International Project Update

 

2008-2009 International Project:

 

So Little...So much!

5 Humanitarian Projects in the Desert Sands

 

This year our project is focused in the area of Desert Sand. We have the timely opportunity to partner with our international workers and see 5 of their dreams fulfilled.
Assisting people in developing countries in humanitarian ways, provide opportunities for our International workers AND the national Churches to serve others. This year we have privilege of participating together to touch people's lives in practical ways in West and North Africa.

 

Financial Update

To date, we have received $45,,352.00 towards our goal of $150,000.00 for this project. We thank you for your generous giving.

 

 

An Update letter from Guinea:

This beautiful little girl was placed in a plastic bag at birth and thrown away. She was found and brought to a rescue center. She has recently been tested and found to be HIV+. Marie is often sick and most of the time a sad little girl. I have enrolled her in the project for aiding widows and orphans of AIDS so that she will get good food every day and have as much strength as possible as she grows up.  When she reaches 3 yrs old, she will be able to start preschool with other children. Please pray for Marie. She needs a lot of love and care. Please pray for the workers at the Hope Center who care for her on a daily basis. No one was aware for more than a year that she was HIV+ and may have been exposed to the virus.

I see Marie almost every day as I help at Hope Center. Lazare, my son in the Lord, is the new administrator there. He has 5 newborn orphans in his care besides Marie (15 months) as well as other children who were exploited or trafficked. Please pray that God will give him much wisdom in his new job. 

Thank you for giving to the Widows and Orphans of AIDS project.  Thank you also for giving to the Global Advance Fund.  This fund supports me as I live and work in Guinea.  Because you give, I have the great privilege of being here and an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of lost people.

In Christ,
Lizette

 

 

 

 

Dear friends and prayer partners,

 

I want to present to you Abdoullaye, one of the orphans whose school fees are paid for by my project to help widows and orphans of AIDS. He is 4 years old and lives with his grandmother as both of his parents have passed away.

 

His teacher, Madame Rebecca, received training last September to help her understand the difficulties faced by such children and to help her counsel surviving family members. She is also an experienced evangelist and prayer warrior. She has met with the grandmother several times, prayed with her and explained that salvation is in Jesus. The grandmother was open to the gospel because of the love she received from this Christian woman and accepted Jesus as her saviour during the Christmas break.

 

Please pray for Abdoullaye and his grandmother. She was advised to keep her conversion a secret because of persecution. Please pray that the love in action demonstrated by my national evangelists will bear much fruit for the glory of God.

 

In Christ,

Lizette

Project 1 - AIDS Orphans and Widows Program

In the country of Guinea, AIDS widow and orphans are an unreached people group. In order to win them to Christ and break the vicious cycle of poverty, injustice and HIV/AIDS vulnerability, efforts need to be made to provide counsel and consolation to those infected, as well as help them to support themselves and their children through micro enterprises. They children need help also to stay in school.

 

Background information:

 

In Guinea alone 7000 deaths from were reported for 2005 producing 28,000 orphans. These numbers are the traceable victims and are likely very conservative. In many of the countries most devastated by AIDS, there are already severe injustices in place that limit people's access to education and their ability to provide a living, and threaten their basic human rights. Sadly, the people who are most threatened by these injustices are women, orphans and the poor.

Children orphaned or vulnerable due to AIDS are less likely to be educated than other children. They are more likely to be malnourished, more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, and more likely to suffer from depression. An orphan is defined as a child who has lost one or both parents. Vulnerable children are those living with chronically ill parents, children living in households fostering orphans, or any other children who meet the definition of extreme poverty in their communities.

 

This program being developed by our IW is developing an alternative to orphanages for children who are victims of loss of one or both parents to AIDS. The program combines the involvement of women in our national church to be trained as counsellors and support families who have been victims of AIDS. In addition it will provide resources for families to assist children to remain in the extended families providing financial support for them to attend private Christian schools. These schools are already established, and provide a much superior form of education than government run schools. Corruption and abuse surround the government school system. There is a cycle to AIDS: Poverty leads to ignorance which leads to Aids.

 

If a child is educated to our grade 6 equivalent, this cycle can be broken. Extended families who take on orphans cannot afford them; wind up exploiting children for their income earning potential. They are made to sell in the market, sometimes even their bodies to assist in the support of the family. School is not an option for many of these children.

 

Our project money will:

• Fund up to 150 children over 5 years so they can reach grade 6 and potentially break the cycle of AIDS for their family.
• It will train women in our national church to come alongside these families and share the love of God.
• It will be a catalyst for our national church to continue to help Muslim women.
• It will be a basis for transformational relationships.
• It will provide seed money for businesses and enterprises which will enable a widow to provide for her own children.

UPDATE STORIES:

From: Lizette LaVoie, one of our IW.

 

At the end of September, we held the seminar that I organized for key church leaders who would be able to counsel and also evangelize families impacted by AIDS.  These leaders are mostly pastors from different areas of Guinea or pastors' wives.  One attendee is actually being treated for AIDS and is a great resource for finding and helping orphans of AIDS.  This person is supervising the schooling of 4 children already and is also taking care of an orphaned baby.

 

Most of those trained have already found 3-4 orphans in need of schooling (poverty would keep them out of school).  I have also been contacted by a young pastor in Conakry who has expressed the need of a woman doctor who has assembled some 20 orphans and needs help with their school fees.  She is committed to feeding these orphans.... The need is great and growing.  From the echoes I hear when travelling, I believe a great storm is brewing over Guinea, a storm of widespread death through AIDS.  People refuse to abandon their promiscuous lifestyle and unfortunately, their small children will also suffer the consequences.

These 2 young girls are orphans of AIDS that I have been personally involved with.  They spent their school vacation with me in Conakry and are all dressed up and "haired up" for travelling with me back home before school starts.  The taller of the two is Lizette, my first namesake in Guinea

(I have 8 living namesakes so far).

 

I met Lizette's parents within a few weeks of entering Guinea in 1990.  Her father was one of my language helpers until he went off to Bible School in order to prepare for full time ministry.  Lizette was born there.  The fact that she was given my name testifies to the close relationship and love that existed between her parents and me.  However, over the years, her father made some poor, not to mention sinful, choices which led to the death of her mother through AIDS.

About 2 years ago, I sought out Lizette and her siblings in a remote corner of the small town they were living in.  Their school situation was pitiful.  The children were living beyond the edge of poverty, dressed in rags and eating maybe once a day.

My involvement to transfer them to the city and paying their private Christian school fees led also to the commitment of their aunt to board them with her own children. 

The project money will insure that their school fees will be paid for the next 5 years.  Lizette is presently in grade 9, her brother Jean, in grade 6 and small sister, Fatoumata, in grade 3.  They are now well dressed, well fed and being well educated, giving them, as they trust the Lord for their lives, a great opportunity to build a good future for themselves.

 

 

Project 2 - Desert Books

There is very limited functioning library for university students. The main resources for them, is a small reading room stocked by the American Embassy and Desert Books. At Desert Books they provide quality books for students doing research for their fourth year graduating thesis as well as language learning books for their other courses.

 

Students studying English are all ages and backgrounds. Some are wealthy business owners who want to be able to use English to do international trade. Others are taking English for better career opportunities. The purchase of these books will make Desert Books a viable place to enhance the student's resource base. It will also help as they approach the government for Non Government Organization status, which will then open up more opportunities for short term teams and other international worker opportunities.

 

The project funds will help to purchase up to 200 books on linguistics, language acquisition, teaching methods, literary criticism, classics in Canadian, American and British literature. Reference materials on vocabulary, grammar, writing and bilingual Arabic/English dictionaries would also enhance the resources.

 

They have started and "English Cafe" 4 nights a week for conversation time with students. A student from Ambrose is there to be involved in this project at Desert Books.

 

UPDATE STORY:

Sandy is a bookworm, an incurable reader.  But who would you want to cure of reading anyway? Sandy is a newly graduated student and reads in English voraciously at the rate of one novel per week.  As soon as exams were done, he began hounding me for books.  So I have given him many books,  recently Lee Strobel's, A Case for Faith.  And he read them all.  And now I have given him a copy of the gospel of Luke in English.  And he is reading it and storing up questions for me.

 

 

Project 3 - Clinic and Dispensary Improvements

Medical care in Desert Sand is limited and costly. To improve the quality of care and assist patients for easier access, the project covers 3 key areas.

• Create a revolving fund to stock medications for patients.
• Replace broken and worn out physiotherapy equipment.
• Improve the access for patients with wheel chairs.

The road access needs totally redoing. The parking lot to the clinic is sand which impedes easy movement for people with any walking assisted device. The benefits of your gifts will increase the variety and stock of medication at lower prices It will increase capacity with new equipment in the physiotherapy clinic. It will also help establish a working relationship with local health care officials in this province. This will open the door for approval from authorities for short term visiting medical teams.

 

UPDATE STORY:

Kids on drugs - S and A are my two young guys on drugs.  That's right, they have to inject themselves twice a day with insulin.  Then they go out and play football, forget to eat, drop their blood sugars, get dizzy and generally cause havoc in their families.  S comes in with his dad every three months.  They live in a village about 2 hours away.  They can't afford to buy test strips for regular blood testing but they have learned to match his insulin to his activities and he remembers to snack before the football game and afterwards. 

A is a little more trouble.  He has to come in early to get his sugar tested and then he is in a hurry to get back to school. Sometimes he gets lost in the crowd in the waiting room so he always makes sure to get in my face until I find his chart, check his Insulin dose and get him out the door to school.  His older brother and mother have been very good about checking his sugars and his insulin doses.  A speaks French so he does the translating as I tell his Mom about his condition.

 

 

Project 4 - Developing new school in Shanty Town

This project money will go toward start up costs for a self-sustaining private school in a new, underserviced region of this major Desert Sand city. The school will provide affordable and sustainable elementary school for up 150 children. 20% of who are unable to pay school fees. In particular, abandoned or orphaned children will be able to attend this school.

 

The bilingual school (English and Arabic) would give students greater opportunities for their future. The aims of the school would be to teach interactively and develop thinking and reasoning skills. In addition parental involvement would be a part of the curriculum. A focus on good citizenship and good civil and social skills would be a primary component of the education.

This project will assist in the education of local children of all economic backgrounds and provide an alternative teaching style. It will meet a felt need this community and mobilize community members interested in the education of children.

The money will be used to purchase land, provide buildings, equipment, furnishings and support the teachers and until the point it becomes self sustaining.

 

UPDATE:

The school has started with 3 teachers each teaching a split class. They are currently use 2 brick buildings and one portable classroom (wooden shacks) on rented land.

 

School Stories

 

It begins with a dream. A new believer with a love of teaching who dreams of a school, a school named Salvation, where children can learn of love, righteousness, honesty and integrity. A place where children will not be strapped even when they deserve it. Our teacher and his friends, who share a desire to help the poor in a new expanding suburb in the sand, get together and write out a proposal to give to various friends and NGO's. I take his paper with regret, saying I have no money for this project and know of no one who wants to take on such a thing, but I take it.

 

Enter the National Women's Ministry in Canada, looking for humanitarian projects in Africa. I submit my friend's dream and then we hear that it has been accepted So litt...so much. On a village trip a friend and I are talking about various things and the school project comes up. Tell me more he says. So I explain about my local friend's dream and passion. A week later I get an email. What if we start now, in rental facilities, a trial project as it were, before investing in buildings and everything? Another friend from another NGO with experience in school projects comes on board. Suddenly we are in a three organization partnership, looking at helping to meet needs in 2008 instead of waiting and hoping for 2009.

 

>In December we visited a school of 90 students, in sheds on rented land, but in school. Next fall, with funds from the project, they will be filling a six room school in a permanent building.

 

Project 5 - Youth Sports Center in Conakry

75% of the population of Guinea is under the age of 18. Youth are disillusioned by their religion, government and there is openness for the message of the gospel of Christ. Opportunities for youth in Guinea are so limited. Youth play sports in the streets, where, every time a car comes they have to stop the game and let it pass. It is like street hockey here in Canada, except, there are no other facilities for them to use. No, playgrounds, soccer fields, ball diamonds or neighbourhood arenas. Other than the street, there are no areas where they can gather.

 

University students study under the parking lot lights at the airport. When the power to homes is shut off, which is usually in the evenings, they are unable to study because they have no light.
The youth center will provide opportunities for sports development, computer labs, Bible classes etc., all with a goal to build transformational relationships and share the love of Christ.

Our project will fund all the equipment to go into this center. It will be used to purchase sports equipment, a generator, educational/classroom materials, computer equipment, bleachers, etc.

 

UPDATE:

Our international workers in Guinea are working with the government to lease land at a nominal cost to develop this sports center. The funding for the building is being raised by some of our IW from the USA. They are having plans drawn up by an architect in France. Once approved this is the last step in getting the permission for the land use.

 

YOUTH CENTRE STORY

 

Karfala is an 11 year old boy, one of our neighbours. His mother is a widow, and his oldest brother died two months ago. His mother, a devout Muslim, works selling used clothes at the neighbourhood market. He has 6 living siblings that his mother supports along with an aunt and several cousins. They live in a very small dwelling that has little place for studying. Almost all living is done outside with the exception of sleeping. As far as I can tell, there is no electrical light outside, and even if there was, there is only electricity every other evening.I often see him hanging around outside his house with little to do. I have never seen him with toys of any kind.

Wouldn't it be truly awesome if youth like Karfala had a place to be kids, and also a place to study in security, with good lighting, and where someone could offer him both educational and spiritual opportunities he can't even dream of? That's what we are dreaming of doing with the Youth Centre in Conakry, Guinea.