute to the economic development of the country, health systems in such countries might be weakened by health worker out-migration.”

Rather, Sheikh said the answer lies in training and retaining more health workers in areas that face severe shortages, such as West Africa.

No matter how developed a country’s economy is, doctor shortage is a shared burden across West Africa. Even though Cape Verdeans earned 10 times more on average than Sierra Leoneans in 2007, according to the World Bank, both countries struggled to treat the sick.

Sierra Leone

In Sierra Leone, for a population of more than five million there are 75 state medical doctors as of February 2009, according to the Ministry of Health. In addition, there are 25 medical specialists and 23 public health workers.

The country’s only ear, nose and throat specialist Arthur Wright told IRIN he trained in Europe before returning home to work in 1967. “Many of the colleagues who trained with me left during our country’s civil crisis,” said Wright.

During Sierra Leone’s war from 1991 until 2002, human rights observers reported tens of thousands of civilians falling victim to killings and mutilations, and approximately one-third of the population fled.

Wright said medical training in Sierra Leone still has a long way to go to patch the health worker gap. “Brain drain is still a tremendous problem. We lose a lot of doctors to the United States, Saudi Arabia and England every year.

"Even with about 1,000 enrollees at the [local] College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences and 15 to 20 physician graduates every year, 75 percent of them will leave the country. They cannot make a living off of [the government salary] $100 per month,” said Wright.

As a doctor and former professor at the medical school, Wright's pension after 30 years of government service is $140 per month, he told IRIN. “Without my private practice, I could not afford to remain in my country.”

Village doctor is out
LIBERIA: War wounds left to fester
SIERRA LEONE: Sister Rugiatu Kanu, a midwife in Sierra Leone. “We lack everything”
MALAWI: Health worker shortage a challenge to AIDS treatment
IRAQ: Hospitals under pressure as doctors move abroad
The Sierra Leone government has requested 110 doctors from Nigeria, Sudan and Cuba, according to the Ministry of Health. Egypt’s government has pledged to send six specialists.

But Wright told IRIN such recruitment can bring only short-term relief. “We need to address the middle- and long-term needs to improve health services and training. These doctors will leave. And then?”

When asked why he had not left Sierra Leone to pursue more lucrative medical jobs, Wright said: “This is my country. I have to give service to my people.”

Cape Verde

With a population of less than half a million, according to the most recent government census, Cape Verde has no medical school. WHO reported 231 doctors in the archipelago as of 2006, all trained overseas.

To cover the gap, the government pays 50 doctors, mostly Cuban, to work on up to three-year contracts.

More than half of Cuba’s 79,000 doctors work on temporary contracts in more than 70 countries, according to the Cuban government. Host governments pay the doctors’ salaries and benefits.

Visiting doctor Cristina Cedeño told IRIN that rural residents dispersed throughout Cape Verde’s nine inhabited islands have a hard time accessing care. She added that anything beyond basic medical care is still scarce in Cape Verde. “Up until seven days ago, there was only one oncologist. Before that people with money went to Portugal or stayed here for general care.”

Cape Verde's Health Ministry director Jaqueline Pereira told IRIN doctor shortages are a problem. She said discussions to create the country’s first medical school are scheduled to begin this year.

Stop-gap

But for David Werner who wrote the widely-translated 1970s village health care manual, “Where There is No Doctor,” medical specialisation is not necessarily the answer. “Experts come in and think they have all the answers, and end up drowning out solutions villagers could devise themselves.”

Werner said more doctors do not guarantee improved community health. “Doctors are specialists in the narrow area of health care called medicine. More trained community health workers and a fundamental change of the underlying social determinants of health are needed.”

The biologist, author and health educator told IRIN poverty is more powerful than knowledge. “No matter how many experts tell a mother to feed her child, without the means, she cannot follow their advice.”

pt/aa/np

Themes: (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition, (IRIN) Migration

Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=82755

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

Copyright © IRIN 200

one week 7 villages

2009-02-12T09:56:00.002-06:00

Just sitting here in Atlanta airport following a whirlwind visit in Senegal of 7 villages in seven days.
A few highlights-
Able to spend 2 days in our home village...witnessed running water in the village for the first time in their history. Now with that running water there is dreams of a small community garden.
Was able to meet many people on the field...prayer and encouragement were keys to the visit
Able to start a reporting method on villages
Built on existing relationships and made some new ones.

An Atheist Argues that Africa Needs God

2009-02-04T13:34:00.000-06:00

RSS Feed for This PostCurrent Article
An Atheist Argues that Africa Needs God

By jay on Dec 30, 2008 in Uncategorized

The following article by atheist Matthew Parris, a columnist for the TIMESONLINE, describes his view of how Christianity is critical to African development. The article illustrates the contagious nature of a Christianity that blends proclamation and demonstration–that calls for submission to a King and works for the building of his Kingdom. — Jay

From The Times

December 27, 2008

As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God

Missionaries, not aid money, are the solution to Africa’s biggest problem - the crushing passivity of the people’s mindset

by Matthew Parris

Before Christmas I returned, after 45 years, to the country that as a boy I knew as Nyasaland. Today it’s Malawi, and The Times Christmas Appeal includes a small British charity working there. Pump Aid helps rural communities to install a simple pump, letting people keep their village wells sealed and clean. I went to see this work.
It inspired me, renewing my flagging faith in development charities. But travelling in Malawi refreshed another belief, too: one I’ve been trying to banish all my life, but an observation I’ve been unable to avoid since my African childhood. It confounds my ideological beliefs, stubbornly refuses to fit my world view, and has embarrassed my growing belief that there is no God.

Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.

I used to avoid this truth by applauding - as you can - the practical work of mission churches in Africa. It’s a pity, I would say, that salvation is part of the package, but Christians black and white, working in Africa, do heal the sick, do teach people to read and write; and only the severest kind of secularist could see a mission hospital or school and say the world would be better without it. I would allow that if faith was needed to motivate missionaries to help, then, fine: but what counted was the help, not the faith.

But this doesn’t fit the facts. Faith does more than support the missionary; it is also transferred to his flock. This is the effect that matters so immensely, and which I cannot help observing.

First, then, the observation. We had friends who were missionaries, and as a child I stayed often with them; I also stayed, alone with my little brother, in a traditional rural African village. In the city we had working for us Africans who had converted and were strong believers. The Christians were always different. Far from having cowed or confined its converts, their faith appeared to have liberated and relaxed them. There was a liveliness, a curiosity, an engagement with the world - a directness in their dealings with others - that seemed to be missing in traditional African life. They stood tall.

At 24, travelling by land across the continent reinforced this impression. From Algiers to Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon and the Central African Republic, then right through the Congo to Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, four student friends and I drove our old Land Rover to Nairobi.

We slept under the stars, so it was important as we reached the more populated and lawless parts of the sub-Sahara that every day we find somewhere safe by nightfall. Often near a mission.

Whenever we entered a territory worked by missionaries, we had to acknowledge that something changed in the faces of the people we passed and spoke to: something in their eyes, the way they approached you direct, man-to-man, without looking down or away. They had not become more deferential towards strangers - in some ways less so - but more open.

This time in Malawi it was the same. I met no missionaries. You do not encounter missionaries in the lobbies of expensive hotels discussing development strategy documents, as you do with the big NGOs. But instead I noticed that a handful of the most impressive African members of the Pump Aid team (largely from Zimbabwe) were, privately, strong Christians. “Privately” because the charity is entirely secular and I never heard any of its team so much as mention religion while working in the villages. But I picked up the Christian references in our conversations. One, I saw, was studying a devotional textbook in the car. One, on Sunday, went off to church at dawn for a two-hour service.

It would suit me to believe that their honesty, diligence and optimism in their work was unconnected with personal faith. Their work was secular, but surely affected by what they were. What they were was, in turn, influenced by a conception of man’s place in the Universe that Christianity had taught.

There’s long been a fashion among Western academic sociologists for placing tribal value systems within a ring fence, beyond critiques founded in our own culture: “theirs” and therefore best for “them”; authentic and of intrinsically equal worth to ours.

I don’t follow this. I observe that tribal belief is no more peaceable than ours; and that it suppresses individuality. People think collectively; first in terms of the community, extended family and tribe. This rural-traditional mindset feeds into the “big man” and gangster politics of the African city: the exaggerated respect for a swaggering leader, and the (literal) inability to understand the whole idea of loyal opposition.

Anxiety - fear of evil spirits, of ancestors, of nature and the wild, of a tribal hierarchy, of quite everyday things - strikes deep into the whole structure of rural African thought. Every man has his place and, call it fear or respect, a great weight grinds down the individual spirit, stunting curiosity. People won’t take the initiative, won’t take things into their own hands or on their own shoulders.

How can I, as someone with a foot in both camps, explain? When the philosophical tourist moves from one world view to another he finds - at the very moment of passing into the new - that he loses the language to describe the landscape to the old. But let me try an example: the answer given by Sir Edmund Hillary to the question: Why climb the mountain? “Because it’s there,” he said.
To the rural African mind, this is an explanation of why one would not climb the mountain. It’s… well, there. Just there. Why interfere? Nothing to be done about it, or with it. Hillary’s further explanation - that nobody else had climbed it - would stand as a second reason for passivity.

Christianity, post-Reformation and post-Luther, with its teaching of a direct, personal, two-way link between the individual and God, unmediated by the collective, and unsubordinate to any other human being, smashes straight through the philosphical/spiritual framework I’ve just described. It offers something to hold on to to those anxious to cast off a crushing tribal groupthink. That is why and how it liberates.

Those who want Africa to walk tall amid 21st-century global competition must not kid themselves that providing the material means or even the knowhow that accompanies what we call development will make the change. A whole belief system must first be supplanted.

And I’m afraid it has to be supplanted by another. Removing Christian evangelism from the African equation may leave the continent at the mercy of a malign fusion of Nike, the witch doctor, the mobile phone and the machete.

China adds $11.7 mln in aid to Senegal

2009-02-02T20:09:00.000-06:00

DAKAR, Jan. 30 (Xinhua) -- China adds 80 million yuan (about 11.7 million U.S. dollars) in its support to a variety of projects in Senegal, the Chinese Embassy has said.

Senegalese Economy Minister Abdoulaye Diop and Chinese Ambassador in the West African country Lu Shaye signed a document on Thursday in the capital Dakar.

Under the agreement, China will provide extra support to the projects including the National Grand Theatre in Dakar, the Museum of Black Civilization, the Pikine Pediatric Hospital and the rehabilitation of 11 stadiums across the country.

The newly inked assistance is the latest in a series since November 2008, when China committed 70 million yuan (10.2 million dollars) in non-reimbursable aid to Senegal. On Jan. 6, the two countries signed another two documents under which China will fund Senegal's national security network and the upgrading of Senbus bus parking place.

The agreements show "the dynamic power of our bilateral cooperation," Ambassador Lu said.

"China, the biggest developing country ... will respect its aid engagements and cooperation with other developing countries, especially African countries," the ambassador added.

Diop expressed appreciation of efforts by China to support African development, wishing a further enhancement of Senegalese-Sino cooperation.

SENEGAL: Forecasting the future in an erratic climate

2009-01-17T09:22:00.000-06:00

THIES, 5 January 2009 (IRIN) - In the darkness after pre-dawn prayer a village elder would squint at the sky overhead, tilting his head back until his cap fell off, looking for a cluster of bright stars that signalled the middle of the rainy season.

Now many traditional methods are becoming increasingly unreliable predictors of the weather due to climate variability, and African farmers already facing fluctuations need scientific data to help them adapt, farmers and climate experts say.

"You plant your seeds and then the rain doesn't come. So next year you change your approach and you plant later, but the rain comes earlier," said Paul Thiao, a farmer and regional coordinator for the Senegalese Federation of NGOs (FONGS).

"Farmers have become gamblers," he said. "The system has been disturbed and now they must take a gamble on when the rain will come. But they are gambling with their livelihoods."

The International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian organisation supporting scientific research in developing countries, is working with FONGS and other organisations to diffuse scientific and local knowledge to help Senegalese farmers adapt.

Traditional knowledge essential

Farmers need scientific data on soil fertility levels and adaptive seed varieties in order to assure a good harvest, but traditional cultivation methods and local perspectives on climate change are also vital to maintaining crop yields, said Ndiankou Seye, head of planning and research at the government's regional council of Thiès, 70km from the capital Dakar, told IRIN.

"There are things the climatologists cannot tell you and there are scientific facts that are incomprehensible to the farmer," Seye said.

Madeleine Diouf Sarr, who leads Senegal’s climate change committee at the Ministry of Environment, agreed that efforts to adapt to changing weather patterns must combine traditional and scientific knowledge.

"Even though the [weather] shifts, the plants do not lie. When plants feel a certain amount of humidity they will bloom. So the indigenous approach is as valuable as the science involved," she told IRIN.

Feeling the heat

In Senegal, where more than three-quarters of the population live off the land, many relying on rain-fed crops, farmers are already feeling the sting of unpredictable weather.

Elders in the village of Fandène say they find it increasingly difficult to predict the weather through traditional methods because of climate change
People in the village of Fandène, near Thiès, said the changes include warmer winters, harsher winds, erratic rains and smaller harvests.

Production levels are lower compared to 20 years ago, Therese Mbaye, a local council member, told IRIN. "There is not enough water for the harvest and the marshes have dried up. People have left Fandène for Dakar."

The UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that in some African countries rain-fed agriculture will be reduced by half in just over a decade and climate change will result in less cultivatable land, shorter seasons and lower yields.

Possible consequences, according to the panel of experts, include sharper food scarcity, malnutrition, disease and instability.

For Assize Touré, technical director at the Ecological Monitoring Centre in Dakar, the current changes are worrying enough. "There is not enough emphasis on helping vulnerable communities to adapt to the changes they are already experiencing. It is time to develop strategies."

Meteorological data gap

For successful adaptation, vulnerable populations need accurate data on meteorological patterns, weather forecasts and risk assessment, according to the 2008 UN Human Development Report. But despite their precarious situation, Senegalese farmers have little access to such information, Touré said.

Africa has the world's lowest density of meteorological stations with only one-eighth of the minimum level recommended by the World Meteorological Organisation.

The Environment Ministry's Sarr said predicting rainfall is complex. "You need to have a dense coverage of meteorological observatories in order to predict the weather with precision for specific areas. That is the difficulty in West Africa."

While more detailed meteorological information can result in higher production through strategic planting, Sarr cautioned against leaving everything to science. "Scientific forecasting is limited because you cannot predict very far in advance, which leaves things uncertain right up to the beginning of the [planting] season."

Regional

Fatima Denton, who leads the IDRC's Climate Change Adaptation in Africa project, said policymakers must act. "Adaptation is done at the local level but the results of local actions need to find a way of percolating up to decision-makers so they can act on climate change."

Denton hopes to see cooperation at the regional level not only on addressing known impacts but also on anticipating potential problems.

"It's all about anticipation. Climate variability is just the tip of the iceberg, but we can prepare ourselves in advance," she said. Denton said while awareness is increasing decision-makers in Africa lack a sense of urgency.

"We still have a long way to go to internalise the huge challenge that climate change poses to Africa.

Rice still at the heart of meals in Senegal

2008-09-14T08:16:00.000-06:00

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JOHANNESBURG, 8 July 2008 (IRIN) - A rough guide to why food prices keep going up

What is the crisis?

For the first time since 1973, the world has been hit by a combination of record high food and fuel prices. The price of oilseeds and grains, such as wheat and maize, has doubled since January 2006, with over 60 percent of the hike taking place since January 2008, according to the World Bank. Rice more than tripled between January and May 2008.

Prices have begun to fall as the 2008 crop is being harvested, but recent floods in US states producing maize and soya-beans, and poor weather conditions in Australia have slowed the decline.

Since 2001, oil has rocketed from US$20 a barrel to an unprecedented $140. The World Bank says oil prices are now higher than any time in the last century, not only pushing up the price of food in poor countries importing staple grains and fuel, but also eroding their capacity to buy food.

Why have prices shot up suddenly?

The short answer is that global cereal stocks have not kept pace with growing demand, and neither has the oil supply. Stocks of cereals have been declining worldwide since 2000, while demand has been increasing at two to three percent per year.

In the last two years, cereal stocks have fallen to levels last seen in the 1970s for two main reasons: firstly, major wheat-producing countries such as Australia suffered droughts in 2006 and 2007; secondly, the hike in fuel prices saw the US and many European countries offer subsidies to their farmers to grow grain for biofuel. The switch from growing food to growing fuel pushed up prices by 30 to 70 percent, depending on which study you read.

Some analysts have blamed high food prices on the burgeoning economies of China, India and some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, where more people can now afford to include meat and other animal products in their diet, which in turn has driven up the demand for grains used as feed.

However, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says recent high commodity prices do not seem to have originated in these emerging markets: neither China nor India are big cereal importers in the 2007/08 season. In fact, China is exporting maize and India's wheat imports are relatively small.

Various food analysts say the production of grains has dropped because of rising chemical fertiliser prices, which have doubled and even tripled in some parts of the world, making it unaffordable to most farmers in developing countries.

Other analysts have attributed low cereal stocks to the cumulative effect of changes in the agricultural policies of developed countries, particularly in Europe, where farm subsidies have been shrinking, and a drop in investment in agricultural research to develop high-yield varieties since the 1990s.

But the price spikes recorded in 2008, particularly in rice, have been linked to export restrictions imposed by rice-producing countries, including India, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt, which together supplied around 40 percent of global rice exports in 2007, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Didn't anyone see the crisis coming?

Since 2006 the FAO has warned of a possible food price crisis in its periodic updates on global cereal stocks.

What has been the fallout of the crisis?

The impact of increasingly expensive food has been wide-ranging,deepening poverty levels and pushing even more people into poverty. According to a recent World Bank study, at least another 105 million across the world will become poor.

Simulations in this study suggest that in Africa alone nearly another 30 million people will fall into poverty: in Sierra Leone the food crisis has raised poverty by three percentage points, to 69 percent; in Djibouti, rising food prices over the past three years are estimated to have increased extreme poverty from 40 percent to 54 percent.

Various UN agencies have warned that unaffordable food could drive up the number of undernourished people in the world – already at 800 million - while poor people have begun skipping meals or switching to cheaper and lower quality cereals, affecting their health.

A recent FAO assessment in Somalia found that 2.6 million people - approximately 35 percent of the population, of which more than half are children - had been affected by a nutrition crisis caused by drought and prolonged conflict. The number of people needing humanitarian assistance in Somalia could reach an estimated 3.5 million - half the total population - by the end of 2008.

According to the World Bank, even stable, high-growth countries are not immune to the damaging effects of escalating food prices on child nutrition. In India, for instance, 47 percent of children are stunted – double the rate in sub-Saharan Africa, where 24 percent experience delayed development - and nearly five times that of China, where just over nine percent of children are stunted.

The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) says 1.5 to 1.8 million more children in India are at risk of malnourishment as households cut back on meals or switch to less nutritious foods to cope with rising prices.

Expensive food and fuel have also had political fallout: since 2007, high prices have sparked violent protests in at least 17 countries, mostly in Africa; earlier in 2008, the government of Haiti fell after week-long protests.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which is committed to promoting democracy and assisting developing countries, noted that each 10 percent increase in the prices of cereals adds nearly $4.5 billion to the import bills of poorer countries.

An FAO study recently noted that at least seven countries - Gambia, Liberia, Mauritania, Niger, Zimbabwe, Jordan and Moldova - which have all chalked up high levels of debt - could be forced to spend as much as two percent of their gross domestic product on importing food. Most of these countries are already struggling with chronic hunger, so soaring food costs hold the threat of political instability.

Surely higher food prices benefit small-scale farmers?

Yes, logically they should. But very few subsistence farmers in Africa produce surplus food, and are mostly net buyers. Simulated studies by FAO found that rural households in countries where land was not equitably distributed - which is the case in most developing countries - would be worst affected.

The World Bank has also found that although farmers who produce surplus food might be better protected, even they might not benefit from the food price surge because the cost of inputs like fuel, fertiliser and transportation often rose faster than world market prices for food.

Agriculture experts say that unless governments subsidise inputs, poverty levels in rural households could deepen, and the prospects for beefing up global cereal stocks look bleak. The World Bank has called for subsidies aimed at poor and small-scale farmers for a limited period to boost yields, as part of a package that should include investment in extension, research and rural infrastructure.

When will food prices come down?

High prices may boost production in 2008, which in turn may push down prices, provided there are no natural disasters. But any major expansion of agricultural land in the short term is unlikely, says FAO, and any increase in plantings of one crop would need to occur at the expense of another. So, while the price of a certain food commodity might fall, the prices of others might increase.

Photo: Lynn Maung/IRIN
Billions of dollars needed for a second Green Revolution
Short-term price forecasts for food commodities are difficult because they are linked to other markets, such as energy. A recent FAO/OECD medium-term outlook for major agricultural commodities said prices were likely to remain high for the next decade.

Can the situation be turned around?

Many agriculture experts are pushing for a new "Green Revolution", which doubled cereal production between 1970 and 1995 in South Asia. Money and investment in developing high-yielding varieties of maize, wheat and rice, combined with access to pesticides, irrigation and fertiliser, could have a dramatic impact.

But this would require huge amounts of money: between $15 and $20 billion a year, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Aid agencies and other non-governmental organisations are lobbying the G8 and other leaders meeting in Japan this week to beef up investment in agriculture in developing countries.

jk/he

Themes: (IRIN) Food Security, (IRIN) Governance, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition

[ENDS]
Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79148

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

GLOBAL: Humanitarians cool on G8 summit response to food crisis

2008-07-13T07:51:00.002-06:00

Cereals for sale in the central market of Kabul, Afghanistan. Due to high food prices, most people cannot afford regular daily meals
NEW YORK, 11 July 2008 (IRIN) - When the leaders of the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, opened their meeting in Japan on 7 July, World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged them to “seize this opportunity” in the face of a crisis that threatened to push 100 million or more additional people into hunger beyond the 850 million already suffering.

He called for “resources, action, and results in real time” in three areas - meeting immediate needs with safety net support; giving small farmers, especially in Africa, access to seeds, fertilisers and other basic inputs; and easing export bans and restrictions that have contributed to higher prices.

“The G8 did not rise to the challenge laid down by President Zoellick and others,” Oxfam policy director Gawain Kripke told IRIN. The World Bank had no immediate comment.
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“As far as I can tell there’s no new money or substantive commitment … Zoellick was calling for action not words, so there seems to be quite a mismatch between his call and what the G8 did,” Kripke said.

“It’s not impressive, it’s not much of an advance on the state of play … they should have been more specific about where assistance should come from and how much it should be. There should have been a bit more introspection among the G8 about the role of G8 country polices in contributing to the crisis, namely agricultural policy, biofuels policy.”

Zoellick said in a statement: “We believe they recognise the danger [of the crisis]. No one has objected - and many support - our proposal to end export bans on WFP [UN World Food Programme] purchases.” Before the summit he had called on governments around the world to ensure access to local purchases for the WFP, and said it was “an outrage” that such purchases were not now exempt from export restrictions.

The Syrian finance minister has said withdrawing bread subsidies is a “red line”, but failing harvests and soaring international wheat prices may force a re-think
WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran welcomed the leaders’ “resolve” to help protect the poorest and find long-term solutions to the crisis. But, she stressed in a statement: “We need to follow through with practical measures that can make a real difference in addressing urgent hunger needs throughout the world.”

The summit pledged to “ensure the compatibility of policies for the sustainable production and use of biofuels with food security and accelerate development and commercialisation of sustainable second-generation biofuels from non-food plant materials and inedible biomass”.

Missing details

But like much else in the statement there were no concrete details or figures, though the leaders did note that since January they had committed, for short-, medium- and long-term purposes, more than US$10 billion to support food aid, nutrition interventions, social protection activities and measures to increase agricultural output in affected countries.

They called for the removal of export restrictions, and pledged to reverse the overall decline of aid and investment in the agricultural sector, and to achieve significant increases in support of developing country initiatives, particularly in Africa. But, as with other pledges, there were no details.

“There is no concrete proposal for lasting solutions to the global food price crisis,” said the G8 NGO Platform Network, which groups 1,500 humanitarian and development NGOs in the eight countries.

“The impact of biofuel policies in developed countries on this crisis was not acknowledged. In addition, the G8 made only a vague commitment to ‘reverse the overall decline of aid and investment in the agricultural sector’,” it added in a statement.

“Unfortunately, the 2008 Hokkaido Summit produced no significant breakthroughs and failed to meet the expectations of firmer and more comprehensive commitments to end extreme poverty and protect the environment.”

Rioters took to the streets in Burkina Faso's second city, Bobo-Dioulasso, in February 2008 protesting against rising food and fuel prices
But it did applaud the $10 billion contribution, which does not appear to contain any new money, and the pledge to build up local agriculture by promoting local purchase of food aid.

Action Against Hunger called for immediate action. “We are hoping for more than promises or long-term plans that are doomed to fail. We aren’t as optimistic about the prospects for immediate solutions stemming from the recent G8 meetings,” security adviser Ilke Pietzsch told IRIN.

Distortions

However, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) research fellow Marc Cohen said the summit had made some progress towards meeting Zoellick’s challenge.

“They did put this high on their agenda, probably the highest it’s been since they started having the summits in the 1970s, to talk about hunger and food insecurity,” he told IRIN. “So I think that’s positive. And the endorsement of the UN framework for addressing this was important, to get the richest countries behind that.”

But he noted that they had not really said anything about revisiting mandates in the US and European Union, which set aside quotas for biofuel production from food crops.

They also failed to pledge to reduce their own trade-distorting subsidies and barriers even as they called on others not to take measures such as export embargoes. “That’s a major missing piece here,” he said. “Our [US] own trade policies are part of the problem.”

The leaders tasked an Experts Group to monitor the implementation of their commitments. Zoellick welcomed this as useful in helping to ensure accountability.
But in the view of some, the group would not be overworked. “There are very few commitments so it’s not going to be hard to monitor them,” said Oxfam’s Kripke.

ma/am/mw

Themes: (IRIN) Aid Policy, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Food Security, (IRIN) Health & Nutrition

[ENDS]
Report can be found online at:
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=79205

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]
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