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Transformation through Savings for Life™
In June, Second Presbyterian Church of Memphis, TN took a Vision Trip with World Relief to Mozambique and Malawi. One team member, Cory Brown, an attorney at Rainey, Kizer Reviere & Bell, PLC reflects on his trip:
Our small team traveled to Malawi to explore a potential partnership with World Relief. On our second day in Malawi, our World Relief hosts led us to a small village in the Ntchisi district to meet with staff members, local leaders, ministry personnel and volunteers. We were introduced to numerous village program participants, dined with a local pastor and toured a small livestock operation.
However, the initiative that made the greatest impact on me was a small group of village women engaged in micro-finance.
Gathered around the edges of a large blanket sat about a dozen women of varying ages. The group’s leader opened a wooden box with multiple locks. Inside the box were account books belonging to each member that recorded the respective member’s investment. With the account books was a small stack of cash representing the collective investment from which the group gave out individual loans.
As we watched, the members engaged in a myriad of transactions: applying for loans, granting loans, rejecting loans, inquiring on the status of existing loans, detailing foreclosure rules and discussing interest rates.
It was not only encouragement or hope that struck me – customary emotions for an outsider witnessing such an event – but humility.
As a transactional attorney, I often spend days drafting complicated agreements between sophisticated parties memorializing complex arrangements, purchases and sales. The ensuing legal fees incurred by those parties are often substantial. But here were a dozen parties, unrepresented by counsel, buying and selling shares in a business entity of their own imagination, borrowing funds, and paying back principal and interest all without lengthy contracts or corporate authority.
Fortunately, once back at home I was able to convince myself that business attorneys perform an indispensable service for the companies they represent, but I could not help but think that maybe the ladies of that particular village were better off without “advice of counsel.”
Savings for Life™ works by educating trainers to mobilize and train groups of community members in how to build and manage their own savings fund. As the savings fund accumulates, group members access small loans from the fund to finance business or consumption needs. Loans have fixed terms and are repaid with a service fee, which is retained within the group in order to grow the group’s savings fund and provide a return on their savings. Groups are self-managed and set their own policies for their operations.
To support a Savings Group, click here.
Recycling to Beauty: Un/Plastic Project
Ibu Aci is an Indonesian woman who is part of World Relief”s up-cycling program in Indonesia. This program, The Un/Plastic Project, teaches women to turn their plastic waste into beautiful products and income.Here in her own words, she shares how she gained confidence and pride in her work:
Fifty percent of Indonesia’s population lives on less than $2 per day. The Un/Plastic Project is a livelihood project that re-purposes plastic and paper into jewelry and household items.
World Relief volunteers teach young mothers skills such as beading and plastic yarn crocheting, but also important life skills. As products are sold, these young women are empowered with incomes that help support their families while surrounded by a faith community.
Check out World Relief’s Catalog of Hope to find products made by Ibu Aci and other gifts from around the world.
A Heart of Acceptance
One widow’s story exemplifies the transformative results of World Relief’s work through the local church in Malawi. Chrissy shares how she not only came to accept her HIV positive status but is now helping others do the same.
My name is Chrissy Ng’ombe. I am 38 years old, mother of 5 children and a widow for the past 5 years.
In 2005, my husband became ill, but we did not know the cause of his sickness until the doctors tested him for HIV. He was found to be HIV positive, and died in 2006. I was pregnant, and fortunately, gave birth to a daughter who was not infected with the virus.
After my husband died, I became sick now and then. In February 2010 I decided to go to the hospital for HIV testing. After receiving the result that I was also HIV positive, the doctor told me that I should be on ARV medication, but I refused because in my heart I rejected my positive status. I continued to be sick more often, but I still didn’t develop a heart of acceptance. I noticed that others in my village community looked at me in fear as a sick one.
In September 2010, the Rev. Father and the ministry team of Kamwala Anglican Church called me and told me that World Relief Malawi had an HIV/AIDS program with a support group. He asked if I would be willing to join the group. I thought this might be interesting so I did join the support group where I got various kinds of counseling.
I became trained in World Relief Malawi’s programs in Memory Book Training and Positive Living Training, a program that teaches constructive approaches to living well with HIV through good nutrition, exercise, adherence to medication, and spirituality. These trainings were very valuable and helped me a lot in the sense that I developed a heart of acceptance that I am really HIV positive, but made the decision to start living positively with HIV. I went back to the hospital where I told the doctors that I was now ready to begin ARV treatment.
Since that time, I have also acquired counseling skills whereby I visit several villages encouraging people who are chronically ill to go for HIV testing and counseling. An example is one woman who has a tea room whom I noticed was falling sick now and then. I decided to go and encourage her on the importance of HIV testing and counseling. She went to the hospital and found that she too is HIV positive. She has now joined the support group and is living well.
In our support group we do Savings for Life, another program of World Relief. Through these savings, I found the capital that has helped me start my own business selling vegetables. The business helps me provide for myself and my family. I have also organized a group of 10 other women who all have a share in a beekeeping business with six beehives!
I am very thankful to World Relief Malawi and the church for the blessings of their HIV/AIDS outreach.
Thank you to our volunteer, Roberta Nagel, for sharing this story!
The Sounds of Cambodia
This summer, Caroline Macon, served in Cambodia on Bent Tree Bible Fellowship’s summer team. They and other US Church Partner teams taught English and photography to local staff, helping tell the story of the work of the church and World Relief in Cambodia.
During my first car ride in Cambodia, from the airport to a hotel in Phnom Penh, I could already feel the presence of God in the country overwhelming me.
What’s remarkable about this is that it was by no means a spiritual “high”. The whole trip was like this — an authentic longing to bring betterment to a suffering society. The vibrancy of the culture in Cambodia inspired me both to immerse myself in their fascinating lifestyle and to be a part of the Christian movement in a primarily Buddhist nation. As a person who has always been enthusiastic about southeast Asian cultures, I was blown away by Cambodia as my expectations did not meet reality at all.
The reality of Cambodia, from its beauty to its progress, was exponentially higher than I ever could have imagined.
Every morning, I would wake up and look out the window, and every day I was awestruck by the gorgeousness of the land as well as the general song of Cambodia. One of my team mates commented on the “sounds of Cambodia”. And since, I have thought about these sounds: the roosters crowing in the morning, children in their early playtime, monks chanting, the preparation of a wedding. Every sound in Cambodia sounded so fresh and new to me.
Of course, many things about Cambodia broke my heart. But my motivation in hope outran any sadness I felt. Many testimonies I heard there were tragic. They were nothing I could have dreamed of in my American bubble. I have never experienced so much death and loss as so many people I met while away. But these people all had an admirable optimism.
Because of their suffering, they are compelled to do great things. They are proud of their roots, despite a dark history. One staff member of World Relief especially comes to mind when I say this.
Born in 1957, Siv Keang told me she lost all of her siblings during the Pol Pot regime. But she is the most lively woman I have ever met. While she carries these burdens, she doesn’t let them control who she is. She is an icon of someone trying to make a difference. Both hardworking and welcoming to rest, she is someone fighting for a happy ending. Siv Keang is just an example of the many people I met on my trip. The entire staff at World Relief amazed me daily. They made me feel at home. They definitely made me want to return to Cambodia sometime when I can stay longer. Like I said early about not having a spiritual “high”, I felt a legitimate connection to this country, and the causes and organizations I was introduced to during my visit will severely change my life.
I saw God everywhere in Cambodia. I saw him in Khmer dances, I saw him in the great big smiles of the staff, I saw him when working on the field, when sharing meals with Cambodian families, and especially when we saw a beautiful rainbow in the mountains during one car ride. Cambodia resonates that He is amazing, and He is bigger than any genocide or any societal turmoil. He is definitely there, and I would encourage anyone I met to visit and see it for themselves. I will go back.
Caroline is a freshman at DePaul University and is studying Playwriting.
RIDE/365
We are a 1 1/2 weeks away from the start of RIDE/365. The team has been training daily for the last six months, with their recent 45 mile bike ride taking them through scenic northern Baltimore County.
Kris Bailey is part of the crew and heads up Women Who Stand/Baltimore. She visited Cambodia last January and has a deep passion for raising awareness for the vulnerable in Cambodia and Malawi. Here is her “Why” on joining the RIDE/365:
Ride a bicycle for 365 miles? Are you kidding?? No way!!
Now drive 365 miles? Hand out snacks and drinks? Read a map? These things I can do. Taking a quote from the movie Rain Man, “I’m an excellent driver.”
It is a privilege to participate in RIDE/365 as part of the crew. And I’m excited to help fund two World Relief programs that serve vulnerable women and children in Cambodia and Malawi.
I’ve had the privilege of visiting Cambodia and seeing the poverty, the limited services for those at risk, and the children whose black hair is now rust-colored from poor nutrition. The ability to grow the moringa tree, which is so high in nutritional value, can be the difference between life and death for people with HIV, and can bring new hope of sustainable nutrition to families and communities. And then, as a mother of two children, it is moving to be part of providing an opportunity for children in Malawi to go to school, children who normally would not have that option.
Race Pace Bicycles is providing pre-ride support through bike repair classes, bike fittings, bike tune-ups, nutritional tips, and sending equipment and tools possible repairs needed on the road. Clif Bar is providing food and drinks for the race and training rides.
This ride couldn’t happen without the support and encouragement of family and friends. You can be part of the support team, too, without having to get on a bike!
1. Donating to support one of the riders.
2. Join us NOW in praying for the safety of these riders, both in their training and during the ride itself. We can also be praying for the health and safety of the people in Cambodia and Malawi for whom we are riding.
3. Be a part of the “Welcome Home” party on Sunday, September 23. Watch for more details.
Preventing, Not Just Treating, HIV/AIDS Must Be Our Priority
by Joanna Mayhew
“The cusp of the end of AIDS.” That was theme echoed repeatedly at the International AIDS Conference last week in Washington, DC. The enthusiasm was palpable. The 23,767 participants from 183 countries represented the best minds addressing the epidemic around the world. Optimism abounded regarding the new era of using “treatment as prevention.” And it is well founded; we have much to celebrate. Recent medical advances hold much promise. The first pill that could prevent HIV in high-risk individuals was recently approved by the FDA. There is growing evidence that starting antiretroviral therapy earlier for HIV-positive individuals not only allows them to live much longer, but also makes them much less likely to pass on the virus to others. Eight million people now have access to treatment. And people with HIV are living far longer than we—than I—could have imagined.
I have been exposed to the ugliness of AIDS for a decade now. I first came face to face with it while living in Benin in 2003. I was there volunteering and writing a series of articles on the different facets of the epidemic through the stories of people living with AIDS. At that point, treatment was not widely available in many places. These individuals were being provided simply with Bactrim, an antibiotic used to treat basic infections. It was a band aid at best, given by health workers who had no better regimens to offer. And AIDS continued to take its victims without prejudice. Within three months of my leaving the country, every beautiful individual living with AIDS that I had met had passed away.
In contrast, today in the United States, if a 25-year-old individual discovers that he has HIV, the doctor is able say that with the right treatment he will likely live an additional 50 years. This represents incredible advancements. As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her speech last week, “Caring brought action, and action has made an impact.”
Amid the hustle and bustle of the conference, with the long lines for Starbucks and the neatly dressed decision makers gathering in decorated halls, I couldn’t help but contrast the developments being lauded with the harsh reality of so many of the countries in which we work.
In Papua, Indonesia, the treatment-as-prevention approach simply won’t work, because even treatment for treatment’s sake isn’t available in many areas. And in numerous other countries where treatment is available, the poor have untold barriers accessing it. People are still dying, just like my friends in Benin. Last year the number was 1.7 million.
Despite our highest hopes, we will never be able to treat our way out of this epidemic. New infections continue to occur. Seventy percent of people living with HIV do not know their status.
In these contexts, we have to return to a single truth: that we must address the structures, attitudes and behaviors that allow HIV to flourish in the first place. We cannot hide behind the incredible medical toolbox we now have to support and care for those living with the disease. We have to address root causes head on. We must mend relationships. We must protect women. We must continue to educate. We must go to the most vulnerable.
Prevention happens at all levels. It happens by teenagers and adults opting for healthy sexual behaviors—such as delaying sex, remaining faithful to one partner, and using condoms. But it also happens at much more rudimentary levels. It happens by children feeling supported, by teenagers choosing good friends, by adults learning how to spot traffickers, and by community leaders uniting to address poverty.
These interventions are always going to be at a much lower cost than treatment.
Churches can be the key to mending brokenness, to keeping families healthy and whole, to stopping abuse, to promoting hygiene and health. The Church is well positioned. She is in every community—from the metropolis of DC to the conflict zone in Congo to the remote highlands of Papua.
Last year Clinton said of AIDS, “The worst plague of our lifetime brought out the best in humanity.” Can it also bring out the best of the church? To truly see the end of AIDS, I think that it must.
Joanna Mayhew is World Relief’s Asia HIV/AIDS Programs Advisor
Changing the Tide Together: The AIDS Crisis in 2012
I often think about Mweni—the quiet three-year-old child of Ruth who was dying of AIDS when I first met her in Kenya in 1993. Thinking the exposure to a dying parent would be too difficult for Mweni, her aunties usually kept her away. But Ruth begged her to come every day to see her and tell her about her day. Then she would pray for her. I wonder how Ruth’s prayers were answered?  What was Mweni’s orphaned life like?  Did she finish school? Did she avoid HIV herself? Is she now married and raising a family? I do believe that somewhere tucked in her bundles of belongings is the treasured memory box of photos, letters, prayers, and small items Ruth left for Mweni  to remember her by.
Nearly 20 years have passed since Ruth died of AIDS. This month 25,000 people will gather in Washington DC to attend the 2012 International AIDS Conference. Many US and world leaders will stir us to press on to “turning the tide together”—the theme of the conference. What is this tide, and what does it take to turn it together?
The AIDS crisis of the 1990s is still a crisis today. According to UNAIDS, nearly 34 million people are living with the virus, HIV, and 30 million have already died.  We have effective medications today that have turned the tide of this illness from snatching a life prematurely to making AIDS a chronic illness, but only eight million people access this medicine-for-life. We don’t seem to win. For every new person treated with these life-saving drugs, two persons are newly infected. How do we change this rip tide that threatens to push us back to sea after so many years of hard-earned progress?
Actually, we know all we need to know, to change the course of this tide. And working together, the tide can be turned. A surprising source demonstrates how. Here are some lessons God’s people, committed to His body, the church, are applying so that Mweni’s children will not be part of another lost generation.
1. We, the church, are vulnerable.
For good reason, good public health targets vulnerable populations with specific, proven interventions to address communicable health concerns. Though many of us continue to point fingers at high risk populations such as men who have sex with men or drug addicts, the facts are that we all are vulnerable to sexual situations fueling this epidemic  unless our hearts, minds, and bodies are constantly guarded and our environments made accountable to one another. Recognizing this changes everything, including one of the most lingering barriers to changing the tide—stigma. Honesty leaves little room for pride and finger-pointing.
2. We, the church, can change—ourselves and our cultures.
The mobilized church has overcome self-righteous attitudes and actions and protected life, cared for the dying, and persevered to advocate for the voiceless child or battered woman. Widespread, unfounded fear of people with AIDS has been changed to embracing people living with AIDS.   A young Khmer girl in Cambodia attending an all-girl group on empowering girls to make wise sexual choices was asked about the kind of man she wanted to marry. Without hesitation she blurted out, “A man who will be faithful to me all my life.”
 3. We, the global church, are equipped to continue.
The international AIDS conference will make appeal after appeal for more funds, resources, research, and commitment. The church leads the global pack in sustainable and renewable interventions with resources that will never dry up—passion for the poor, shared households and physical goods, the truth and knowledge of God for everyday living, and the experience of forgiveness, healing, peace, and unconditional love.
The work of World Relief through partner global churches is turning the tide together with many millions of global players in the sea of HIV and AIDS. As pills to protect and sustain life are dispensed by ministries of health, the church is extending skills to change behaviors promoting wise choices regarding sexuality and marriage. As the Global Fund for HIV, AIDS, and TB seeks funds for coffers to prevent and care for persons with AIDS, the church opens its vast volunteer base to provide home care. As rock stars like Bono lend their influence to advocate for millions of orphans and youth affected by AIDS, peer youth educators in grass-thatched churches use music and games to build life skills that encourage delaying sex until marriage.
Why not join us this very week, in committing your support to stem the tide and save Mweni’s generation?  We invite you to peer into the lives of church and World Relief volunteers in Haiti, Sudan, Kenya, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Mozambique, India, Cambodia, and Papua, Indonesia. Learn how they were equipped to address the stigma and fear of HIV in their countries and how today they are changing the face of the epidemic in their country—one precious life at a time, for all time.
Debbie Dortzbach is the Senior Health Advisor at World Relief, based in Baltimore, MD and author of “The AIDS Crisis: What We Can Do” with W. Meredith Long.
Photos by Marianne Bach and Benjamin Edwards
Photography from South Sudan
Our friend and photographer, Kate Magee, recently traveled with us to South Sudan. And if you asked her how the trip went, I am sure you would be asked to mark off a date on your calendar for coffee and many stories of long car rides, laughing mothers, and photo sessions under the hot Sudanese sun. I asked Kate to help us capture the conflicting, and seemingly paradoxical, feelings that can exist in so many stories that we hear. There is much need, yet still there are smiles and hope. Take a look at her latest blog and see for yourself!
http://www.katemagee.com/africa/south-sudan-2/
Posted by Isaac Barnes, World Relief Marketing and Communications Manager
A Glimpse of South Sudan
It felt a little bit like trespassing, walking up to the clinic in Mirmir, but the gate was open, so we showed ourselves around. The neat U-shaped facility had four or five rooms on a single level; and staring through the keyholes of the locked doors, I could tell that some were consultation rooms, some were labs, and one was a storage space and dispensary.
“How long has this place been closed?” Paul, the World Relief Country Director for South Sudan asked the group around us. Viviana, a health extension volunteer, walked over to the water pump and received a quick history of the health center from the women drawing water.
Originally built by a company from Khartoum, administration was later assumed by the Government of South Sudan. However, “No one has come here for the past month” they concluded, “the staff didn’t come and they ran out of medicine.” When we asked who might know what had happened, they unanimously directed us to Albeeno, the clinic pharmacist, who stayed in the village to continue his own pharmaceutical store in the market.
He confirmed that the clinic had been shut for about five weeks and provided the telephone number of Samuel, the main clinical officer, who had returned to his home village.
This Primary Health Care Center (PHCC) serves roughly 6,000 people in the village of Mirmir and its surrounding communities and is one of five such centers in Koch County of Unity State, one of the northern states of Southern Sudan. The clinic is currently run by the Ministry of Health of the Government of South Sudan but was severely impacted by recent austerity measures caused by the shortage of revenue with the cessation of oil production.
Alarmingly for the people of Koch county, two other health centers, run by oil companies, have closed as well. One was a smaller one in Bieth that closed last November, the other a good sized hospital in the capitol of Koch county which closed in February.
A health survey conducted earlier this year indicated that within Unity State, 1 in 4 of the children under 5 (26.6%) were moderately malnourished, and approximately 1 in 10 were severely malnourished.
A population with such levels of malnutrition will be severely crippled to have 3 out of 5 county health centers closed – especially as the government austerity measures will decrease the resources available to provide drugs and salaries to the remaining two clinics in the next few months.
World Relief has been in South Sudan since 1998, training farmers, nurses, teachers. Though the government health center is closed, World Relief continues its work.
On July 9, 2012, it will be one year since South Sudan became its own country, the youngest country in the world. The last six months have been rough with tribal warfare, economic downturn, and an increase in refugees. It will take all the perseverance of these farmers, nurses, and teachers to bring healing to South Sudan. It is people like Albeeno and Viviana who bring hope.
Diana Smith just joined World Relief as the Disaster Response Program Officer
All photos by Kate Magee
(1) One of the rooms in the local PHCC – Boaw, Unity State, South Sudan
(2) Mother & child at health clinic – Boaw, Unity State, South Sudan
(3) Health staff conduct homestead nutrition screenings – Boaw, Unity State, South Sudan
Remembering Pastor Salabarria
by Tom Willey, first director of World Relief – Miami, opened in 1980
There is a name that should never be forgotten in the history of the Miami Office of World Relief: Manuel B. Salabarria. He was God’s man for the time. On May 5th 1980, I was asked to open the Miami Office of World Relief to respond to the flood of “Cuban Entrants” who were pouring into South Florida (128,000+). I had the advantage of having grown up in Cuba and lived for two years under the Castro Revolution. Within a month, Miami provided a “one-stop-center” for all of the voluntary agencies to continue the resettlement process in the vacant civic center.
It was during this time that Rev. Manuel Salabarria came to me and offered his services. Pastor Salabarria had a vast experience of doing social work. In the first years of the Revolution (before it declared itself Marxist-Leninists), he had been in charge of the largest government run reformatory in Cuba. After leaving Cuba (with false papers because of his position with the government), he worked as a pastor in Puerto Rico from 1962 until 1970 when he moved to Miami. At first, he had a difficult time making a living, to the point that he was repairing cars under the trees in his yard.
He would take his tithe and convert it to “dimes” (the cost of a phone-call at the time) and go to the airport when the flights from Cuba would arrive. He would meet the people coming off the planes and say: “Do you need a dime to make a call? My name is Rev. Salabarria, I give you this dime in the name of Jesus Christ.”
His wisdom and experience during the first years of the operation of the World Relief Miami were priceless. It seemed that, backed by a “quick prayer” (often I would say: “Pastor, please lower your voice, you are in a government office.”), Pastor Salabarria would come up with a solution for every problem case.
Pastor Salabarria could spot them as they would walk in the door. Many were “his boys” who he had worked with in the government orphanage who had gone into a life of crime and drugs. Pastor knew how to handle them. For most of these, there was no money left in their accounts to help them and no “back-up” funds.
Having been a pastor of a denomination in Cuba, Salabarria had led churches in many of the cities. He would ask the “refugee” what municipality he was from in Cuba and then call the “municipality in exile” and say, “ I have one of your stray children who needs help for a job (or a place to live or money for rent)”. He usually got the needed assistance.
During the early years that Pastor Salabarria worked with World Relief Miami, he was diagnosed with lung cancer. His cancer was of the type that had few symptoms until the final stages. So it was that Manuel Salabarria worked as a volunteer for the last five years of his life knowing that he had a fatal disease.
Unfortunately, during the last months of Pastor Salabarria’s life, when the cancer took over, I was both the Director of the Miami office and the Latin American/Caribbean Regional Director, spending only one or two days per week in Miami. So it was that, much to my regret, when Manuel B. Salabarria went to meet his Lord and Master, who he had served so faithfully for so many years, I was out of town and missed his funeral.
Between 1980 and 1981, Pastor Salabarria was able to find employment for 750 of “his boys” in the Miami area. Few employers would turn him down when he called asking for a job for someone.
I never forgot a rather frustrated Cuban businessman telling me over the phone: “I can’t say no to this old man, he gave me my first dime when I landed in this country.”
In those first two years, World Relief Miami resettled over 6,500 “Cuban Entrants.” God has prepared some very special servants that have worked with World Relief throughout the years, but one of the most special was Pastor Manuel B Salabarria!
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