Tuesday, November 3, 2015

God Did Not Forget Us

In previous posts, I have spoken about Nyankunde, a village in northeast DRC where Samaritan’s Purse currently has two health and nutrition programs. For decades, Nyankunde was home to an interdenominational mission base, consisting of a Bible school, airstrip, printing press, a pharmacy and a hospital. Due to the influx of European, North American, and even Asian missionaries, the village was seen as an area of relative prosperity. The village had access to resources that other localities did not. The schools were better, the medicine was better, and jobs could be found with one of the various missions present. Several of my Congolese colleagues grew up in Nyankunde. Almost all of their families were from other villages, and moved to Nyankunde to improve their quality of life. Interestingly, many of my colleagues learned English through playing with the children of the missionaries.

Unfortunately, the resources that attracted the families of my colleagues also attracted military conflict during the Second Congolese Civil War. Viewed as a prime area to loot, militia groups came burning buildings and slaughtering innocent civilians, including over 1,000 hospital staff and patients. As many as 4,500 people were killed in the village as a result of the violence. Thirteen years later, Nyankunde is still feeling the effects of this pointless genocide. Over the last several years, those displaced from the conflict have gradually returned. However, very few have a tangible way of providing for their families, as employment is scarce and basic agricultural information has been lost.
Today, both the hospital and airstrip are running again, but at a much lower capacity than before the war. Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) operates the airstrip, while World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse, employs six expatriate physicians.* Samaritan’s Purse has also constructed an operating room building for the hospital.**


Something That Requires Faith
 In addition to the operating room, Samaritan’s Purse was also hoping to reconstruct the maternity ward that was destroyed during the war. Every winter, Samaritan’s Purse releases a Christmas gift catalogue (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/our-ministry/gift-catalog/) to raise funds for our various projects. In 2013, two American siblings who previously took a cake decorating class, Gabe and Livy, wanted to use their hobby of decorating cakes to raise money for Samaritan’s Purse. They first set off by raising $14 to purchase two chickens. They then raised an additional $75 to buy a goat.
Raising money for these projects came naturally for thirteen year old Gabe and his nine year old sister Livvy. It came so naturally that they were disappointed in how easily they raised the funds. Gabe felt that he was able to meet his previous goals on his own strength, and desired to do “something that requires faith.” That is to say, he wanted to be involved in a project so seemingly impossible that it could only be accomplished through God’s help. So he and his sister searched through the Samaritan’s Purse catalogue and found the most expensive project listed: the construction of a maternity ward for $35,000.

Gabe and Livvy quickly returned to baking and selling cakes. Word of their mission to fund the maternity ward spread, and other children also began helping out. Many of these children became so passionate about project that they asked their parents to donate money in place of receiving birthday and Christmas presents. Upon reaching ten thousand dollars, the project gained media attention. Gabe was invited by a former baker of the Queen of England to be tutored in gourmet baking techniques and be a guest on his television program. During their television appearance, the siblings raised $12,000 for their project. Among the viewers was a representative from the Muhammad Ali Center, who was particularly touched by the children’s story.



Picture of the Gabe and Livvy with Muhammad Ali.***
2014 marked the 40th anniversary of the infamous 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. In an effort to raise the nation’s international profile, recently inaugurated President Mobutu hosted the fight in the capital of Kinshasa. Ali, who knocked-out the then undefeated Foreman, is still beloved in Congo today. In order to commemorate the anniversary of Ali’s victory, the Muhammad Ali Association planned a large party, and the organization wanted Gabe to bake enough dessert for 700 guests. During the celebration, Gabe and Livy were given an opportunity to share their desire to raise money for the maternity ward. An anonymous donor in attendance was so moved by their story, that they provided the remaining $13,000.



Coming Home
The story behind the reconstruction of the maternity ward is multi-layered and can be chronicled from many different angles. It is therefore important not to overlook the many people who made this project possible. The construction of both the maternity ward and the operation room buildings were managed by SP’s Jon Miller. Both Jon and his wife, Heather, are the children and grandchildren of missionaries in Africa. Heather’s grandfather managed the aforementioned printing press and constructed the building that now houses Samaritan’s Purse’s staff in Nyankunde. Perhaps even more amazing is that Jon was born in the same maternity ward that he reconstructed. Not enough credit can be given to this couple for their involvement in this project and the mentoring they have given to the younger SP expat staff.

Exterior of the new maternity ward.


God Will Not Forget Us
I had the privilege of attending the opening ceremony of the maternity ward. In attendance were Gabe, Livvy, and their mother.  It was a blessing to hear them to tell their story first hand, and to eat the softest cupcakes I have ever consumed.

During the ceremony, the president of the hospital gave some stirring words. “When the war started,” he proclaimed. “We said that God will not forget us. [But as the war progressed, we became discouraged, and] we thought that God forgot us. But now we can say that God did not forget us, and that God is with us.”
Even after experiencing unimaginable hardship, our Christian brothers and sisters can affirm that the Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end.



The new delivery room.

 

*Though I need to validate my sources, I was told that over twenty missionary doctors were once simultaneously working at the hospital.


***Photo credit: https://www.facebook.com/GabeTheCakeMan/photos/pb.124103517665890.-2207520000.1446388932./715076195235283/?type=3&theater

You can learn more about Gabe “The Cake Man” and his sister Livvy at http://GabeandLivvysavetheday.com/ or by following them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/GabeTheCakeMan/

Agricultural & Nutritional Transformation


While traveling through Nyankunde around noon, I consistently see groups of children, hunched over in a circle sharing bars of sugarcane. The first time I observed this, I brushed it off as an anomaly. However, after seeing the fourth or fifth large group of children eating their lunch of this tropical grass, I noted to an educated individual standing next to me, “Lots of children are eating sugarcane...” Thinking I was making a positive observation, he immediately replied, “Yes, it gives them strength!” Surprised by his response, I didn’t say anything. This is probably the first thing most of these kids have eaten today. There isn’t much else in sugarcane besides sugar and water.* I am not a nutrition expert, but I am pretty confident that most American parents would not justify giving their child a candy bar in place of breakfast and lunch because it would made them hyper and “give them strength.”

But it would be incredibly naïve to hold anyone here to American standards. This is not Chicago.* This is Nyankunde, a large village in northeast DRC that was completely devastated by the Second Congolese War. Nyankunde was once home to a large interdenominational mission base with a hospital, printing press, bible school, and airstrip. During the war, militia groups came in and began slaughtering innocent people and burning down homes. It even came to the point that the militants entered into the hospital wards and slaughtered everyone they came across, physicians and patients alike. Though these events happened over ten years ago, the hollow brick buildings seen throughout parts of the village serve as a reminder of the atrocities, and downright evil, that occurred.


Buildings like these were homes to staff at the mission station before the war.
As one could imagine, every type of social service structure (medical, educational, etc.) was undermined during the violence. It is therefore understandable why parents would feed their kids sugarcane: they lack nutritional knowledge and don’t have much of a choice. Sugarcane grows in many of their yards and is simply the most accessible food to give their kids.
 
There is very much a need for improved nutrition in areas like Nyankunde. Most of the residents here were displaced during the civil war and have returned within the last few years. During their time of displacement, families were unable to farm. As a result, parents were unable to teach their children farming techniques, and rates of malnutrition increased. According to Lindsey Cooper, a pediatrician at Nyankunde Hospital, about half of the pediatric inpatients suffer from illnesses caused by malnutrition.

Samaritan’s Purse has been involved in Nyankunde since before the violence, and has helped to reconstruct sections of the missionary hospital. In addition, Two of the programs I am working with: NAMED (see blog post entitled “Settling In and Project NAMED”) and ANT are based in Nyankunde. I recently had the privilege of visiting our team in Nyankunde with the purpose of learning more about Project ANT.

Project ANT (Agricultural & Nutritional Transformation) is an agricultural training program for families with children suffering from severe malnutrition. Each month, the Nyankunde Hospital refers to us families of children who were hospitalized with the worse cases of severe acute malnutrition. The local government also occasionally refers to us families of children who live too far away from the hospital to receive treatment. Once enrolled in the ANT program, Samaritan’s Purse allocates a plot of land in one of our community gardens to for the families to use. Project ANT staff supervise the enrolled families, lead regular training sessions on nutrition and agricultural techniques, and provide seeds and tools.** As with Project NAMED, the training sessions are often accompanied by a Bible lesson.



The vastness of the ANT gardens. Beneficiaries grow cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, soy, eggplant, leeks, green peppers, onions, and corn in gardens such as these.

While visiting many of the different gardens, one thing I was struck by was the genuine gratitude displayed by the beneficiaries. Consistent employment is rare here, and I got the impression while talking with the beneficiaries that they are proud to provide food for their families. However, the impact of Project ANT goes beyond access to vegetables as beneficiaries can sell their excess crops, providing money to buy other foods and even school fees for their children.

Esdras, one of the ANT staff, with some beneficiaries. The cabbages pictured, not even ready to be harvested, demonstrate the large size of the crops.
The Project ANT team is involved in a plethora of activities outside of agricultural and nutritional training for our beneficiaries. Our staff members give nutritional training to outpatients receiving Plumpy’nut, a therapeutic paste made of peanuts and soy, from the hospital. Also, in order to assist new beneficiaries as they wait for their crops to grow, Project ANT distributes food on a monthly basis for families during their first three months of enrollment (the average length of time before a harvest). Lastly, Project ANT, like Project NAMED, gives a weekly radio broadcast to educate the public on nutrition and provide reminders to our beneficiaries. Considering how much the team does, I joked with the staff members after our radio interview that the program should change its name from Project ANT to Project Éléphant.


In what was my probably my most difficult linguistic challenge so far, I was interviewed live on my thoughts about the ANT program via radio. The radio station broadcasts in Swahili, but my responses were translated from French.

Below is a picture of me with the supervisor and assistant supervisor of Project ANT. Our prayer is that, little by little, the program will empower the residents of Nyankunde to have healthy diets, therefore preventing unnecessary illnesses and deaths.








Notes 

 **While I don’t encourage comparing levels of poverty between countries, I don’t want to be ignorant of the nutrition problem in Chicago. Many low-income neighborhoods lack grocery stores, prohibiting many from being able to eat fruits and vegetables. Also, I know several kids who live off a bag of chips or a box of cereal (if anything at all) during their days off of school. It is a shame that this occurs in the wealthiest nation in the world.

***Unlike the training sessions, the tools and seeds are only distributed to the beneficiaries during their first year of enrollment. The beneficiaries are trained on the need to save money for seeds so that they can be independent after the program finishes.