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Posts Tagged ‘Congo’

What We’re Thankful for in Congo

Let all things now living a song of thanksgiving to God the Creator triumphantly raise!

As we give thanks to the One who fashioned and made us, we thank Him for the miracle of new life. We praise Him for the 500 out of 600 babies born each month in the Karawa health zone who DO live past their first week of life. We praise Him for the Helping Babies Breathe training that a team of doctors just completed, and the promise of many saved lives as this training is spread throughout the system. We rejoice with the parents of the baby, born a few weeks ago by C-section, who was not breathing at birth but began to breathe when Dr. Eddy applied the training he had just received.

As we give thanks to the One who has protected and stayed us, we thank Him for His Church in Congo, that has grown in spirit and in number throughout the nightmare of wars and fighting. We praise Him for His protection, often miraculous, of our brothers and sisters there. And we praise Him that He is even able to use the loss of life – of Paul Carlson 64 years ago this weekend – and many, many Congolese – to teach us the value of life, to teach us that this world cannot be our home, but that our home can only be in Christ.

As we give thanks to the One who guides us and leads to the end of our days, we thank Him that He will be with us as we move through a period of transition, that He will help President Mboka in his continued leadership of the Covenant Church in Congo, and that He will guide us to the right person to replace Byron as PCP director, and give us wisdom as we continue our ministry in Congo.

Ryan in Congo with Farmers to Markets

His light goes before us. And in His light we lift our voices with our jubilant brothers and sisters in Congo, who praise Him out of a depth of reliance on Him, and unite in thanksgiving; to God in the highest, hosanna and praise!

This reflection was offered by our colleague Ryan Einfeldt in Thanksgiving chapel at the ECC offices yesterday. The hymn he based it on (musician that he is) is “Let All Things Now Living,” by Katherine K. Davis, sung to the old Welsh tune “Ash Grove” (no. 59 in The Covenant Hymnal: A Worshipbook).

SAJ 22 Nov 2012

PCP Supports #GivingTuesday

#GivingTuesday is a campaign to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations.

That’s the mission statement for the #GivingTuesday movement. As the name suggests, #GivingTuesday will be observed on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. The idea is simple: We barely have time to give thanks on Thanksgiving before the country launches into a binge of buying — Black Friday, Small-Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday. It’s time to add a day for giving to causes that benefit people who are less fortunate than we are.

We at the Paul Carlson Partnership support that, and we signed on as a partner several weeks ago. Our project on #GivingTuesday is raising funds to give back to the most generous people in the world–who are also the poorest. As you surely know by now, in the Ubangi region of the DR Congo we run Farmers to Markets — a microfinance program for subsistence farmers. All gifts given online (or by designated check) on #GivingTuesday will go for Farmers to Markets, to extend this crucial program that enables the poorest of people to become self-sufficient.

To make it easy for you, here’s a direct link to donate.

#GivingTuesday started out as a good idea shared by some very capable people at a cluster of nonprofits and for-profit corporations. It has rapidly grown to more than 1,500 partners, most of them nonprofits, but also including a healthy mix of for-profit corporations, retailers, and news outlets. See the loop highlighting partners on the #GivingTuesday home page.

A slew of celebrities have also signed on to participate in some way. Yesterday Seth Meyers, of Saturday Night Live fame, tweeted that he will be participating to benefit the organization Cycle4Survival. Others include Charlize Theron, the group Linkin Park, Susan Sarandon, Penelope Cruz, Kevin Bacon, Ryan Reynolds, Cee Lo Green, Mike Farrell, Joe Mantegna, and more.

Will you join us in this movement? Here’s that link again: Give here for Farmers to Markets! Bookmark that so you can come back and give on Tuesday!

And if for some reason you don’t choose to give to PCP (though, heavens, we can’t understand why!), we urge you to give to something. Our partner the Evangelical Covenant Church is also participating in #GivingTuesday, and they’d be a good second choice.

And if not one of those, then please give something on #GivingTuesday, wherever you choose to give. Let’s launch the holiday giving season by together giving a strong boost to those who face harder times than we do.

We have Thanksgiving. We have Black Friday. We have Cyber Monday. And now we have #GivingTuesday!

SAJ 21 Nov 2012

Violence and Prayer

Image NYT, Phil Moore/Agence France-Presse — Getty Image

The M23 rebel force is now pushing towards the city of Goma in eastern Congo, according to a report by the New York Times yesterday. If you’ve been following the continued violence in eastern Congo — where the war never really ended — you probably know about the M23. This rebel force, composed of former members of a militia that the Congolese army tried to integrate into its forces about three years ago, has been increasing its activity along the eastern border. It is now just a few miles from Goma, in South Kivu province, a city of a million people. The M23 is led by Gen. Bosco Ntaganda, who is accused of war crimes and wanted by the International Criminal Court.

The UN peace-keeping forces in Congo have joined with the national army in working to push back the advance of the M23, including making aerial strikes. Read the full story in the Times here.

The Episcopal Church in the U.S. is calling for a week of prayer for Congo. In a news release brought to our attention by retired ECC missionary Eileen Thorpe, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori talked of the church’s own work in Congo and the needs of over 300,000 people displaced by the violence. “Pray for an end to the conflict, an end to violence and the atrocities, that the needs of the suffering may be supplied, and that peace may prevail,” she said. Then she added, “I can think of no better way for the Christian world to prepare for the Advent of the Prince of Peace.” (Read the full statement here.)

Amen. Be it so.

SAJ 19 Nov 2012

What the Congolese Have Taught Me!

Byron Miller, our executive director, offered a devotional at the opening of our board of directors’ meeting on Tuesday. I liked it so much that I asked his permission to share it here. This isn’t verbatim, but reconstructed from his own outline, and two sets of notes.

We tend to think that the Congolese people need to learn and receive a lot from us, that we have a lot to offer the Congolese. While that’s true to some extent, the Congolese also have a lot to offer us. I’ve found that we can learn from them even as they learn from us. I hope each of you who has not yet been to Congo will have an opportunity to visit there. When you do, be alert for opportunities to learn these three lessons.

1. Mere presence counts. The Congolese are teaching me the value of simply being present for each other. Even just to sit with people, with or without talking. Pastors know the value of presence, but in the American world, too many of the rest of us are concerned solely with efficiency–getting it done, moving on. Paul Noren talks about the power of this presence when his father died. His Congolese neighbors surrounded him and Sheryl, just being with them in that sorrow. For several days people gathered on their porch and simply sat. They know the power of having real time for each other.

2. Angels and demons are real. Missiologists talk about the “excluded middle,” an awareness of the reality of spiritual forces and their impact on daily life. We in the western world are so caught up with our scientific method that we’ve almost ruled this out. We have effectively banished the thought of angels and demons. But the Congolese are teaching me that they are real. Our Farmers to Markets agronomist at Loko, Papy Dedua, and his wife, Naomi, had a baby girl born last April–their first. Three months later the baby died. Papy and Naomi are both Christians. But as they grieved, they began recalling other misfortunes that had come to them in the time just before the baby was born. Twice they had found snakes in their house, and other such unusual experiences. They sensed evil forces at work. If we are judgmental in our attitude toward this aspect of Congolese life, we will not only damage our relationships with them, but also miss an opportunity to open our own lives to something that appears often in the Bible.

3. Reliance on God in all things. Let me read two verses of Scripture to you, Matthew 11:25-26: “At that time Jesus said, ’I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.’” Obviously I don’t mean to call the Congolese people children. But they rely on God in a way that we don’t often do. They are teaching me that faith is more than knowledge. We all own Bibles, even several versions. But few Congolese people have Bibles–in fact, many adults cannot read. But they have a strong and sustaining awareness of God in the world and in their lives. God has been revealed to them in ways other than through the words of Scripture. These verses from Matthew suggest that mere knowledge is not sufficient. God reveals himself even to little children. Surely the Son has decided to reveal himself to a people who have little access to the Bible. Even in difficult economic times, we have so many safety nets. The Congolese live so much closer to the edge. They must rely on God.

Here, then, are three things we can learn from the Congolese: the importance of presence, the reality of spiritual forces in our world, and, in all times, a trusting reliance on God.

Byron is retiring at the end of December after four and a half years with PCP. This was his last board meeting.

SAJ 15 Nov 2012

Eyeglasses for Congo!

With the launch of the Paul Carlson Partnership’s Eyeglasses for Congo program, you can give the gift of sight to someone who needs it. Most of us have ready access to glasses or contact lenses when we need them. Whether we see an eye doctor every year or pick up reading glasses where we shop, we can get help for our eyesight.

Not so in Congo. Most families in the Ubangi region where we work are subsistence farmers, with annual incomes of $50 or less. Often they can’t even buy medicine, much less pay for glasses. Dr. Roger Thorpe, one of our medical advisors and our partner in this program, talks about people he saw during his years in Congo. Some had worked hard to learn to read, and when their eyes changed and they could no longer make out the print, it was a deep loss. When Roger was able to provide a pair of donated glasses that corrected their vision, they were happier than we will ever understand to be able to read again.

Now the PCP has joined together with Dr. Thorpe to respond to this need. Roger has been doing this quietly, on his own, for more than a decade. Several months ago we approached him about working together, making this a Paul Carlson program, and he agreed. We even found another volunteer, a Paul Carlson Medical Ambassador, who is taking on some of the work of checking the lenses.

Individuals, churches, and other groups can all get involved. Two churches have helped us kick off the program. The Rochester (MN) Covenant Church collected glasses in connection with their missions fair, gathering over 150 pair! Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago launched their program in September. They received 28 pair on the opening Sunday, and they continue taking glasses at the Missions table on Sundays on an ongoing basis.

For churches and other groups, we have a kit to help you out: a poster, a page with guidelines, and a few other items. Just email us at pcpinfo at paulcarlson.org or call the office at 773-907-3370. If you simply want to send in the unused glasses that are lying in the back of your bureau drawer, great! Send them to the Paul Carlson Partnership, 8303 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631.

With eyeglasses you can make a difference in someone’s life even if you can’t give money.

Think about it.

SAJ 1 Nov 2012

Medical Team in Congo: Update

I received an email today from Marta Klein, physician assistant working at Karawa and a member of our Medical Steering Team, with a good report on the training program. Here are her comments, with a couple of photos taken by Herb Frost:

Helping Babies Breathe training, first day

Everyone is well and the work is going well. Eric, Sheryl, Cindy, John, Dr. Dunn, and myself have been working with the students for the Helping Babies Breathe program. Yesterday we started teaching 6 students to do the course. We finished with them today. It was just Eric, Cindy, John, Sheryl, and myself today with the students. Those 6 students did the course and tested out. They began teaching another 6 students this afternoon. They are doing a pretty good job and we did a little debrief with them to make suggestions and encourage them.

John Whittington, Marta Klein, Eric Gunnoe, Obo Addy, Bill Dunn, Herb Frost

Dr. Addy and Herb Frost went with Paul yesterday to Kanana. Dr. Dunn, Dr. Addy, and Herb went to Zulu today. Dr. Dunn has been doing morning rounds in Internal Medicine. He has been doing a lot of teaching with X-rays he is ordering and talking about treatment plans. Dr. Eric and myself did rounds in Pediatrics on Monday. Cindy did rounds with Eric yesterday. Cindy and John met with Bopola at the central bureau office to look at the region’s statistics. I think everyone is trying to do and see what they need to see. I was able to show Eric one of the Moringa gardens this afternoon after the class.

The plan is to do the class again tomorrow and finish training the new group of six. They in turn will teach the first six. I’m going to propose we choose 2-3 other new people to join in on the last teaching session to grow numbers as well as toss in some new perspective. We will see what happens.

SAJ 31 Oct 2012

Making a Dent in Poverty: Farmers to Markets

The foundation official was traveling somewhere out west when I caught him on his cell phone. They had funded us before, but he was having a hard time now. “The main donor to our foundation doesn’t want to fund programs in Congo,” he said, with some frustration. “He thinks it’s a waste of money. He says, ‘If you build something, they’ll just come back and knock it down again.’”

Some people write Congo off. “The leaders are corrupt. Half the people are violent and the rest are their victims. The poverty is so deep that nobody’s going to make a dent in it.” You or I could deconstruct those arguments and get angry — or we can prove them wrong.

Texa Dembele and animatrice Patience Kaya in an FTM field

Farmers to Markets, our microfinance program in partnership with USAID, works with 2,200 subsistence farmers, plus 80 bicycle entrepreneurs and 23 wholesalers, in one of the poorest provinces in this poorest country on earth, and through it we are making a dent in the seemingly intractable poverty. Here’s some of the evidence, drawn from a report Byron wrote recently for USAID.

Associations of farmers saw their yields double or triple on demonstration plots in the B season of 2011 by using improved methods of agriculture. In the A season this year they began adopting these methods for their own farms, and they should see a similar increase there.
More small and medium agricultural buyers found plenty of commodities to buy and sell, thanks to our loans. Both farmers and buyers are discovering that it’s possible to make money from agriculture. In fact, other wholesalers, seeing the success of people we’ve funded, have entered the market.
Local prices of agricultural products at the farm level have doubled since the beginning of the project. For example, the price of rice in the Bumba region was $10/sack in the beginning, reached $18/sack late in 2011, and is now at $26. In the beginning corn in Loko was $7/sack and it is now running at $14-$15/sack. Competition works!
Bicycle entrepreneurs who work at buying and selling commodities have moved from poverty (annual incomes of $50 or less) to “middle class” (incomes of $200 or more). In many cases, they have sent all of their children to school, put metal roofs on their house, expanded their retail business, or bought land.
Gender roles are beginning to change. Traditionally, men cleared the fields and women planted, cultivated, and harvested. In the Loko area, most men in FTM have begun helping their wives in the fields. This reflects what the FTM animators teach their associations. They also give women a voice in the meetings, leading some men to give their wives a voice at home as well.
This is a win-win-win system. In the words of one of the larger wholesalers: “The farmers make money, we make money, and people in the cities have more food.”

Sacks of FTM corn in a warehouse

There have been difficulties, of course, including the bad roads, non-navigable rivers, poor communications, and the lack of any bank in the region. There is a long way to go to make life economically sustainable for people in the Ubangi. But we are showing that change is possible, that the people can make their own lives better when they learn new ways. Counting family members, 12,000-15,000 people in the Ubangi are now seeing their lives changed. That’s a dent!

We are continuing Farmers to Markets beyond the term of the USAID funding, which ended on Sept. 30. It will take more time to make the whole program sustainable, and then we want to expand it. If you believe in the people of Congo and like what we’re doing in Farmers to Markets, we invite you to pitch in and help. Your gift will make a difference. You can give securely online here, or send a check marked “FTM” to the Paul Carlson Partnership, 8303 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631. Be a part of this vitally important program that is making a dent in the poverty in Congo!

SAJ 30 Oct 2012

Dr. Denis Mukwege Survives Assassination Attempt

Dr. Denis Mukwege (phot Nicholas Kristof/New York Times)

Dr. Denis Mukwege, founder of the Panzi hospital in Bukavu, eastern DR Congo, was the subject of an assassination attempt last Thursday evening (25 Oct), when he arrived home. According to the New York Times account, “four or five unidentified gunmen [had] entered the home of the activist . . . while he was out, forced his two daughters and their friend onto the floor, confiscated their telephones and threatened to shoot them if they made any noise.” When Dr. Mukwege arrived, gunmen met him, their weapons trained on him. When a security guard employed by the family appeared, one of the gunmen turned and shot at him, killing him. As they turned back to Dr. Mukwege and opened fire on him, he succeeded in getting away — as they apparently ran out of ammunition. The gunmen then took the doctor’s car and sped away. The daughters and their friend were uninjured, as was Mukwege.

According to an AFP report on Sunday, the doctor “evacuated” from his home on Saturday. His “whereabouts were not immediately known but another source said he had left Bukavu with his family.”

An article on the Huffington Post summarized Mukwege’s significance in Congo: “Mukwege is a gynecologist devoted to the cause of women victims of rape in Congo. He founded the Panzi Hospital in Bukavu. Mukwege, 57, and his team have treated more than 30,000 victims of violent rapes during the last 10 years. Many of the women and girls were gang-raped and needed surgery for their injuries.” He is also a well-known activist for human rights, and has received several international awards. Last month he gave a speech at the UN, calling for an end to the violence in Congo and the arrest of those who are responsible.

For more information, see any of the cited articles:

New York Times
AFP (Agence France Presse)
Huffington Post

SAJ 29 Oct 2012

Helping Babies Breathe

Dr. Eric Gunnoe

Saving babies from dying at birth is the main focus of a medical team that leaves today for two weeks in Congo. This team of four doctors and one pastor is led by Dr. Eric Gunnoe, a pediatric intensive care specialist in Portland, Maine, and president of the Paul Carlson Medical Ambassadors. Together, Eric and Dr. John Whittington (Antioch, Ill.), a former family physician now a specialist in quality improvement in healthcare systems (and a Medical Ambassador), will train a cadre of local medical staff to become trainers in resuscitating newborn infants. Eight staff people at Karawa hospital will be joined by eight others who will travel to Karawa from the other four hospitals in the CEUM system, selected by Dr. Richard Lingili, director of the CEUM medical system.

Joining Eric and John on this trip are Dr. William Dunn (Rochester, Minn.), a specialist in adult pulmonology and critical care on the staff of the Mayo Institute; Dr. Obo Addy (Grand Rapids, Mich.), a sleep medicine specialist with a background in psychiatry; and Rev. Herbert Frost, lead pastor at the Rochester (Minn.) Covenant Church. Bill and Herb represent a cluster of medical people from the three Covenant churches in Rochester who are exploring how they might get involved with Paul Carlson’s work in Congo. Obo was born and raised in Ghana. He learned about the Paul Carlson Partnership through the Covenant church he attends in Grand Rapids, and contacted us asking how he might help.

Medical supplies for infant resuscitation

Our office in Chicago has looked like a warehouse in the past few weeks, as we’ve gathered donated medical supplies that the team members are carrying to Congo in trunks. In Maine, PCP board member and long-term volunteer Mary Stockmeyer has been gathering another big stock of supplies, all relating specifically to the training on infant resuscitation. Eric Gunnoe set a goal of finding all the supplies needed, enough for all 94 clinics as well as the 5 hospitals — and together he and Mary succeeded! We received some of them at the office and repacked them into trunks, and also found some other medical supplies requested by ECC missionaries for Karawa hospital. (And Mary too is an Ambassador.)

See photos on Flickr.

While Eric and John remain in Karawa, the other three team members will travel on to Loko for part of the time. The second largest CEUM hospital is at Loko, a half-day’s trip from Karawa. Each of the three has particular interests he will be looking at during this time, along with basically becoming familiar with the hospital and the system.

The entire trip has been planned in consultation with Dr. Lingili, with the vital cooperation of ECC missionaries Marta Klein, a physician assistant who has responsibility for the pediatrics unit at the hospital, and Sheryl Noren, who works with the pharmacy and the nursing school.

SAJ 25 Oct 2012

In Congo a Bridge Is a Lifeline

When a bridge is out in most places in the U.S., it’s a hardship. People are delayed, going miles out of their way. The same is true in Congo, but there are way more rivers and way fewer roads. So when the Mbulugele bridge on the road between Gemena and Karawa caved in, it was a serious problem.

Mbulugele bridge collapsed

Gemena is the largest city in the area, and the CEUM (Covenant Church of Congo) offices are there; Karawa is home to the main CEUM hospital and an important town on this east-west route. What’s more, this happened just before the huge celebration in honor of the 75th anniversary of the CEUM. In Karawa. Literally thousands of people were coming from all directions. Some of those were Americans — and some of them were trying to cross the bridge when it collapsed.

But the bridge had even greater significance. As CEUM Pres. Jules Mboka describes it, “The vision we have for our community is holistic, i.e., the consideration of the whole man, the soul, spirit, and body. The work of evangelization is going well, however poverty is more pronounced despite the efforts of the people of God in agricultural production and other income generating activities. One of the obstacles to integrated development of the people is poor agricultural feeder roads. We realize that those connecting farmers to larger centers of agricultural marketing have a significant value because they help the farmer to easily move his crop to market to sell.”

So the CEUM turned to us at PCP and asked if we could help. Though we haven’t built many bridges in the past few years — and therefore had nothing in our budget for this — our board of directors gave the OK. For all the reasons above, this bridge was a lifeline. On faith, we sent $17,500 to the CEUM. Mr. Kade Zongalinga, a skilled engineer and builder, did the work.

New Mbulugele bridge at dedication

And on September 27 the solid new bridge was dedicated. Several governmental officials joined church leaders for the event. Afterwards, Pres. Mboka sent us an excellent report that chronicles the project from collapse to dedication. We’re attaching that report here so you can see it in its entirety. It’s written in French but is worth it even if you don’t read French — the photos tell the story.

Traffic is once again going through between Gemena and Karawa. I won’t say “smoothly” because there is nothing smooth about travel in Congo! But farmers, church leaders, and general travelers have a good, strong bridge they can cross. Our great thanks to Mr. Kade for his excellent work, and to the Paul Carlson donors who are making this possible.

P.S. We are still taking contributions to cover this unexpected cost. If you’d like to be part of this important project, write “Bridge” on your check and send it to the Paul Carlson Partnership, 8303 W. Higgins Rd., Chicago, IL 60631.

SAJ 22 Oct 2012