trip To Houston

January 11 , I travel to Houston to meet with Living Water International and learn more of what they do and how they could possibly assist us as we look to develop a sustainable clean water program for rural Senegal.
In March we travel to Senegal with a person from Living Water International to 'survey' the land and to investigate the current situation there.
The situation for water,especially clean water,in Senegal is lacking.
Hopefully this will be the beginning of making a difference in rural Senegal.

Christmas in the Congo

We organized and had an amazing worship day on Christmas at CI-UCBC campus. Unbelievable... people came from town and there was no space for many to get in. The hall and balcon were all overcrowded. We worshiped at a highest spiritual transcendence. We stopped at 6 pm and still people did not want to quit. The CI goal is being met: "Community training center" and "Worship center" have become reality at UCBC. Thanks for your prayers and all the support.

...from a friend on the field

GIVE LIFE---Living Water Int.

Advent Conspiracy Part 2

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/

Advent Conspiracy

[AC] Advent Conspiracy from Scott Andreas on Vimeo.

Senegal Slave House's past questioned

By John Murphy
The Baltimore Sun
GOREE ISLAND, Senegal — Standing in a narrow doorway opening onto the Atlantic Ocean, tour guide Aladji Ndiaye asked a visitor to this Senegalese island's Slave House to imagine the millions of shackled Africans who stepped through it, forced onto overcrowded ships that would carry them to lives of slavery in the Americas.

"After walking through the door, it was bye-bye, Africa," says Ndiaye, pausing before solemnly pointing to the choppy waters below. "Many would try to escape. Those who did died. It was better we give ourselves to the sharks than be slaves."

This portal — called the door of no return — is one of the most powerful symbols of the Atlantic slave trade, serving as a backdrop for high-profile visits to Africa by Pope John Paul II, President Clinton and his successor, President Bush, and a destination for thousands of African Americans in search of their roots.

More than 200,000 people travel to this rocky island off the coast of Dakar each year to step inside the dark, dungeonlike holding rooms in the pink stucco Slave House and hear details of how 20 million slaves were chained and fattened for export here. Many visitors are moved to tears.

But whatever its emotional or spiritual power, Goree Island was never a major shipping point for slaves, say historians, who insist no slaves were ever sold at Slave House, no Africans ever stepped through the famous door of no return to waiting ships.

"The whole story is phony," says Philip Curtin, a retired professor of history at Johns Hopkins University who has written more than two dozen books on Atlantic slave trade and African history.

Although it functioned as a commercial center, Goree Island was never a key departure point for slaves, Curtin says. Most Africans sold into slavery in the Senegal region would have departed from thriving slave depots at the mouths of the Senegal River to the north and the Gambia River to the south, he says.

During about 400 years of the Atlantic slave trade, when an estimated 10 million Africans were taken from Africa, maybe 50,000 slaves — not 20 million as claimed by the Slave House curator — might have spent time on the island, Curtin says.

Even then, they would not have been locked in chains in the Slave House, Curtin says. Built in 1775-1778 by a wealthy merchant, it was one of the most beautiful homes on the island; it would not have been used as a warehouse for slaves other than those who might have been owned by the merchant.

Likewise, Curtin adds, the widely accepted story that the door of no return was the final departure point for millions of slaves is not true. There are too many rocks to allow boats to dock safely, he says.

Curtin's assessment is widely shared by historians, including Abdoulaye Camara, curator of the Goree Island Historical Museum, which is a 10-minute walk from the Slave House.

The Slave House, says Camara, offers a distorted account of the island's history, created with tourists in mind.

But when the respected French newspaper Le Monde published an article in 1996 refuting the island's role in the slave trade, Senegalese authorities were furious. Several years ago at an academic conference in Senegal, some Senegalese accused Curtin of "stealing their history," he says.

No one is quite sure where the Slave House got its name, but both Camara and Curtin credit Boubacar Joseph Ndiaye, the Slave House's curator since the early 1960s, with promoting it as a tourist attraction.

Ndiaye is famous in Senegal for offering thousands of visitors chilling details of the squalid conditions of the slaves' holding cells, the chains used to shackle them and their final walk through the door of no return.

"Joseph Ndiaye offers a strong, powerful, sentimental history. I am a historian. I am not allowed to be sentimental," Camara says.

That said, Camara believes Ndiaye has played an important role in offering the descendants of slaves an emotional shrine to commemorate the sacrifices of their ancestors.

"The slaves did not pour through that door. The door is a symbol. The history and memory needs to have a strong symbol," Camara says. "You either accept it or you don't accept it. It's difficult to interpret a symbol."

Some tour books have begun warning visitors about the questions surrounding the island, including Lonely Planet's West Africa guidebook, which concludes: "Goree's fabricated history boils down to an emotional manipulation by government officials and tour companies of people who come here as part of a genuine search for cultural roots."

None of the controversy appears to have diminished the island's attraction as a tourist destination. The ferry that carries visitors from Dakar to the island is regularly packed with tourists and school groups.

At the Slave House, the visitors' book is crowded with entries by tourists expressing a powerful mix of anger, sadness and hope at what they've experienced — no matter if it is fact or fiction.

"The black Africans will never forget this shameful act until kingdom come," penned a visitor from Ghana.

A little clip from the Congo

You have to forgive my novice video editing...my first one to you tube...

Senegal Struggles with Drought, Desertification

We are looking at options to meet people's needs in Senegal...most farmers have food for about three months from some of the reports we are getting out of the country...

back in the USA....

14 thousand miles....37 hours....3 hours driving...
It's good to back be in the US.

where there is pain...

Let us bring grace, where there is suffering, bring serenity, for those afraid, let us be brave, where there is misery, let us bring relief
Let us be the remedy.
-David Crowder*
The last six days have been an education for me. Learning about life and culture here is fascinating. The people are full of smiles when you wave at them while traveling down the paths they call a road. Children work harder here than any child in America…guaranteed….but yet when you stop and spend a few minutes with them…they laugh and are happy (or just plain fascinated themselves with a white boy) to laugh and talk with you. We can’t understand each other, but yet we communicate. I just love the children and the youth. The smiles are forever embedded in my heart.
But the youth here have inherited a mess…but I believe there is hope. They have big challenges ahead of them.
But the big question is.
How do I make a difference here? This country, as beautiful as it is, is a mess.
The more I learn and find out, the more I ask myself “How will there be change?”
Of course the love of Jesus Christ, is the ultimate hope, but who is going to bring this remedy?
Is it you? Is it me?
Let us be the remedy.

Life In Beni

What is amazing about this area is the resiliency of these people. What they must have gone through with the war here would be traumatizing to most people. But not here, people are so resilient.
4 million people have lost there lives here in the last 7-8 years...and really it's hard to see it on the streets. People move about...motorbikes act as Taxi's and bicycles here have a different meaning.
The next week i will traveling to a nearby village, to get a view of rural living, interviewing more students and staff, visiting with local people and building relationships that hope will be lifelong friendships.

Interviews

Yesterday, I was able to interview three students at University Christian Bilingual Center (UCBC).
The stories they told where both disturbing and full of hope.
The violence that has occurred here is very disturbing. What these young adults have gone thru, well is very sad.
To see the look on these faces is both encouraging and sad, if that makes sense.
The hope that UCBC has bringing to these people is amazing. The Congo Initiative staff here are overwhelmed by the response that this has brought to the community and country. There is now hope.
There is people from all different tribes sitting together, studying together, worshiping together, and sharing a meal together. This is amazing in itself.

God is here in the midst of North Kivu...regardless of what you hear on the news.

alive from Beni, DRC

Greetings from Beni, DRC

I arrived safely yesterday(Wednesday) at 3:30 Beni time. (that's 5:30 am CST) I started this journey Monday at 4;30 CST...
Tired and excited were the feelings of the day. I did not sleep the night before, because I slept all the way from Amsterdam to Entebbe. When I got to my motel, I was wide awake...last night i caught up and I am on Congo time.
Today was amazing. I had the opportunity to sit in on two classes at UCBC. This is the university that has been started and been in session for three weeks now. 90 plus student and more signed up today.
To see the looks on these student faces I cannot describe in a post. Hope...is the best way to describe it.I also had the opportunity to share during chapel. I was very humbled by this. What do I know about suffering?
No ESPN...no running hot water...these young adults have seen suffering first hand for the last eight years and now there is hope in the North Kivu region and the Congo.

Alive and well from the Congo,
rick

Get on the right side of the Road

My first experience with the English style of driving came as I left the Entebbe airport. As I approached the van, I moved to get in the drivers seat…realizing I wasn’t going to drive…I moved to the passenger side of the van….which is the wrong side…or is it?
It made me think tonight. Is my/our/the US way of things the right way? Do we have all the answers?
I’m asking God that he would humble me on this trip, which I may be taught there are many ways in which God works and my/our/the US way isn’t always the right way.
I must say that riding on the wrong side of the road is a bit freaky…but life can be that way eh?
I leave today for DRC….

Journey

Greetings from Amsterdam.
As I start my trek to the DRC...my first stop is Amsterdam. My computer says 12:30 am...the time here is 7:30 am. Not much sleep on the plane this time.
The flight was on time and without any excitement. That's the way you like em!
My next stop is Entebbe Uganda. I will spend a night at a local hotel. There i take a shuttle flight with MAF to Bunia, DRC and then finally onto Beni.
Thanks for trekking with me...

Riots in Dakar

Senegal Temporarily Lifts Street-Selling Ban
By Naomi Schwarz
Dakar
23 November 2007


Senegalese street vendors can once again sell their wares on sidewalks after two days of riots in the capital, Dakar. The rioting vendors were protesting a government ban on their business. For VOA, Naomi Schwarz has more from Dakar.

The Senegalese government has agreed to temporarily lift its ban on street vendors, at least until the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in late December, known locally as Tabaski.


Selling breakfast sandwiches and coffee at a makeshift stand of tables and benches on the side of a main road, Harouna Ba says this is not good enough.

He says Tabaski is not even two months away, and he does not have enough time to find another way to earn a living.

Ba has been selling breakfast as well and fruits and vegetables in this spot for years. He built a small shed and broad tables for his product and his customers.

But Ba says when he came to work early one morning last week, everything had been destroyed.


Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade had ordered police to evict street-sellers across the city, saying they were disrupting traffic and costing Dakar international business and millions of dollars. Police enforcing the ban chased vendors off the streets and tore down roadside stands.

On Wednesday and Thursday, thousands of street sellers angry over the ban, protested. They burned tires and ransacked government buildings. Wednesday also saw separate protests from hundreds of labor union members frustrated over rising food prices.

Thousands of Senegalese make their living as street sellers. Some. like Ba, have small kiosks. Others carry their wares in backpacks and on their heads, selling to people walking by or in cars caught in traffic jams.

Ba says he was not warned about the street selling ban and was not reimbursed for his destroyed stand. He says he had no choice but to start over.

He says, as well, that he had extended credit to many of his regular clients, and he needs to keep working at this spot so they will know where to come and repay him.

The government is in discussions with a delegation of street vendors to find a long-term solution.

More than 40 percent of Senegalese are estimated to be unemployed. Nearly all the jobs that do exist are informal. The lack of employment has led tens of thousands of young Senegalese to try and emigrate illegally to Europe on flimsy boats that often capsize.

Momadou Korka Diallo, who sells phone cards at a busy intersection near a gas station, says President Wade is right to try to keep streets orderly.

He says it is not good if vendors block traffic downtown and also leave the streets dirty.

But he says if they are acting responsibly they should be allowed to keep working.

Senegal is one of West Africa's most stable democracies and protests and street violence are rare.

Congo and Rwanda Agree to Align Against Rebels

November 12, 2007
Congo and Rwanda Agree to Align Against Rebels
By REUTERS

KINSHASA, Congo, Nov. 11 (Reuters) — Congo has reached a deal with Rwanda to disarm Rwandan Hutu rebels on its soil, by force if necessary, in an effort to reduce tensions between the central African neighboring countries, a joint statement said Sunday.

The Hutu rebels, including former Rwandan soldiers and members of the militia known as the Interahamwe, are among several armed groups continuing to destabilize eastern Congo, even after the end of a broader war that ended in 2003.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 370,000 people have fled fighting between Congolese government soldiers, Tutsi-dominated Congolese insurgents and Rwandan Hutu rebels who are accused by Rwanda of involvement in the genocide against Tutsi and moderate Hutu in Rwanda in 1994.

Congo’s government “commits to launch military operations as a matter of urgency” to dismantle the Rwandan Hutu rebel forces, the countries said in a joint statement.

The agreement was announced after a meeting in Nairobi between the Congolese and Rwandan foreign ministers.

Under the terms of the deal, Congo will prepare a detailed plan by Dec. 1, with the backing of the country’s United Nations peacekeeping mission, to disarm the rebels.

Rwanda promised to share with Congo and the United Nations a list of people it accuses of orchestrating the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were massacred.

The Rwandan foreign minister, Charles Murigande, also agreed to seal his country’s border with Congo and ensure that illegal armed groups, particularly a Tutsi insurgency led by Laurent Nkunda, a renegade Congolese general, did not receive cross-border support.

Mr. Nkunda is a Congolese Tutsi who has accused the Congolese Army of supporting the Hutu militias, which the army denies. Mr. Nkunda says his rebel force is simply protecting Tutsi civilians from being victimized again.

Congo’s army has been battling Mr. Nkunda’s forces in North Kivu Province since late August, when the rebel leader abandoned a January peace deal and pulled thousands of his fighters out of special mixed army brigades.

Army commanders in Congo have accused Rwanda of backing Mr. Nkunda, who led two army brigades into the bush in 2004, claiming he was doing so to protect eastern Congo’s small Tutsi minority.

The continued presence in eastern Congo of the rebels, who fled across the border after the Rwandan genocide, was used by Rwanda to justify two military interventions. The second, in 1998, helped unleash a five-year war that killed an estimated five million people, mainly through hunger and disease.

Fears that the current crisis in North Kivu could worsen into another Congo war have brought intense diplomatic pressure in recent weeks to find a peaceful solution.

The United States and United Nations have sent top level officials to the border province this month.

As part of the deal agreed upon in Nairobi, which was also signed by diplomats from the United Nations, United States and European Union, Congo said it would arrest and hand over to Rwanda anyone indicted on charges of genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.

Rebel fighters who choose to disarm, and who are not believed to be the subject of Rwandan indictments, will be moved away from areas along Congo’s border with Rwanda, according to the plan.

Disease Stalks Congo's Displaced

Disease Stalks Congo's Displaced
By Noel King
Kibaya, DRC
21 November 2007

King report - Download MP3 (1MB) audio clip
Listen to King report audio clip

As fighting continues between dissident general Laurent Nkunda and the Congolese army, displaced Congolese have packed into squalid camps that are plagued with growing health problems. Humanitarian workers are racing to stem the spread of diseases including cholera and malaria. Noel King has more in this report from Kibaya, DRC.

People carry their belongings down a road in Mugunga, DRC, 13 Nov. 2007
People carry their belongings down a road in Mugunga, DRC, 13 Nov. 2007
When the town of Kibaya in Congo's volatile North Kivu province was overrun with 20,000 civilians fleeing violence, the town was simply unprepared to cope with the influx of people.

The health center employed a single nurse, who could see only three patients per day.

The few medicines available had passed their expiration dates.

And in a town where cases of chronic diarrhea were spiraling, only three packets of rehydration salts were available.

Bob Kitchen is an emergency response team coordinator with the International Rescue Committee.

"There's one water spring that serves the indigenous population of 20,000 plus the additional IDP population," he said. "Basically, it's a large puddle with thousands of people walking into the water to get water out. Every single site within there that we tested the water, it was heavily contaminated with fecal matter. So it's bad, bad, bad."

Water contamination is rampant because only five percent of Kibaya's 40,000 residents have access to latrines.

As a result, chronic diarrhea and suspected cholera cases are on the rise.

Congo's camps for the displaced are just as bad. Aid agencies have provided chlorination points and large containers full of fresh water.

But in the overcrowded camps, many people say they do not have access.

Bosco Machumpenze is an elected leader at Mugugna Two camp, which hosts some 15,000 displaced people outside the North Kivu capital, Goma.

He says the children are sick and they have diarrhea. The women have no water to cook with. The only thing to do is go down to Lake Kivu to get water.

Humanitarian workers say the collection of water from dirty sources, including Lake Kivu, and the character of the soil in Goma, have compounded the problem of cholera.

Louis Vigneault is a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Goma.

"Especially in this region there's been a history of cholera being a major problem," he explained. "Because the soil is basically only lava, it's not porous so all bacteria or disease will stay on surface and propagate, especially with people going to the lake to get water."

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees says cholera broke out in North Kivu's IDP camps in early October.

More than 400 cases were identified in October, but because the testing process is long and expensive, many more cases may have gone undiagnosed.

Woman and children are particularly susceptible to illness.

Nuraka Jeduka is the mother of two-day old twins. Her babies were born two months prematurely, and she is worried about their health.

She says she fled her home to come to Kibaya when she was pregnant; and her stomach hurt all of the time. She says she is having trouble sleeping now and she is worried about how her babies will survive.

To combat the spread of disease, some aid agencies are undertaking creative measures.

Jasons Snuggs, an emergency response co-coordinator for environmental health with the International Rescue Committee, spoke to VOA in Kibaya during one of Congo's frequent heavy downpours, about a technique called rain guttering.

"Quite simply, on a traditional roof, which is made out of corrugated sheeting, we install a piece of bamboo which is split in half, and when it rains it fills up with water," he said. "We direct it into a container that people have."

Using rain gutters, Snuggs said each roof can drain off as many as 50 liters of relatively fresh water per day.

The challenges of working during Congo's rainy season are immense.

The IRC evacuated new mother Nuraka Jeduka and her infant twins to a larger hospital that same day.

But a downpour turned roads into muddy rivers and the family's car slowed to a crawl: clear evidence that rain is both a blessing and a curse in eastern Congo.

Congo Bound

In a few short days I will be leaving for my first trip to the North Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I am excited and humbled by this opportunity to go and see first hand the work that God is doing in that region. For the first time, the people in that area have hope.
I will be flying into Entebbe , Uganda and be staying with an Ugandan for one night. My friend stayed at my house years ago when he was visiting the states. It will be good to see him again. Then I will fly via a small plane into DRC.
Arriving on a unpaved airstrip in Beni, DRC, I will begin my nine day visit.
Many of you might have heard of the fighting that is still going on in the North Kivu region of the DRC. While I'll be close to this, I will still be far enough away because of the infrastructure of the country. I've been told that this country, while it is the size of the US east of the Mississippi, has only 50 miles of paved road in the whole country. But the fighting has increase lately, and I would appreciate your thoughts and prayers as I travel.
The work in the Congo has really began.
From a vision three to four years ago, now is a reality. Here's an excerpt from the co-founder of the Congo Initiative.
The past few weeks we have spent in Congo have been an experience of Nehemiah as people from all walks of life joined in work so that the building would be ready, at least in part, to hold the consultation and start the academic year. We had a successful consultation, attended by over 120 people, leaders in churches, business, politics and community. We have opened the doors of the Christian Bilingual University of Congo. We had hoped to have 30 students; today we have 80, which by itself is another challenge, e.g., being ready with chairs, rooms, etc.

Young men and woman, the future of the DRC, have begun the journey to bring hope to a land that desperately needs it after years and years of oppression.
I hope to blog on my trip, when electricity and access allows it.
So check back often from 11-26 to 12-8 for updates :)

Congo Bound!

Democratic Republic of the Congo: Helping the Displaced

This area will be about 100 miles or so away from where I will be. I will be traveling to Beni, near the Ugandan border.

Food Crisis

Thanks to Rick r for passing this info on to me....



from a person that is on the ground in Senegal-
... on Friday we heard that millet (their staple
food) has gone from a normal price of 40 to 50 CFA/kilo to 175. So
their staple food is now about four times the price it normally is.
Rich people are stockpiling food now.



Senegal's Wade cuts govt pay as food prices rise Sat 3 Nov 2007, 13:17 GMT

By Diadie Ba

DAKAR, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Senegal's president has pledged to cut the number of ministers in his cabinet and reduce government salaries, including his own, in a show of solidarity for citizens struggling with high energy and food prices.

In an address broadcast on state television late on Friday, Abdoulaye Wade said his government would put an emergency bill before parliament authorising the temporary pay reduction in a bid to "lessen the suffering" of the country's poor.

"At a time when important fringes of our population are suffering in their daily life from the negative effects of the rise in world oil prices on their household, I have decided as president to set an example," the octogenarian leader said.

Prime Minister Cheikh Hadjibou Soumare said Wade had asked him to come up with proposals to reduce the number of ministers in the cabinet from a current 38 as part of the measures.

Surging food prices, with grains and other crops at record highs, are making life difficult for many families in Senegal and across Africa, leaving them struggling to afford the staples such as rice that make up the national diet.

Record oil prices have increased food transport costs, while the explosion of biofuels production from food crops, subsidised by some Western countries as less environmentally damaging than fossil fuels, has also contributed to the rise.

Senegal's state electricity firm Senelec, hit by a cash crunch caused by high global fuel prices and by rising consumption, has struggled to maintain supplies to the former French colony, an economic hub in the region.

Power shortages across the Sahelian nation of 11 million people have steadily increased in recent years, tarnishing its image as one of West Africa's most developed states and disrupting businesses unable to afford their own generators.

Wade urged the population to try to conserve energy in an effort to stave off a worsening in the power crisis.

"I call on the solidarity of all Senegalese, to the business community, the formal and informal sectors, to religious leaders, to take part in this national effort," he said.

SENEGAL: Smooth transition for Taxi Sisters

AKAR, 2 November 2007 (IRIN) - “It’s not heavy,” Sanou Top insists, as she takes a suitcase out of her client’s hands and hoists it into the trunk of her cab.

“I hope you drive like a man,” the customer says. The small-framed, head-scarfed 25-year-old laughs.

Top is one of 10 women chosen for a pilot project by the Senegalese government to get female taxi drivers on the road.

And after more than a month behind the wheel in one of the world’s most chaotic capitals for driving, Top says it’s been a smooth ride.

“At first, it was difficult,” Top says. But now? “Complete satisfaction.”

Her cell phone rings. She tucks it under her head scarf and begins a conversation, all while shifting gears and keeping an eye out for customers. It’s a system she seems to have mastered.

Money and autonomy

Under the ‘Taxi Sister’ project, 10 women have been given brand-new cars, which they will gradually pay for and eventually own.

The project is touted as a way to pull women out of poverty and introduce them to new occupations in Senegalese society. Within two years, the government hopes to have 50 female taxi drivers on its streets, and hopes to expand the project beyond the capital, Dakar.

According to the UN 2006 Human Development Index, Senegalese women lag behind men in development indicators. Less than 30 percent of adult women are literate, compared to 50 percent of men; and on average, women earn just over half the income men do.

Still, the new initiative is “not a purely financial activity,” explained Awa Paye Gueye, administrator of the national fund for the promotion of female entrepreneurship at the Ministry of Family and Female Entrepreneurship. “It’s a female leadership project as well.

“Where some say, ‘It won’t work because it’s women’, [this project] allows certain barriers to be broken,” Gueye said.

It seems to be working.

“I’m autonomous. I’m free. I’m my own boss,” said Top, a former accountant and secretary, who quit because she felt she was being exploited by her boss.

Other than their bright yellow and red uniforms and the Taxi Sister signs on the roofs of their cars, these women fit right in. They may be slightly less aggressive on the road, but they honk and argue just the same.

“Who do you think you are?” Maj Samb screams, her head out the window, to a male driver after their cars nearly collide in traffic.


Male resistance

For the most part, foreigners and Senegalese alike have been supportive of the project, a partnership between the government and the private car dealer Espace Auto. As the women drive by, people wave, little girls smile and young men call out “Taxi Sister!”

Top says the clean, well-kept cars – a far cry from the often dilapidated vehicles driven by their male counterparts – are good for Senegal, since “a cab is the first image of a country [to a foreigner]”.

Still, some men are having a hard time accepting the idea. The female taxi drivers complain of men who cut them off on the road and speak out against them on the radio.

Just outside the driveway to the Novotel, one of two hotels in town where the Taxi Sisters are stationed, a group of male taxi drivers sit around on shoddy wooden benches, protesting the extra support given to their female colleagues.

The women are allowed to park right outside the hotel doors, while the men must remain in the traditional taxi area, outside the hotel grounds.

''...Taxi driving isn't for women. It's hard work...''
“They get all the [customers], and we stay here with nothing to do but sleep,” said Alioune Ndiaye, 60, who has been driving a cab in Dakar for 35 years. “Before, there weren’t any problems. But now, the sisters have ruined everything.”

The state’s claims to alleviate poverty and raise the status of women in Senegalese society are noble, Talla Ndiaye, another cab driver, told IRIN.

“The state talks about equality. Yes, sure. But this isn’t equality.”

Besides, he said, “taxi driving isn’t for women. It’s hard work.”

Determination

The attitude that women should not be driving taxis is not uncommon, but it does not faze the women.

“There are some people who don’t want us to succeed,” said Assaïtou Goumdiam, 32. “It’s very normal…I don’t pay any attention to them.

“It’s those who say no [to the idea] who give you the courage and the strength to work,” she said. After two years of unemployment, Goumdiam will not be held back by a few skeptical comments.

That is not to say there are no challenges. The diesel is expensive and traffic is difficult to bear. Security has not been a problem thus far – the women were given self-defense courses and have internal communication systems in their cars – but Top says a customer once came on to her.

Still, they believe they will serve as examples to other women in Senegal and neighbouring countries.

“Many people thought it would never actually happen,” Top says. “This will really give [other women] courage.”

The Ministry of Family and Female Entrepreneurship has financed more than 700 projects for women since 2005 and says it will continue funding projects that encourage women to enter new occupations. The ministry has already received a funding request from female mechanics.

“Women must contribute to the creation of jobs in Senegal. They can contribute,” the ministry’s Gueye said.

As for Top, who hopes to own her own taxi business in the future, she says she is proud of herself for taking part in this initiative.

“For a long time, there were many occupations that were reserved for men. Now, people are realising that women have the ability too.”


http://www.irnnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=75137

Copyright © IRIN 2007
The material contained on www.IRINnews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Global Water Initiative

DAKAR, 25 October 2007 (IRIN) - A donation of US$150 million to a 10-year water project in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Senegal and nine other countries in Africa and Central America by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation could be the start of a much needed injection of donor innovation into the relief sector, non-governmental organisations involved in the project say.

The foundation’s money will be used to start the Global Water Initiative (GWI), a partnership of seven charities and relief organisations which will be given US$15 million a year for 10 years.

In the whole West Africa region in 2006, traditional donor spending on water and sanitation was US$130,000 – just 11 percent of the US$1,165 million aid agencies had asked for – according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“We have found a shift in the whole donor funding scene towards large amounts of money being given to direct budgetary support which is good for governments but has sapped energy and resources from locally defined and implemented activities,” said Camilla Toulmin, Director of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) in London.

“We’re trying to get more energy and resources back into the local-based agenda, which I hope this initiative can do.”

The Buffett Foundation-funded NGOs are to study how to provide communities with long-term access to clean water and sanitation, access to water for rural production, and protection and sustainable management of ecosystem services.

“Projects will deliver water and sanitation in rural communities,” the GWI said in a statement on 25 October.

“In addition, investments will be made to strengthen institutions, build capacity to enable organizations to initiate and sustain long term projects, increase community participation, improve local governance, facilitate inter-governmental coordination and cooperation, raise awareness, emphasize innovation and support the development of responsible water policies.”

“The GWI was designed to integrate all aspects of sound water resource management, from emergency relief and community needs to development and sustainable resource management,” said Youcef Hammache, project officer at Action Against Hunger (AAH) in Paris.

“The needs in the Sahel are varied and the GWI’s programs will attempt to tackle the full spectrum of needs in both the short- and longer-term - not just in the Sahel, but in all 13 countries covered by the GWI coalition.”

Traditional European donors and USAID came in for heavy criticism in a scathing report released in July 2007, co-authored by 10 NGOs including most of those involved in the GWI. The NGOs accused the donors of funding projects only for one to two years and for demanding results rather than letting NGOs experiment to find the best solutions.

“The Buffett Foundation is funding things that don’t necessarily produce rapid and immediate results and is prepared to find that some things we do don’t always produce the expected results,” said IIED’s Toulmin. “There’s extraordinary interest in seeing things over the long term and there aren’t many donors who are as open-minded and willing as that.”

Howard Buffett, the President of the Foundation said in a statement: “It is our objective to utilise and leverage the experience of our partners to create a flexible and spontaneous approach to providing poor communities access to safe drinking water. By building new constituencies, creating stronger alliances and engaging all stakeholders, it is our hope to create a new vision and an effective platform for change.”

Improving water in the Sahel region of West Africa is central to improving health and nutrition and to providing the predominantly rural communities with the ability to provide for themselves year round, not just during the annual July-October rainy season, experts say.

Worldwide, more than one billion people are estimated to lack access to clean water and 2.6 billion people lack sanitation. Countries in West Africa’s Sahel consistently feature at the bottom of human development indexes for the particularly high level of poverty found there and the poor access to water.

The NGOs involved in the GWI are Catholic Relief Services, CARE, IIED, IUCN, SOS Sahel, AAH and Oxfam. In addition to the Sahel, the project will cover El Salvador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Uganda.

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation is multi-million dollar private foundation controlled by the eldest son of the billionaire American investor Warren Buffett.

Birds Eye View

This is a photo from Google Earth of the village my family has a relationship with. I will not give the name of the village for obvious reasons.
This village is small with an approximately 250 people.
In this village you will find kind , gentle people who have been oppressed by the social system they live in.
In this village you will find some of my closest friends on earth...

ps...the pin that's on map...that's the compound I have spent many nights in...

As Fuel Prices Soar, Oil Lamps Becoming a Luxury Product

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks

NEWS
23 October 2007
Posted to the web 23 October 2007
Ourossogui

Surging petrol prices in Africa usually weigh most heavily on the emerging urban middle class, making it a struggle to put fuel in cars or motorbikes every day and to pay home electricity bills.

In Senegal, the energy shock is starting to filter down to the most isolated rural areas, where, far from electricity grids and roads, illiterate parents hoping their children will have a better life through education are worrying about how to put fuel in oil lamps so their children can do their homework.

"It is very difficult, because at night, we need to make light but there has not been any petrol in the area since last year," said Abba Diallo, president of the Parent-Teacher Association in Thiancone Boguel, a town in northeastern Senegal, some 690km from the capital, Dakar, in the Matam region.

Senegal has been confronted with serious energy supply difficulties for the last three years. Several times, the 12 million-strong West African country, one of the region's most stable economies, has simply run out of gas, petrol and electricity.

Alioune Badara Ndiongue, director of the village school in Thiancone Boguel, says that is hampering education.

"I was very surprised the first time I saw 20 of my students squeezed into the corner of a room in one of the very few houses in the village which is equipped with solar energy," he told IRIN.

"I'm worried about the school results, taking into account the conditions that students have to live with when they do homework."

"We cannot teach in these conditions," said Yerim Sy, a teacher at the school, who warns results are already slipping - he says because of the high cost of lamp oil.

In 2005, 100 percent of the students received a certificate for having finished elementary education and all of them went on to college, he said. "It was the only school in the department to have obtained these satisfactory results," according to Sy.

The results of 2006 show that just 60 percent got the certificate and only 20 percent of children went to college.

"Because of the fuel problem students are obliged to go and look for pieces of wood around their village to make fires to be able to see by," said one former student, comparing the task to work performed by Talibes - students at Koranic schools who are forced out on the streets to work as beggars between their religious lessons.

People are also starting to use other more dangerous products to fuel lamps in the villages. "We use diesel which creates a lot of smoke and gas which is very dangerous," said Abass Niang, a student, who has himself used these fuels to help him study.

"When we prepare our courses, we actually use torches lit with things other than petrol," confirmed Sy, the teacher.

Coumba Daff, a cleaner, was shocked to learn that she could not find lamp fuel even at a shop 10km from her village, Séno Palèl. She was obliged to go and visit her sister 30km away, where she hoped to find someone with some fuel. She said she expected to be able to buy one litre for around 2 kilograms of rice.

At Bokidiawé only one shop was selling lamp oil at a price of 400 CFA francs per litre, almost double what is costs in Dakar.

"Electrification and building up sustainable development pose a problem in this region where the most important needs are water and health," said Hamady Dieng, a local politician.

The primary source of energy in almost 50 percent of Senegalese households is wood. A quarter use charcoal, according to government data.

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

Copyright © 2007 UN Integrated Regional Information Networks. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).

Excert from President Kabila visit to oval office

RSS Feed White House News

9:51 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: It's my honor to welcome back to the Oval Office President Kabila. Thanks for coming, sir. The President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The last time the President was here we talked about his desire to have free and fair elections in his country. Since that time his country has had free and fair elections. And my first order of business today was to congratulate the President for garnering 58 percent of the vote.

We talked about the need to work together to help consolidate the gains. We talked about the need to -- for the United States to partner with the country to help on economic development. One of the things the President recognizes is the need for there to be investment in his country, so people can find work, and the stability that comes with economic development. And I appreciate your recognition of the opportunity to work together.

We talked about the eastern part of his country. And he shared with me his strategy to make sure that the government's reach extends throughout the entire country and that there is stability throughout the country. And I want to thank you very much for sharing your thoughts with me.

I did bring up my desire to help our friend deal with malaria. Malaria is a great concern to me and my wife and the Secretary of State. This is an issue that can be solved. We hurt when young babies are dying from a mosquito bite, knowing full well that a strategy could help save lives. So the President shares the same sense of compassion I do for people all throughout the world who are being affected by malaria.

Mr. President, you are -- you've said that you wanted there to be free and fair elections, and you delivered. And I appreciate that and congratulate you on being a man of your word. And we look forward to continuing to work with you, sir, to bring peace and stability to the neighborhood. So, welcome.

PRESIDENT KABILA: Well, Mr. President, thanks a lot. Of course, this is the second time that we meet in the Oval Office. Yes, elections were also high on the agenda in 2003. We organized those elections. And basically our priorities have now changed from elections, it's now stability, and with stability, peace and development. And I emphasized and insisted on the fact that we need continued support by the United States in order to achieve these two remaining goals, which is basic stability throughout the whole country and embark on a very, very long journey of development and really try to combat poverty, which is the biggest issue not only in the Congo, but in the region and on the African continent.

So thanks a lot for the continued support that we've always had from the United States government and the administration. And together, let's move further and further ahead.

PRESIDENT BUSH: Yes, sir. Glad you're here. Thank you.

A little history on the birth of Congo Initaitive

Congo Initiative is a start-up organization seeking to bring healing and authentic hope to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a nation devastated by war and by a legacy of exploitation and corruption.
In 2002, at the height the conflict, recently termed “Africa’s First World War”, Congolese theologian Dr. David Kasali (then President of the prestigious Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology), returned to his homeland and gathered together twelve key leaders, men and women representing churches, businesses and civil society, to pray, reflect, and ask two grounding questions: “What has gone wrong?” and “What must we do in response?”
Out of this gathering emerged what can only be described as radical hope—their powerful and compelling vision for Congo Initiative. CI is the outcome of prayer, careful analysis, and consensus of dedicated Christian leaders that will bring hope and healing to that devastated and fragmented country. CI’s vision is in partnership to train and develop strong, indigenous Christian leaders to transform their communities and their nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Congo Initiative has since begun to take shape. The founding project is the Université Chrétienne Bilingue du Congo (UCBC- The Bilingual Christian University of Congo). UCBC will be a University that seamlessly integrates academic and service learning, instilling in students an ethic of servant-leadership. It will give students a holistic education that engages their whole person, feeding their minds and transforming their hearts. Most importantly, it will to provide an education that will compel students to continue engaging the challenges in their communities, and to actively seek healing for their nation in whatever professional capacity they engage.
UCBC will offer a variety of degree programs but the University will also serve the wider community through its five Centers: the Center for Holistic Family Development, the Center for Community Arts, the Center for Professional Development, the Center for Church Development and Partnership and the Center for Community Development. These centers will offer, among others: arts programs, seeking the rediscovery of identity and values; health programs that focus on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention; Church programs that equip religious and lay leaders to serve their communities; and business ethics programs that will seek to instill a sense of responsibility, beyond personal profit, for the land and the wider society.

President Bush to Meet with Congolese President Kabila

White House News

President Bush will welcome President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the White House on October 26, 2007. The President and President Kabila will discuss the successes of the newly elected Kabila Government after last year's landmark elections, and the remaining challenges to a secure and prosperous Congo. The two leaders also will discuss ways to further increase bilateral cooperation on security sector reform and economic reconstruction in eastern Congo.

The seasons are changing....

As of last Thursday, I am officially on staff with the Congo Initiative (CI)!
I am still with United World Mission and for lack of better terms...on loan to CI for a temporary assignment of up to twelve months. My title with CI is Resource Development/ Congo Initiative. I will be building on partnerships that exist,create new partnerships and look for funding through grants and foundations.






My role in Senegal will change to being more of a resource development person than being a partnership coordinator.
We are very excited to be part of the CI staff and continue our efforts in Senegal working with the indigenous ministry there and working on this water project that has grown legs over the last six to eight weeks.
Living Water and International Children's Fund look to join hands in coming up with a sustainable water program in Senegal and we hope in other parts of Africa in years to come.
My friend, Dave Colwin, and I have been praying and envisioning what this could look like...and now seeing some of it come to light is an answer to prayer.
As for the Congo initiative, the video below is a great piece that I stumbled on...and it talks about the rebuilding of Congo. This is exactly what CI is all about.
In the weeks to come , I will break down what CI's vision, mission, and values are. When you read and hear these...remember this video...as it will be a faith based response to the atrocities that have been going on in DR Congo for years.

Recovering from War-A short film on the DR Congo

DR Congo Key facts

BBC
HISTORY
The Democratic Republic of Congo has endured political and social turmoil since gaining independence from Belgium in 1960.

International observers hope the July elections will bring the first fully democratic vote in more than 40 years.

Post-independence turmoil saw the rise of Colonel Mobutu Sese Seko who seized, and held onto, power for 32 years until he was deposed by Laurent Kabila's rebellion in 1997.

The 1998 insurrection by rebels linked to Rwanda and Uganda triggered a war involving six other nations.

The UN accused warring sides of prolonging the conflict as they looted natural resources.

GEOGRAPHY



DR Congo is at the heart of the equatorial region of Sub-Saharan Africa and includes 47% of the continent's forest.

The Congo River and its tributaries form an economic lifeline due to the lack of decent roads.

The vast country has huge deposits of diamonds, copper and coltan - important in the production of high-tech goods - and its forests are home to rare species.

Five national parks are listed by Unesco as World Heritage in Danger because of threats from conflict and mining.

The parks' wildlife includes mountain gorillas, savannah giraffe and rare white rhino.

PEOPLE

The population of 56 million is split into many ethnic groups.

It is also divided by at least 210 languages - but mainly French, Lingala, Kiswahili, Kikongo and Tshiluba.



The human toll of the fighting - often called Africa's 'First World War' - has been catastrophic, with more than four million dead since 1998.
Around 1,200 people die each day as a direct or indirect result of the conflict - more than half of them children.

Many have suffered horrific abuse, including rape and sexual slavery by armed groups, which has contributed to the advance of HIV/Aids.


ECONOMICS


DR Congo's economy has been stifled by years of conflict and corruption. But mineral reserves mean it has potential to be a wealthy country.

The $870m diamond industry provides work for around one million people, but many diggers earn less than $1 a day in dangerous conditions.

Between 1999 and 2001, DR Congo enjoyed a brief coltan boom, becoming the second largest producer of tantalum - used in mobile phones.

War has disrupted farming as well as trade and the country lacks infrastructure to provide adequate food, clean water, healthcare and education.

It is hoped the elections will create an environment for greater foreign investment and a more organized exploitation of resources.

Update in Congo

The first phase for the Congo Initiative (CI) is to provide a bilingual learning center. Here's a report and some photo's to give it a better perspective.

SCHOOL BUILDING ROOF

The carpenters are going on with the roofing work. Within two to three weeks
they might be done with it. Maybe, it might be slightly delayed by the work
of iron sheets. But all in all, the teams plan to finish before the end of
September. This afternoon we are getting the iron sheets for the roof from
Butembo. We are grateful for the way the Lord has led in the purchase of
this material which was one of the priorities for early September. P
FILLING THE FOUNDATION

In fact, every Tuesday and Saturday the Mabakanga youth come to work on the
site filling the foundation with dirt. They are about to finish the dirt
that was removed from the big septic pit that was dug a couple of weeks
back.
DIGGING THE DIRT ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE BUILDING

A team of young people have started digging the soil on the North side of
the building. This work was to be done by the ENRA machine which is not
available. Contacts were also made at 'Office de Route' to get their machine
which is at Kamango. However, in the meantime it has been decided that some
young people will start digging the soil to buy time.
KAMBALE MBAYOS
Kambale MBAYOS, is the Chief Carpenter. Mbayos says he did Carpentery at High
School for Four Years. Few months back he worked for SinoHydro, a Chinese
company that is fixing roads in the Beni/Oicha area.
Mbayos believes that UCBC will be the best university of the area, not only
because it will have very nice classrooms and buildings but also because it
will train people who will be model Christians. "I cannot send my children
to study to America. It's too far and beyond my capacity", says Mbayos, but
I think my children will study at this school and they will envy nothing
from those who will study in America or elsewhere. And to tell the truth,
they will be proud that their father contributed to the building of this
school".
Mbayos is a hard worker and a good team leader. "Next Saturday", he says,
"come and you will find that we have finished the front part on the North
side".

Update on Medical Shipment

It arrived!
And just in time. I spoke with the hospital a week or so ago and they stated this container could not have come at a better time. It's malaria season and their medical supplies were getting low.
Thanks again to Dr. David Brueening and every one at International Children's Fund for the shipment of this medicine! It had a US value of over five million dollars!
God's timing again was perfect...eh?

Clean Water?

The last month or so has been so interesting. With my joining of Congo Initiative and the beginning of something special with clean water.
A friend of mine, Dave Colwin, who has traveled to Senegal about four times, Don Wick, and Dr. David Brueening, founder of International Children's Fund, and I have collaborated and reaching Senegal with a clean water program.
As we have many specifics to work out. I can hardly contain myself to shout hallelujah!
The main thing is, we believe that God is in this. God has opened doors so fast in the past few months that we have hardly time to get thru em!
While I won't get into to many specifics right now, here's a few things that I can share.
One is that Living Water Int. has agreed to act as a consultant for no fee and help guide us in the process. Their knowledge in this arena in second to none and what we are discovering is that they are a strong faith based organization. Dave C. has also been consulting with a gentleman from the Baptist General Conference who spent fourteen years in Cameroon doing clean water projects. His philosophy , I believe lines up with our thinking very well. Sustainable, community involvement and a very simple approach to clean water.
Would you join us in prayer involving this?
1- Pray that we seek God first
2- Pray for the team to take shape and work well with each other. This could be a multiple partnership including Living Water, International children's Fund, United world Mission and the local NGO in Senegal
3- Pray for the vision to take shape and become reality

I'll keep you posted on this development. It could mean clean water for thousands of rural Senegalese.

An Afternoon in the Village

While the noon day sun starts to really heat up...people in the village start to slow down. Woman are busy cooking the biggest meal of the day and the men are most likely sitting under a shade tree talking about 'important matters'.
Reality says that women in the village work never ends...and the men during the dry season at least have a light workload.

My afternoons in the village are very low key. After a morning doing things in the cooler air, it's time to sit under the shade tree as well. The meal is normally served around two pm. This is the largest meal of the day. A typical meal in the village is either rice or millet based. With rice, this can be a few scattered vegetables or a piece of beef or a bony fish. I enjoy watching the woman cooking food in the village. It still amazes me that they can cook rice over a open fire and it turns out perfect every time. The men will sit around a common bowl first.The woman and children will eat in different area normally.

The meal is eaten with your right hand. Each person has a section of food in the bowl that is rightfully theirs. In the middle of the bowl, it called the common ground. If you do not care for a vegetable in your section , you can flip it in the middle. If you would like to eat some of the meat in the middle, you break off a part and flip into your section. This meal is a very important part of village life. It brings the family and any guest together for conversation and stories.
I am offered a spoon , as any white visitor is. I always except. I am not sure I can eat with my hands yet. A couple of reasons, I guess. One, is that I have had travelers diarrhea...and well let me say this...in the village it is not the time to be sick....secondly,it's rather gross :)
After lunch, it really slows down...it's time to keep cool in the hottest part of the day and time to fire up the teapot.

This is a time of relationship building and enjoying each other's company. And the tea time can last as long as two hours! It's an art to make tea. It is very interesting watching this process. This could be a post in itself.


After tea, it's time to wait till it cools down to transition into the evening...or even take a nap. Oh the pace of the village is slow and for me...refreshing.

Senegal: President Wade Wants 'More Fair' Trade

Katy Gabel
Washington, D.C.

Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has proposed a "level field" for free trade with Africa that would eliminate "unfair" agricultural subsidies and encourage investment across the continent.

Wade was speaking Friday at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. United States agricultural subsidies are one of the major challenges facing African international trade, he said.

"We produce a marginal amount of cotton. The U.S. should subsidize African cotton – they would not even feel [the effects] of it, but we would all meet on a level field.

"We are for free trade… but more fair trade," he added.


Last year, Wade created what he calls the "Green Opec" – a group of energy ministers who form the Pan-African Non-Petroleum Producers Association (PANPP). Through the PANPP, Wade proposed a formula – known as the Wade Formula – which offers non-oil producing countries reduced prices, subsidized by wealthier and oil-producing nations in exchange for more biofuel and alternative energy production.

"We believe in the market economy," Wade said. "Unfortunately, Africa does not take much part in world economic trade… we would like to organize ourselves."

Wade also addressed increasing competition between the West and China in providing trade and aid opportunities for Africa. He expressed appreciation for assistance from Western nations, but noted that "with China, if [the answer is] yes, [a response] is immediate," and "Africa does not have time to wait indefinitely."
Copyright © 2007 allAfrica.com. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Don't want to be a richer man
Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes
(Turn and face the strain)
Ch-ch-Changes
Just gonna have to be a different man
Time may change me
But I can't trace time

David Bowie-'Changes' Lyrics from that golden era of music...the 70's

There are changes on the horizon.
For the past six months or so, I have felt a sense of change in my life. I have sensed that God had something else in store for me and it was going to be something big. About a month ago, God threw me a major league curve ball.
I received a email from the founder of the Congo Initiative, David Kasali. Dr. David Kasali and I have been building a relationship for about four years now.He was teaching classes at Trinity International U which I have been taking courses at the satellite Elmbrook church location. He and his wife Cassie both have doctorate degrees. Both of them could have nice cush jobs here in the states. But, they have decided to go back to their country to give back what God has so graciously given them. They have co founded the Congo Initiative(CI). They just left this past Thursday to return to their country to help rebuild this war torn country.
The email was to ask if I would be interested in joining CI in a staff role.
The role looked promising. No pay...no guarantees..as the chairman of the board put it...everything is temporary...no benefits...hey this sounds good I said to myself:)This is the way I figured I should look at life. No or little compensation for something you feel compassionate about..we are not guaranteed breakfast tomorrow...and everything here on earth is temporary. This is a fit! So as of this past week, Dawn and I are rolling up our sleeves and joining CI!
Let me tell you a bit about CI.
The vision is to train and develop strong, indigenous Christian leaders to transform their communities and their nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
I will be in a role that will facilitate current partnerships, build new partnerships, help with fund raising and search for funds through foundations and grants, and help build a holistic view of ministry for all in involved.
So what does this all mean? It means that my role with United World Mission will be expanded. Not only will I be involved in West Africa, but now the Congo as well.
Something big is on the horizon...and I am gonna have to be a different man...Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

GO TO CONGO INITIATIVES WEBSITE TO FIND OUT MORE...

Mission to Congo

This is a video from Elmbrook church here in Wisconsin. It gives a good glimpse of what's going on in Beni, Congo where the Congo Initiative will operate. Its rather long, but it's worth watching :)

History of the Congo

History of Congo

From 1885 to 1908 Congo was the private property of King Leopold of Belgium who established one of King Leopold IIthe most brutal and exploitative colonial regimes of his time. Established as a Belgian colony in 1908, the Democratic Republic of Congo gained its independence in 1960. Congo's early years of independence were marred by political and social instability. In a 1965 coup, Marshall Joseph Mobutu seized power and declared himself president, changing the country’s name to Zaire. His infamously corrupt rule led to a total collapse of the economy and of political control. Ethnic strife and civil Joseph Mobutu Sese Sekowar, touched off by a massive inflow of refugees in 1994 from fighting in Rwanda and Burundi, led to the toppling of the Mobutu regime in 1997. These refugees included Rwandan Hutu rebels fleeing into Congo to escape reprisals following the genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi minority and moderate Hutus. The new president, Kabila, renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo, but in 1998 his regime was challenged by an insurrection backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Other international military actors included Angola and Zimbabwe. A cease-fire was signed in July 1999, but sporadic fighting continued. Kabila was assassinated in January 2001 and his son, Joseph Kabila was named head of state. In October 2002, the Pretoria Accord was signed by all remaining warring parties to end the fighting and establish a government of national unity.


Congo, home to more than 60 million people from 250 ethnic groups, was devastated by the war, which began in August 1998. It resulted in the deaths of an estimated 4 million people from violence, famine, and disease. Rebel groups have been linked to widespread human rights abuses of Congolese civilians, including thousands of rapes. Systematic exploitation of Congo’s vast mineral resources by rebel and national military actors largely funded the war and often included forced labor. Hostilities between rival militias and government forces has left hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes and still, more than 1,000 people are estimated to be dying each day in the country due to violence, hunger and diseases. UNAIDS estimates that 5% of the population is infected with the HIV/AIDS virus, with some provinces projecting that as much as 20% of the population is infected.



Elections in Congo

In 2006,Joseph Kabila, current President of the DRC After 15 years of instability, the Congolese people took part in massive voter registration expressing a desire to go to the polls to elect their leaders and start the difficult task of rebuilding their nation. To back the transition to a democratically elected government, the United Nations has had its biggest peacekeeping mission in the country with nearly 17,000 troops and police deployed across the country for several years with the dual role of helping to lay the groundwork for the first free polls since independence and overseeing the disarming of forces embroiled in the 1998-2003 war. Recently, the the UN peace keeping force has stepped up its efforts to rein in the militia groups, which continue to rampage in parts of the east. The Democratic Republic of Congo held its first free and democratic election in July and October 2006. Joseph Kabila, who succeeded his assassinated father Lauren Desire Kabila, was elected President, and was installed on December 6th 2006. This ended a power-sharing transitional government period after the five-year civil war. The Church of Christ in Congo, together with other churches in Africa, trained and deployed 10,610 election observers throughout the country to enhance the credibility and legitimacy of the elections. The newly elected government is now attempting to establish legitimate rule over this country, brutalized and impoverished by years of war.

Floods hit Africa

African floods prompt aid appeal


Aid agencies have started appealing for funds to assist people hit by the floods in several African countries.

UN agencies are seeking $43m for Uganda, where the government declared an emergency after 50 people died.

The International Red Cross has sent relief experts to the continent to raise money and deal with emergencies in Ghana and Togo, as well as Uganda.

The UN says 1.5m people are affected by the floods which have hit countries from the east to the west of Africa.

Aid workers say food needs to be airlifted to areas which have lost their crops and are completely cut off.

The British Red Cross has launched an emergency appeal for flood-affected areas across the continent, saying it will work alongside the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to "provide urgently needed relief, including shelter and water purification tablets, to those affected by the crisis".



Our children cannot go to school as their classrooms have been turned into homes and camps for the displaced
John Tanko Bawa, Ghana

The floods are said to be the worst in many countries for decades, with 250 killed and more than 600,000 displaced.

One area particularly badly affected is northern Ghana, where the White Volta River burst its banks following days of torrential rain and large areas of farmland were flooded.

The Ghanaian Navy is helping to get emergency supplies to villages cut off by the floods, but access is slowly improving as flood waters recede, BBC West Africa correspondent Will Ross reports.

There will however be a long-term need for food aid in many parts of northern Ghana, as the annual maize crop has been destroyed just before farmers were about to harvest, our correspondent says.

Floodgates dispute

The Ghanaian government and humanitarian agencies have just ended a visit to the worst-hit areas.

But some villages remain cut off, only accessible by canoe - and all this just weeks after the same subsistence farmers were suffering from drought.

Officials in neighbouring Burkina Faso have denied accusations that they aggravated the flooding in Ghana by opening floodgates on a dam that lies upstream from the countries' common border.

Burkina Faso itself is also badly affected. Displaced people are sheltering in schools while waiting for the government to build makeshift shelters, the BBC's Pierre Kazoni reports.

In Uganda, the first priority is getting food to people whose crops have been destroyed by the flooding, the BBC's Sarah Grainger in Kampala says.

Already, the UN has diverted one helicopter from neighbouring Sudan's Darfur region and the WFP is requesting that two more be made available for the relief effort.

People who have lost their homes to the floods also need tarpaulins and tents and aid agencies are stressing that medical supplies will be important as the threat of water-borne diseases like cholera increases, she says.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/7005969.stm

Published: 2007/09/21 16:16:32 GMT

© BBC MMVII