Dear friends,
We want to thank you for your support as we journeyed through a spectacular and profound experience in Uganda. Our love for and memories of Karamoja will last the rest of our lives, and we look forward to returning one day.
While on an overnight bus ride between Uganda and Kenya three weeks before returning home, Pearce wrote a commentary on the desperate need for listening to one another in America and around the world. His thoughts have since been printed in dozens of newspapers across the United States with over a million readers. Still in Africa, Pearce wanted to find a way to translate those words into action and make a tangible impact on societal discourse.
From Tanzania, we launched the non profit Listen First Project to facilitate greater understanding, respect and cooperation by encouraging the timeless but abandoned practice of listening to each other, regardless of politics, religion, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education or any other distinction. We believe in the power of listening to transform our discourse and change the world.
Listen First Project has rapidly grown into an active movement with a global leadership team and tremendous promise for affecting transformative change, one conversation at a time. We want to invite you to continue the journey with us beyond Uganda and check out Listen First Project.
Gratefully,
Pearce & Chrissy Godwin
And to the Ends of the Earth
"Whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me." Matthew 25:40
Thursday, December 26, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Immeasurably More
Today we leave Karamoja. The past five months have passed at a blistering speed, and we can’t believe it’s time to go home. We’re excited to return to North Carolina, our friends and family, and for the weeks of travel around East Africa between now and then, but we’re very sad to be saying goodbye to the place we've grown to love and the people we've grown to treasure. We believe that God called us to take part in His mission here and that He has called us home to North Carolina, but the work goes on. God can do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, and He is in Karamoja.
Karamoja is a sub-region in the north eastern part of Uganda that has long been blighted with chronic challenges such as food insecurity, poverty and poor infrastructure as well as exceptionally low health outcomes. A sad history of hunger and suffering is actually embodied in the name Karimojong, which translates as old thin men who cannot continue on. A helpless mindset is illustrated by the frequent posture of an outstretched hand with open palm. This pervasive and deeply ingrained culture of dependency, instilled by generations of outside aid, is one of the greatest hindrances to sustainability and self-sufficiency in Karamoja. Men are more likely to be seen lounging on their traditional stools while their women labor than demonstrating initiative in working to improve their circumstances and enhance their future. Participation in aid projects has long assumed some material incentive or handout. Ownership has been a foreign concept. Development projects have failed again and again in Karamoja, leading some to throw in the towel, but we have been amazed to see how God has blessed Samaritan’s Purse’s projects here, against all odds and empirical expectation. God is on the move in this once forsaken land. Hope and progress are beginning to shine through the darkness.
Pearce was able to work on a project that targets the plague of dependency and aims to steadily transform such an unproductive and deleterious mindset. After decades of free handouts, which have contributed little to nothing towards sustainable or enduring progress in Karamoja, the Ugandan government, in partnership with the World Food Program and Samaritan’s Purse, has moved to a system of conditional food transfer, dependent on productive work. This Food for Work program not only seeks to instill the dignity and ethic of working to provide for your family but also massively benefits the community as food beneficiaries contribute to public works projects such as building roads, digging ponds and protecting rich soils from erosive destruction in flooding.
Pearce focused on the budget proposal and procurement plans as well as developing new project management and monitoring and evaluation tools. He also conducted interviews with benefiting communities and wrote impact stories on the project, which has proven highly successful. There are positive signs that the mentality of the population is shifting as the multi-dimensional value of work becomes tangible.
Pearce also spent some of his time assisting the Operations team in supporting projects. This included conducting an internal assessment of how well all operations functions were performing and then pursuing new strategies and protocols to streamline those functions, such as transportation and finance, by implementing new coordination systems.
Chrissy pursued her passion with the Karamoja Maternal and Child Health (MCH) project, which celebrated its first birthday while we were here. The region has notoriously poor health outcomes for mothers, babies, and children under five years of age with many of the deaths resulting from preventable conditions, such as diarrhea, malnutrition, and malaria. The MCH project utilizes the “Care Group Model” in which health promoters train groups of “leader mothers” in the communities who in turn teach the other women in their villages about good maternal and child health practices. It’s been amazing to see how enthusiastic the women are to learn this vital information for the first time and truly be empowered to take charge of their own health and the health of their families.
Where other projects have failed, SP’s MCH project has thrived and cast a ray of hope in the region. In talking with the mothers, you understand that the project represents a fundamental turning point for them – a chance to start a new way of life to which they were previously ignorant. Women talk about how the old norm of children being malnourished or falling sick and dying is of the past. Now, women see that there is hope for their children: their children can grow, be healthy and one day do great things. Even many men and male community leaders are eager to participate in the project, despite the fact that it disseminates enduring knowledge rather than material goods—a true novelty for Karamoja. The transformation we've observed transcends the curriculum as a new way of thinking has incited behavioral changes never imagined by the project and positive feedback loops have gone into overdrive across the population. Husbands have adopted a feeling of hope and now help out at home to ensure that there is food for the children. They've also gained more respect for their wives, reducing domestic abuse. Indeed, the local name of the project, Erot Ngolo Kitete, means “a new way.” Never has a name better encapsulated a project mission and impact.
As one leader mother described it, “Erot Ngolo Kitete has changed us from the old system of life to the new way of life.”
For her part, Chrissy has undertaken two major activities within the MCH project: helping to launch a pilot project of village ambulances and conducting an impact assessment for the MCH project. The ambulance project, described in a previous blog, involved the rolling out of five bicycle ambulances to villages throughout one sub-county. The ambulances consist of a trailer that can be attached to a bicycle or piki and can be used to transport sick patients or women in labor to a nearby health facility. In an area where only 18% of women give birth with a skilled birth attendant present, these ambulances represent an enormous opportunity for women to be able to deliver their babies safely at a health center. Chrissy worked with communities to determine which villages would receive the ambulances, who would drive them, how the ambulances would be maintained over time, and also educated communities about the importance of using the ambulances. Since the ambulances were delivered to communities in early June, they've already been used several times. It was a huge reward to know that one of the ambulances was even used to deliver a sick patient to the health center less than 24 hours after the community had received it!
Chrissy also took the lead in conducting an impact assessment by holding interviews and focus group discussions with approximately one hundred individuals throughout Napak District to ask their impressions of the changes that Erot Ngolo Kitete has had on their lives, community, and health-related behaviors. It was amazing to have the opportunity to hear first-hand how people—leader mothers, community leaders, traditional birth attendants, etc.—felt the project had fundamentally changed their lives.
Both Chrissy and Pearce's projects seek to instill dignity, self-worth and hope in a people that have been spiritually and economically depressed in a broken society for generations. Beneficiaries are encouraged and empowered to see themselves as God sees them, as capable and worthy, not trapped and hopeless.
What is it that has created such revolutionary change in a long hopeless land? Is it excellent project leadership, a well-tailored intervention, terrific curriculum? These are important factors but many projects with those key attributes have failed where these have thrived. We believe God has held his hand of blessing and protection over our projects in Karamoja and has allowed Samaritan’s Purse to be part of His magnificent plan of redemption for this place. Truly, God is doing more in Karamoja than anyone could ever hope or imagine. We have been personally blessed to be witnesses to the light of His transformative power and love expressed in darkness and despair.
A new day is dawning in Karamoja. I believe we have witnessed a watershed moment for this region, from empowered minds regarding health and work to new opportunities through electrical power and access to the world beyond its rigid borders. We will return to Karamoja one day, and when we do, it will bear little resemblance to the desperate place we found only weeks ago.
Until next time, goodbye and Godspeed Karamoja.
Karamoja is a sub-region in the north eastern part of Uganda that has long been blighted with chronic challenges such as food insecurity, poverty and poor infrastructure as well as exceptionally low health outcomes. A sad history of hunger and suffering is actually embodied in the name Karimojong, which translates as old thin men who cannot continue on. A helpless mindset is illustrated by the frequent posture of an outstretched hand with open palm. This pervasive and deeply ingrained culture of dependency, instilled by generations of outside aid, is one of the greatest hindrances to sustainability and self-sufficiency in Karamoja. Men are more likely to be seen lounging on their traditional stools while their women labor than demonstrating initiative in working to improve their circumstances and enhance their future. Participation in aid projects has long assumed some material incentive or handout. Ownership has been a foreign concept. Development projects have failed again and again in Karamoja, leading some to throw in the towel, but we have been amazed to see how God has blessed Samaritan’s Purse’s projects here, against all odds and empirical expectation. God is on the move in this once forsaken land. Hope and progress are beginning to shine through the darkness.
Pearce was able to work on a project that targets the plague of dependency and aims to steadily transform such an unproductive and deleterious mindset. After decades of free handouts, which have contributed little to nothing towards sustainable or enduring progress in Karamoja, the Ugandan government, in partnership with the World Food Program and Samaritan’s Purse, has moved to a system of conditional food transfer, dependent on productive work. This Food for Work program not only seeks to instill the dignity and ethic of working to provide for your family but also massively benefits the community as food beneficiaries contribute to public works projects such as building roads, digging ponds and protecting rich soils from erosive destruction in flooding.
Pearce focused on the budget proposal and procurement plans as well as developing new project management and monitoring and evaluation tools. He also conducted interviews with benefiting communities and wrote impact stories on the project, which has proven highly successful. There are positive signs that the mentality of the population is shifting as the multi-dimensional value of work becomes tangible.
Pearce also spent some of his time assisting the Operations team in supporting projects. This included conducting an internal assessment of how well all operations functions were performing and then pursuing new strategies and protocols to streamline those functions, such as transportation and finance, by implementing new coordination systems.
Chrissy pursued her passion with the Karamoja Maternal and Child Health (MCH) project, which celebrated its first birthday while we were here. The region has notoriously poor health outcomes for mothers, babies, and children under five years of age with many of the deaths resulting from preventable conditions, such as diarrhea, malnutrition, and malaria. The MCH project utilizes the “Care Group Model” in which health promoters train groups of “leader mothers” in the communities who in turn teach the other women in their villages about good maternal and child health practices. It’s been amazing to see how enthusiastic the women are to learn this vital information for the first time and truly be empowered to take charge of their own health and the health of their families.
Where other projects have failed, SP’s MCH project has thrived and cast a ray of hope in the region. In talking with the mothers, you understand that the project represents a fundamental turning point for them – a chance to start a new way of life to which they were previously ignorant. Women talk about how the old norm of children being malnourished or falling sick and dying is of the past. Now, women see that there is hope for their children: their children can grow, be healthy and one day do great things. Even many men and male community leaders are eager to participate in the project, despite the fact that it disseminates enduring knowledge rather than material goods—a true novelty for Karamoja. The transformation we've observed transcends the curriculum as a new way of thinking has incited behavioral changes never imagined by the project and positive feedback loops have gone into overdrive across the population. Husbands have adopted a feeling of hope and now help out at home to ensure that there is food for the children. They've also gained more respect for their wives, reducing domestic abuse. Indeed, the local name of the project, Erot Ngolo Kitete, means “a new way.” Never has a name better encapsulated a project mission and impact.
As one leader mother described it, “Erot Ngolo Kitete has changed us from the old system of life to the new way of life.”
For her part, Chrissy has undertaken two major activities within the MCH project: helping to launch a pilot project of village ambulances and conducting an impact assessment for the MCH project. The ambulance project, described in a previous blog, involved the rolling out of five bicycle ambulances to villages throughout one sub-county. The ambulances consist of a trailer that can be attached to a bicycle or piki and can be used to transport sick patients or women in labor to a nearby health facility. In an area where only 18% of women give birth with a skilled birth attendant present, these ambulances represent an enormous opportunity for women to be able to deliver their babies safely at a health center. Chrissy worked with communities to determine which villages would receive the ambulances, who would drive them, how the ambulances would be maintained over time, and also educated communities about the importance of using the ambulances. Since the ambulances were delivered to communities in early June, they've already been used several times. It was a huge reward to know that one of the ambulances was even used to deliver a sick patient to the health center less than 24 hours after the community had received it!
Chrissy also took the lead in conducting an impact assessment by holding interviews and focus group discussions with approximately one hundred individuals throughout Napak District to ask their impressions of the changes that Erot Ngolo Kitete has had on their lives, community, and health-related behaviors. It was amazing to have the opportunity to hear first-hand how people—leader mothers, community leaders, traditional birth attendants, etc.—felt the project had fundamentally changed their lives.
Both Chrissy and Pearce's projects seek to instill dignity, self-worth and hope in a people that have been spiritually and economically depressed in a broken society for generations. Beneficiaries are encouraged and empowered to see themselves as God sees them, as capable and worthy, not trapped and hopeless.
What is it that has created such revolutionary change in a long hopeless land? Is it excellent project leadership, a well-tailored intervention, terrific curriculum? These are important factors but many projects with those key attributes have failed where these have thrived. We believe God has held his hand of blessing and protection over our projects in Karamoja and has allowed Samaritan’s Purse to be part of His magnificent plan of redemption for this place. Truly, God is doing more in Karamoja than anyone could ever hope or imagine. We have been personally blessed to be witnesses to the light of His transformative power and love expressed in darkness and despair.
“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” – Matthew 19:26We’re leaving a place that today has more capacity, hope and promise than when we arrived. For our first several months here, city electricity was only available between 6pm and midnight, a quarter of each day. Today, the town of Moroto, the economic epicenter of the region, has 24 hour power connected to the national grid. Over the last month, a Chinese contractor has broken ground on a massive infrastructure project to pave the bumpy and treacherous 100-mile road connecting Karamoja to the rest of Uganda and the outside world. Power and roads… two of the most critical foundations for economic growth, development and prosperity. Not only has Karamoja recently been connected to the national grid, it is on the brink of being connected to the global grid and tapping the explosive potential of our globalized world to breathe new life and opportunity into this place.
A new day is dawning in Karamoja. I believe we have witnessed a watershed moment for this region, from empowered minds regarding health and work to new opportunities through electrical power and access to the world beyond its rigid borders. We will return to Karamoja one day, and when we do, it will bear little resemblance to the desperate place we found only weeks ago.
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!” – Isaiah 43:18-19God is faithful and awesome. He has done immeasurably more in our hearts and lives through this experience than even our greatest expectations. We will carry Karamoja with us, back to North Carolina and for the rest of our lives.
Until next time, goodbye and Godspeed Karamoja.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Special Delivery! Village Ambulance Coming Through
“Will I be able to make it to the health center before my baby is born?” Agnes Loucho found herself asking this question recently, a rare one for Karimojong women typically forced to give birth at home, at great risk to their health. Over the last several months of her pregnancy, Agnes had grown increasingly excited about meeting her new baby but also anxious that the delivery go smoothly. Agnes had learned all about the importance of delivering in a health facility through the Samaritan’s Purse Maternal Child Health project, Erot Ngolo Kitete, which means “The New Way” in the local language. In Karamoja, Chrissy has focused on Erot Ngolo Kitete and managed the launch of the Village Ambulance initiative. She recently spent a day in the field hearing of its early impact from grateful women such as Agnes.
In embracing the project’s mantra of adopting a “new way” of life, Agnes had attended antenatal care services at the local health center and, in doing so, had learned from the nurses that the baby had a large head which could make delivery at home very dangerous. These thoughts flooded into Agnes’s mind that morning when she woke up feeling contractions in her belly. Her baby was ready to make his entrance into the world – but would Agnes be able to ensure he arrived safely by getting to the health facility? She considered her options: she could give birth at home or she could find a friend with a wheelbarrow who would be willing to push her to the health facility. Unsure of what to do, Agnes called her friend Alfreda for advice as she knew Alfreda worked for Samaritan’s Purse’s Maternal Child Health project and would know what to do.
Sure enough, Alfreda quickly arrived at the house with a plan of how to get Agnes to the health center using the new Samaritan’s Purse Village Ambulance. The Village Ambulance, a trailer that can be attached to a bicycle or motorcycle, would allow Agnes to rest comfortably on a mattress and under a protective canopy while being pulled to the health center. Though the Village Ambulance had been given to the community just one week prior, Alfreda knew that it would provide safe, comfortable, and fast transport to the health center for pregnant women in labor or critically ill patients. In a region of Uganda where 82% of women deliver their babies at home, often times because they do not have a way to get to the health facility when labor begins, the communities that received Village Ambulances from Samaritan’s Purse saw the donation as a true answer to prayer. And, thanks to the education provided through Samaritan’s Purse’s Maternal Child Health project, women now understand how dangerous it can be to deliver a baby at home, without the help of a nurse or doctor.
Thanks to Alfreda’s quick thinking and the Samaritan’s Purse Village Ambulance, Agnes arrived at the health center with just minutes to spare before her baby son was born. Since she gave birth at the health facility, nurses provided Agnes with vitamins and treated her for the damage her body had sustained in giving birth. Agnes’s baby boy was bathed, weighed, and given a clean bill of health. Agnes, now back at home and adjusting to her life as a new mom, often reflects back on her trip in the Village Ambulance. “It was a comfortable ride and a good way to get to the health center quickly.” Without the Village Ambulance, Agnes knows she would have been forced to deliver her baby at home without sterile conditions as many women throughout Karamoja are forced to do every day. As her friend Alfreda reports, “I wish that there were more Village Ambulances so that all women would have a way of getting to the health center when they are in labor.”
The Village Ambulance program is only the latest manifestation of God’s love and resources touching the hurting people of Karamoja, meeting their needs and charting “a new way” for this challenged region of Uganda.
SNAPSHOTS OF AFRICA
Thanks to Alfreda’s quick thinking and the Samaritan’s Purse Village Ambulance, Agnes arrived at the health center with just minutes to spare before her baby son was born. Since she gave birth at the health facility, nurses provided Agnes with vitamins and treated her for the damage her body had sustained in giving birth. Agnes’s baby boy was bathed, weighed, and given a clean bill of health. Agnes, now back at home and adjusting to her life as a new mom, often reflects back on her trip in the Village Ambulance. “It was a comfortable ride and a good way to get to the health center quickly.” Without the Village Ambulance, Agnes knows she would have been forced to deliver her baby at home without sterile conditions as many women throughout Karamoja are forced to do every day. As her friend Alfreda reports, “I wish that there were more Village Ambulances so that all women would have a way of getting to the health center when they are in labor.”
The Village Ambulance program is only the latest manifestation of God’s love and resources touching the hurting people of Karamoja, meeting their needs and charting “a new way” for this challenged region of Uganda.
SNAPSHOTS OF AFRICA
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
The Magnificent Power of Poop
Now that we have your attention... One of the most impressive realizations of our time here in Uganda is how seemingly small inputs and innovations can have a vast, multifaceted and transformative impact. Whether it be basic health and hygiene knowledge, the introduction of a road or the provision of a few vegetable seeds, a little can go a very long way in Karamoja, a place so desperate for revolutionary change.
One of the activities under the NUSAF2 project which Pearce is concentrating on is the introduction of biogas technology to Karamoja. Last year, these innovative systems were installed for nine households as a pilot project. Biogas is generated by mixing fresh cow or pig dung with water and pouring it into a specially designed underground tank called a digester. As the mixture ferments, gas is produced. The gas travels through pipes from the underground system into the home, where it powers a special stove and lamp for cooking and lighting. The residue, called bio-slurry, that flows out of the digester can also be used as fertilizer, boosting crop production in the gardens.
Biogas provides a cheaper, safer, more sustainable and consistent energy source compared to firewood, kerosene, or charcoal, while eliminating the need to cut down trees, mitigating the negative impact of deforestation on food production in Karamoja. Deforestation compounds the problem of environmental degradation caused by drought, flood and soil erosion. Without trees, productive soils are washed away, leaving precious little land capable of growing food to sustain the population.
One of the biogas households was that of Peter Lokut. Peter’s story, which he shared with Pearce, reflects realization of the vast potential biogas has to transform the lifestyle of a beneficiary household. Before Samaritan’s Purse intervened, Peter’s household was wholly dependent on firewood as fuel, “we didn't have any other sources, firewood only.” His wife and children traveled 14 km (9 miles) round trip on foot, a six hour journey, regularly to fetch the wood. A batch of wood costing 16,000 Ugandan Shillings ($6) bought nearby would only support cooking for four days.
Peter also said his family faced “very many risks” in going to fetch firewood, explaining that the area is insecure and meeting violent thugs along the way is a real and present danger. These “armed enemies” have been known to strip clothing, assault and even kill people. This danger unfortunately hit Peter close to home. “When they were going to fetch firewood last year, thugs met my wife, taking her shoes and clothing.” And this was not the only danger Peter and his family experienced using firewood. Once while cooking, one of his huts burned to the ground. In another instance, his daughter was burned by the flame and still carries a scar on her stomach. Smoke from burning firewood in an enclosed space also posed a respiratory health risk to his family.
When Peter was approached by SP about installing the technology at his home, he says “I was green about biogas.” He’d heard of it being used in the capital city of Kampala and understood it was “very nice.” Peter directly participated in the installation of the system, helping dig the holes and offload materials from the truck. As for his expectations, Peter said “I was expecting to get fire as a source of energy and even to use the waste as manure; I was very happy.” Indeed Peter has seen even his greatest expectations exceeded as he now enjoys the benefits of biogas.
“It has improved my family. We are benefiting in cooking food well, and it works even in the rainy season when you can’t collect firewood. I don’t now spend money buying firewood or go into the bush. We now just get cow dung right here. Fire is only under the pan, so it can’t come out. We were not using light before because I had to buy expensive paraffin.” Peter had been forced to spend 2,000 shillings ($1) for a single soda bottle of paraffin, which might light the home for one week. Now, with consistent light from the biogas, his children stay up after dark playing games, reading and completing school work. They also enjoy participating in the biogas process, regularly fetching dung with the wheelbarrow and piling it into the digester. His children offered an enthusiastic endorsement that biogas “is very good!”
Peter’s wife shared her gratitude for the more efficient and convenient system as well. “I am very happy for light and cooking. I am no longer going to the bush and facing these problems.” Peter also noted how “speedy” cooking is with biogas. Whereas porridge previously took an hour to cook, it now takes six minutes, a tenth the time. Water boils in two minutes, and beans which once took six hours to cook now take only two. With the saved time from cooking and traveling for wood, Peter and his wife now spend more time tending to their garden and increasing household food production. They also take advantage of the bonus benefit afforded by using the “bio-slurry” as fertilizer. He can now plant crops in new places and sees a stark difference between those without the fertilizer and those with, which are twice as tall and a vibrant, healthy green.
Peter wishes the technology, which has dramatically improved the life of his family, could spread through the community and benefit his neighbors, who have seen the impact and long for biogas in their own households. But Peter is already serving his neighbors. His use of biogas rather than wood cut from endangered forests is making a dent in the problem of deforestation that is plaguing Karamoja and thereby improving food security for tomorrow.
Who knew poop could be so powerful?
SNAPSHOTS OF AFRICA
One of the activities under the NUSAF2 project which Pearce is concentrating on is the introduction of biogas technology to Karamoja. Last year, these innovative systems were installed for nine households as a pilot project. Biogas is generated by mixing fresh cow or pig dung with water and pouring it into a specially designed underground tank called a digester. As the mixture ferments, gas is produced. The gas travels through pipes from the underground system into the home, where it powers a special stove and lamp for cooking and lighting. The residue, called bio-slurry, that flows out of the digester can also be used as fertilizer, boosting crop production in the gardens.
Biogas provides a cheaper, safer, more sustainable and consistent energy source compared to firewood, kerosene, or charcoal, while eliminating the need to cut down trees, mitigating the negative impact of deforestation on food production in Karamoja. Deforestation compounds the problem of environmental degradation caused by drought, flood and soil erosion. Without trees, productive soils are washed away, leaving precious little land capable of growing food to sustain the population.
Peter also said his family faced “very many risks” in going to fetch firewood, explaining that the area is insecure and meeting violent thugs along the way is a real and present danger. These “armed enemies” have been known to strip clothing, assault and even kill people. This danger unfortunately hit Peter close to home. “When they were going to fetch firewood last year, thugs met my wife, taking her shoes and clothing.” And this was not the only danger Peter and his family experienced using firewood. Once while cooking, one of his huts burned to the ground. In another instance, his daughter was burned by the flame and still carries a scar on her stomach. Smoke from burning firewood in an enclosed space also posed a respiratory health risk to his family.
When Peter was approached by SP about installing the technology at his home, he says “I was green about biogas.” He’d heard of it being used in the capital city of Kampala and understood it was “very nice.” Peter directly participated in the installation of the system, helping dig the holes and offload materials from the truck. As for his expectations, Peter said “I was expecting to get fire as a source of energy and even to use the waste as manure; I was very happy.” Indeed Peter has seen even his greatest expectations exceeded as he now enjoys the benefits of biogas.
Peter’s wife shared her gratitude for the more efficient and convenient system as well. “I am very happy for light and cooking. I am no longer going to the bush and facing these problems.” Peter also noted how “speedy” cooking is with biogas. Whereas porridge previously took an hour to cook, it now takes six minutes, a tenth the time. Water boils in two minutes, and beans which once took six hours to cook now take only two. With the saved time from cooking and traveling for wood, Peter and his wife now spend more time tending to their garden and increasing household food production. They also take advantage of the bonus benefit afforded by using the “bio-slurry” as fertilizer. He can now plant crops in new places and sees a stark difference between those without the fertilizer and those with, which are twice as tall and a vibrant, healthy green.
Peter wishes the technology, which has dramatically improved the life of his family, could spread through the community and benefit his neighbors, who have seen the impact and long for biogas in their own households. But Peter is already serving his neighbors. His use of biogas rather than wood cut from endangered forests is making a dent in the problem of deforestation that is plaguing Karamoja and thereby improving food security for tomorrow.
Who knew poop could be so powerful?
SNAPSHOTS OF AFRICA
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Life Experiences & Traditions a World Apart
One of the greatest joys of our time in Uganda has been engaging in conversation with new friends about the differences between our homelands. From long car rides to lunches at the office to playing Catch Phrase, we've had many opportunities to share with each other.
Where we come from, nothing is bigger or a more seminal part of one’s identity than college basketball allegiances. Naturally, this has been a popular topic of conversation and amusement for Ugandans. We've told countless people of camping for months on end for prime seats to the greatest rivalry game in all of sports and attempted to describe the indescribable atmosphere of Cameron Indoor Stadium. While riding around Northern Uganda during our rotation on the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene project, Pearce noted that the sky was a beautiful “Carolina Blue” and proceeded to explain that there is no “light blue” or “dark blue” on Tobacco Road, only “Carolina Blue” and “Duke Blue.” We identified “Duke Blue” by the Blue Devil hat Chrissy was faithfully wearing. Pearce was excited to tell his Tarheel dad of this lesson and of course he was quite gratified. But this wasn't the coolest think Pearce has been able to share with his “baby blue” father.
When visiting a church mobilization meeting with the Karamoja Ministry Project, Pearce’s eyes were immediately drawn to a familiar colored shirt being worn by a Karimojong woman on the second row. Chrissy was horribly embarrassed as Pearce began snapping pictures mid-meeting like paparazzi. In middle-of-nowhere Karamoja, Uganda was a woman wearing a University of North Carolina t-shirt. Following the meeting, Pearce called the pastor over to provide translation as he excitedly explained to the woman why he’d been so captivated by her wardrobe choice. She was bewildered by all the fuss but explained that a friend of her daughter’s had given her the shirt. Given that Carolina boasts the best-selling collegiate merchandise, it’s not so surprising a Tarheel shirt would turn up on the other side of the world, even in Karamoja. Our quest for a Blue Devil sighting has so far come up empty.
Another topic of wonder for native Ugandans is cold weather. Most have never experienced snow or ice but have perhaps seen them in movies. Ugandan national staff have been fascinated to learn that the international headquarters of their organization, in Boone, North Carolina, was covered in snow and ice when we left orientation to join them in Uganda. The pictures we took on our iPhone have elicited awe. They want to know what snow is, how it feels and if anybody works when it falls. Some report seeing snow sports on TV and ask if we've ever skied. Swinging chairs hanging from a pulley that takes you up the mountain? Crazy talk. We explained the characteristics and impacts of snow:
“So this snow, it just falls like rain?”
“Yes, and it makes the road slippery like mud. School, work and shopping depend on where in America you are. In Boone, a foot (30 centimeters) can cancel everything, except the skiing of course. In Florida, a flurry would ground a city to a halt. In Maine, nobody bats an eye at a meter of snow. America has very diverse climates and seasons”
Next up was Christmas, the granddaddy of them all. Only recently, western-oriented malls in the biggest African cities have imported the commercialization of the religious celebration, even Santa Clause. Occasionally, they told us, you will see a home decorated with some trimmings to mark the season. We explained the wonderful tradition of Santa and the lengths to which parents go to maintain the magic for their children. Pearce told of traveling with his parents to Richmond, Virginia every year, from infancy into his High School years, to wait for hours and sit on the lap of “the real Santa Clause,” a priceless family tradition. Our Ugandan friends were very amused. For them, Christmas is still a sacred religious and family holiday focused on Christ, with no particular emphasis on children. In fact, for a country in which half of the population is under the age of fifteen, there are no kid-focused holidays.
Similarly, they view Easter only as a celebration of our Savior’s resurrection and were surprised to hear of the Easter Bunny and Easter egg hunts that we so enjoyed as kids. And Thanksgiving, that one was news to them. They enjoyed the story of Pilgrims and Indians and were interested in the cornucopia of dishes we share with family around the table.
Another highlight of our experience was the night we played “Catch Phrase” with a terrific group of expats and nationals. We found ourselves explaining terms and phrases such as “boogie board,” “miniature golf,” “give me some slack,” “playing the field,” “Valentine’s Day,” and “give my right arm.” We learned that the equivalent of “give my right arm” in Karimojong translates “give my right leg” as they’ll say “I love you so much, I’d give my right leg.” Still waiting for someone to bust that out on us.
Pearce’s greatest point of pride when it comes to sharing traditions in Uganda occurred on the one local basketball court. Number one on the Kampala shopping list was a basketball as Pearce was thrilled to learn of the court in Karamoja. One Saturday afternoon we dribbled down the street to find several teenagers at the court anxious to play. After several games of 3-on-3, Pearce decided to give HORSE a shot. For the uninitiated, HORSE is a basketball game in which players take turns attempting shots from various spots on the court. Once a player makes his shot, every other player must attempt the identical shot. Anyone who misses that shot earns a letter of H-O-R-S-E. Once a player has missed five shots made by another, he’ll have spelled HORSE and be eliminated. But we’re in Karamoja, not America, so Pearce adapted the game to spell EJOKA, which is the common greeting in Karimojong meaning “hi, how are you?” The kids picked it up quickly and had a blast. Our work here is done.
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Snapshots of Africa
Monday, April 15, 2013
Karamoja: where people meet but mountains do not
One thing we have observed in our time in Uganda is how real life is here. In the United States, we live a pretty sheltered life. News of births usually arrive in our Facebook newsfeeds and deaths on the evening news or, rarely, in our own lives when elderly family members pass away. Conversely, in Uganda, life and death are near daily occurrences with newborn goats and calves everywhere (literally on and beside every road and napping in the shade of each hut) and breastfeeding moms in almost every meeting. Death also takes on a certain omnipresence in everyday life here. Hand-carved caskets are sold alongside the roads near health centers. Carcasses of freshly slaughtered animals hang from stalls in roadside markets. Our new friends have shared painful stories of young children recently dying in their families. In the States, such death is an unimaginable tragedy. Here, it is a daily tragedy. Having a child die before their fifth birthday is shockingly common. Uganda has the highest under 5 mortality rate in East Africa with 131 children dying before the age of 5 out of every 1,000 live births.
Nowhere is this reality more striking than in Karamoja, the region in northeastern Uganda that we will be calling home for the next three months, where the under 5 mortality rate is 174 and the poverty rate is 75%, three times the national average. Hunger is pervasive with approximately one in three people not having enough to eat in the districts where we work, five times higher than the national rate. More than four in ten children are stunted by malnutrition. The region suffers from chronic and cyclical drought thus receiving international food assistance for over forty years. The 1980 famine was one of the worst on record with approximately 21% of the population dying, including 60% of all infants. There have been four major droughts in the last ten years alone, resulting in massive crop failure and loss of livelihoods as animals suffered. Drought has combined with climate anomalies, insecurity, civil unrest, high animal mortality, poor market conditions, a 67% illiteracy rate and many other factors to paint the heartbreaking picture of the Karamoja we live in.
A sad history of hunger and suffering is actually embodied in the name of the people who inhabit Karamoja. Karimojong translates as old thin men who cannot continue on. The Karimojong are a fierce and proud people with incredibly unique traditions, beliefs and lifestyles. Traditionally dependent on cattle for their livelihood, much of the population lives a semi-nomadic, pastoralist lifestyle, ushering their cattle across the arid landscape in search of fertile pasture for grazing. When settled, they often live in villages composed of a few manyattas, communities of huts encircled by a fence of sticks with a very small entrance to protect against bands of cattle raiders from other villages. While Ugandans in the rest of the country are effusively warm and friendly, the Karimojong are more staid in their demeanor. However, we’ve found many of them to be pleasant in contrast to reports of a very hostile and abrasive people. A US Army soldier stationed in Karamoja observed that the Karimojong will offer a friendly greeting, similar to that of other Ugandans, but that a Karimojong will inevitably follow that greeting with an open palm asking what you are going to give him. This pervasive and deeply ingrained culture of dependency, instilled by generations of outside aid, is one of the greatest hindrances to sustainability and self-sufficiency in Karamoja. Men are more likely to be seen lounging on their traditional stools, which double as headrests, while their women labor than demonstrating initiative in working to improve their circumstances and enhance their future.
Pearce is grateful for the opportunity to be working on a project that targets this plague of dependency and aims to steadily transform such an unproductive and deleterious mindset. After decades of free handouts, which have contributed little to nothing towards sustainable or enduring progress in Karamoja, the Ugandan government, in partnership with the World Food Program and implementing NGOs such as Samaritan’s Purse, has moved to a system of conditional food transfer, dependent on productive work. This Food for Work program not only seeks to instill the dignity and ethic of working to provide for your family but also massively benefits the community as food beneficiaries contribute to public works projects such as building roads, digging ponds and improving agriculture productivity through soil management and conservation. The project also has a household income support component designed to enhance and diversify livelihoods for food-insecure families. This includes the provision of drought-resistant crop seeds, promoting the growing of vegetables for both income and dietary diversity, and further diversifying livelihoods by introducing apiary and bio-gas.
Chrissy will be pursuing her passion for maternal child health by working on SP’s MCH project. As mentioned above, Karamoja has notoriously poor health outcomes for mothers, babies, and children under five years of age with many of the deaths resulting from preventable illnesses, such as diarrhea, malnutrition, and malaria. The MCH project utilizes the “Care Group Model” of having staff train “health promoters” in the various communities who then each train several groups of “leader mothers” in the villages who in turn teach the other women in their villages about good maternal and child health practices. Through this model, the project reaches over 35,000 women (virtually all of the women in Napak District) with information on breastfeeding, nutrition, and how to prevent and treat common illnesses. It’s amazing to see how enthusiastic the women are to learn this vital information for the first time and truly be empowered to take charge of their own health and the health of their babies. Indeed, even many men and male community leaders are eager to participate in the project, despite the fact that it aims to disseminate knowledge rather than material goods—a novelty for development projects in this region.
Both of these projects seek to instill dignity, self-worth and hope in a people that have been spiritually and economically depressed in a broken society for generations. Beneficiaries are encouraged and empowered to see themselves as God sees them, as capable and worthy, not trapped and hopeless.
Karamoja has long been infamous for its insecurity and considered forbidden land for travelers. Road ambushes and armed cattle raids were once extremely common and characterized by indiscriminate killing. In those days, a warrior might meet a stranger on the road and murder them without cause or provocation, even leaving the victim’s money and other valuables behind, taking only the satisfaction of a kill back to the village. The common, historical practice of raiding cattle from neighboring villages as a means of survival in a pastoralist culture had become violently enflamed by the introduction of modern weaponry such as AK-47s. We traveled a beautiful, pristine stretch of road on our way from Kampala that was once the epicenter of frequent killings, of locals and foreigners alike, but today is quiet and secure, a microcosm of progress in the region.
Karamoja has seen a dramatic improvement in safety and security over the last several years, in large part due to a government-led disarmament campaign in 2006 that methodically and forcefully confiscated guns from warriors and villages. Today, cattle raids between communities still happen regularly but, without the same firepower, are less deadly and more contained. Without question, prudence and vigilance are still called for, but the acute and once ever-present risks that long plagued Karamoja have been greatly diminished. We do not travel beyond town at night and also live and work within walled compounds with guards present at all times. We are safe here.
On our first day here, as we marveled at the sporadic mountains towering above an otherwise flat landscape, we were told Karamoja is “where people meet but the mountains do not.” This gorgeous land that wows and inspires us each day epitomizes the paradox of Uganda observed in the must-read book “Kisses from Katie.” Karamoja is a place of enormous, breathtaking beauty juxtaposed against immense poverty and desolation. We love Karamoja. We love its beauty, its people, its opportunity. By God’s grace and the mighty transformative power of His love, Karamoja can have a brighter future. We pray we can be a small part of what He is doing here. Now, it’s time to get to work.
Nowhere is this reality more striking than in Karamoja, the region in northeastern Uganda that we will be calling home for the next three months, where the under 5 mortality rate is 174 and the poverty rate is 75%, three times the national average. Hunger is pervasive with approximately one in three people not having enough to eat in the districts where we work, five times higher than the national rate. More than four in ten children are stunted by malnutrition. The region suffers from chronic and cyclical drought thus receiving international food assistance for over forty years. The 1980 famine was one of the worst on record with approximately 21% of the population dying, including 60% of all infants. There have been four major droughts in the last ten years alone, resulting in massive crop failure and loss of livelihoods as animals suffered. Drought has combined with climate anomalies, insecurity, civil unrest, high animal mortality, poor market conditions, a 67% illiteracy rate and many other factors to paint the heartbreaking picture of the Karamoja we live in.
A sad history of hunger and suffering is actually embodied in the name of the people who inhabit Karamoja. Karimojong translates as old thin men who cannot continue on. The Karimojong are a fierce and proud people with incredibly unique traditions, beliefs and lifestyles. Traditionally dependent on cattle for their livelihood, much of the population lives a semi-nomadic, pastoralist lifestyle, ushering their cattle across the arid landscape in search of fertile pasture for grazing. When settled, they often live in villages composed of a few manyattas, communities of huts encircled by a fence of sticks with a very small entrance to protect against bands of cattle raiders from other villages. While Ugandans in the rest of the country are effusively warm and friendly, the Karimojong are more staid in their demeanor. However, we’ve found many of them to be pleasant in contrast to reports of a very hostile and abrasive people. A US Army soldier stationed in Karamoja observed that the Karimojong will offer a friendly greeting, similar to that of other Ugandans, but that a Karimojong will inevitably follow that greeting with an open palm asking what you are going to give him. This pervasive and deeply ingrained culture of dependency, instilled by generations of outside aid, is one of the greatest hindrances to sustainability and self-sufficiency in Karamoja. Men are more likely to be seen lounging on their traditional stools, which double as headrests, while their women labor than demonstrating initiative in working to improve their circumstances and enhance their future.
Pearce is grateful for the opportunity to be working on a project that targets this plague of dependency and aims to steadily transform such an unproductive and deleterious mindset. After decades of free handouts, which have contributed little to nothing towards sustainable or enduring progress in Karamoja, the Ugandan government, in partnership with the World Food Program and implementing NGOs such as Samaritan’s Purse, has moved to a system of conditional food transfer, dependent on productive work. This Food for Work program not only seeks to instill the dignity and ethic of working to provide for your family but also massively benefits the community as food beneficiaries contribute to public works projects such as building roads, digging ponds and improving agriculture productivity through soil management and conservation. The project also has a household income support component designed to enhance and diversify livelihoods for food-insecure families. This includes the provision of drought-resistant crop seeds, promoting the growing of vegetables for both income and dietary diversity, and further diversifying livelihoods by introducing apiary and bio-gas.
Chrissy will be pursuing her passion for maternal child health by working on SP’s MCH project. As mentioned above, Karamoja has notoriously poor health outcomes for mothers, babies, and children under five years of age with many of the deaths resulting from preventable illnesses, such as diarrhea, malnutrition, and malaria. The MCH project utilizes the “Care Group Model” of having staff train “health promoters” in the various communities who then each train several groups of “leader mothers” in the villages who in turn teach the other women in their villages about good maternal and child health practices. Through this model, the project reaches over 35,000 women (virtually all of the women in Napak District) with information on breastfeeding, nutrition, and how to prevent and treat common illnesses. It’s amazing to see how enthusiastic the women are to learn this vital information for the first time and truly be empowered to take charge of their own health and the health of their babies. Indeed, even many men and male community leaders are eager to participate in the project, despite the fact that it aims to disseminate knowledge rather than material goods—a novelty for development projects in this region.
Both of these projects seek to instill dignity, self-worth and hope in a people that have been spiritually and economically depressed in a broken society for generations. Beneficiaries are encouraged and empowered to see themselves as God sees them, as capable and worthy, not trapped and hopeless.
Karamoja has long been infamous for its insecurity and considered forbidden land for travelers. Road ambushes and armed cattle raids were once extremely common and characterized by indiscriminate killing. In those days, a warrior might meet a stranger on the road and murder them without cause or provocation, even leaving the victim’s money and other valuables behind, taking only the satisfaction of a kill back to the village. The common, historical practice of raiding cattle from neighboring villages as a means of survival in a pastoralist culture had become violently enflamed by the introduction of modern weaponry such as AK-47s. We traveled a beautiful, pristine stretch of road on our way from Kampala that was once the epicenter of frequent killings, of locals and foreigners alike, but today is quiet and secure, a microcosm of progress in the region.
Karamoja has seen a dramatic improvement in safety and security over the last several years, in large part due to a government-led disarmament campaign in 2006 that methodically and forcefully confiscated guns from warriors and villages. Today, cattle raids between communities still happen regularly but, without the same firepower, are less deadly and more contained. Without question, prudence and vigilance are still called for, but the acute and once ever-present risks that long plagued Karamoja have been greatly diminished. We do not travel beyond town at night and also live and work within walled compounds with guards present at all times. We are safe here.
On our first day here, as we marveled at the sporadic mountains towering above an otherwise flat landscape, we were told Karamoja is “where people meet but the mountains do not.” This gorgeous land that wows and inspires us each day epitomizes the paradox of Uganda observed in the must-read book “Kisses from Katie.” Karamoja is a place of enormous, breathtaking beauty juxtaposed against immense poverty and desolation. We love Karamoja. We love its beauty, its people, its opportunity. By God’s grace and the mighty transformative power of His love, Karamoja can have a brighter future. We pray we can be a small part of what He is doing here. Now, it’s time to get to work.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Our First Month in Uganda: An Unforgettable Journey
“Muzungu! Muzungu!”
While the village children may have felt they were experiencing something special in our visits, we were the ones who walked away moved -- and different. You cannot step into the situations we've encountered and ever look at the world, at America, at God the same way again. There are countless indelible images running through our minds from our first month in Uganda. We've witnessed both desperate need and God's life-changing power moving unmistakably in its midst.
In our first week, several Samaritan’s Purse staff gently introduced us to Uganda via western-oriented restaurants, malls and a bowling alley in the capital of Kampala. We also enjoyed the happy coincidence of Chrissy’s former colleagues from the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric Aids Foundation (EGPAF) being in town for a conference that Chrissy had helped plan before leaving DC. We all ate at a revolving restaurant overlooking the city and went rafting on the Nile River, a major bucket list experience.
Following the first week in Kampala, we set out on a three week tour of Samaritan’s Purse projects all across Uganda. See the map of our journey with the projects we visited at each stop. Before leaving Kampala, we visited a project that is reintegrating orphans back into their homes, a process aided by the empowerment of mothers with new income-generating activities to support their children. Vulnerable women in the community are also empowered by savings groups, which provide livelihood trainings including financial savings and an invaluable support structure. We also visited a project outside Kampala that is mobilizing the church to serve as the hands and feet of Christ in the community, caring for the most vulnerable among them. They share the love of God by meeting practical needs and building capacity, often by providing livestock as a means of livelihood.
Our second week in Uganda was spent in the northern town of Lira, known as the site of huge refugee camps for the millions of people fleeing the terror of Kony and the LRA, which ravaged northern Uganda for two decades. The LRA killed over 100,000 civilians and abducted more than 20,000 children before fleeing the country in 2006. We heard personal accounts from Samaritan’s Purse staff who barely escaped with their lives as children, running from their homes as the LRA attacked their village. These atrocities have gained a lot of global attention over the last year as the Kony 2012 video went viral. To hear first-hand accounts of the horror from people who lived it was unbelievable.
Most of our time in Lira was spent observing and participating in the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project, creating sources of safe and potable water for local communities. Our first two days on the WASH project were spent visiting a nearby village where SP had established a water filtration workshop. Here, locals came to participate in making their own water filtration units out of concrete, gravel, sand, and sheet metal. We also enjoyed trying our hand at constructing diffuser plates out of sheet metal and beating the air bubbles out of the concrete as the units dried in the molds. While this task served as excellent exercise, it also gave us a unique perspective into the challenges around securing one of life’s most basic needs: water. One afternoon, we walked the quarter mile or so from the village down to the banks of the Nile to
Our time in the Western region of Uganda was divided between two projects: livestock and refugee food assistance. The first two days of the week were spent learning about how SP is providing livestock such as cows, pigs, goats, and fish to families in the Kamwenge area in order that they could provide milk and meat for themselves as well as an income for their home. Though we visited many families who had received animals from SP, undoubtedly the most colorful experience of this rotation was when Chrissy helped with deworming a cow. The cow, who was none too thrilled at being restrained and her mouth held open, literally coughed deworming medicine all over Chrissy’s face, arms, and chest as she valiantly attempted to shoot three syringes full of medicine down the cow’s throat. We think both Chrissy and the cow got enough of the medicine to be free from parasites for the next few months…
The remainder of the week was spent in the Nakivale Refugee Settlement near the town of Mbarara (try saying that ten times fast…) where SP is responsible for distributing food to the over 65,000 refugees who call this area home. Though most of the refugees had arrived in the settlement after fleeing across the nearby border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, it also has residents from Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, and Ethiopia with each group establishing their own communities within the vast settlement. Arriving at the settlement, we expected to see acres of tents and make-shift temporary dwellings littering the landscape, as we've all seen on CNN in the aftermath of acute disasters, but were instead surprised to see that the area looked very similar to the many rural areas we had visited with whole villages of huts and small storefronts lining the streets. As we came to learn, this particular refugee settlement has been in operation for over sixty years, and new residents are allotted land where they can build homes and gardens, thus setting this
Our final week of the rotation was spent in Karamoja, a unique, isolated and particularly challenged but beautiful area in the northeast. There are several major projects Samaritan’s Purse is conducting in this region, including one focused on maternal child health, Chrissy’s passion. After a wonderful experience on the rotation, we’re both excited to be returning to Karamoja this week for the remaining three and half months of our time in Uganda, to dedicate ourselves to serving the Karamajong through the projects there. There is much to say about Karamoja, its history, its people and our experience there, so we look forward to sharing more about our home for the next several months in another post.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, which is certainly true. But we've also realized that an experience – being present and immersed in the sights and sounds of such a spectacular and diverse place – is worth a thousand pictures, which still cannot fully capture, convey and do justice to Uganda. But, having spent the last week sorting through the several thousand we've taken in only our first month, we hope this album of our favorites gives you a taste of the indescribable experience we've had as well as the beauty of this place and the Ugandan people, whom we’re so blessed to be working with.
PHOTO ALBUM OF OUR FIRST MONTH: SNAPSHOTS OF AFRICA
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