Ending Extreme Poverty in the Congo

Today's Prayer Concern - DRC Collide Over Human Rights, Business Deals, May 1, 2008

You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor's eye.  Matthew 7:5

The pot called the kettle black.

Do as I say and not as I do.

Belguim and other European countries are concerned about the transparency of Congo's dealings with Chinese investors.  Kabila accused the Belgian Foreign Minister of arrogance.

Can both of them be right?

Link: VOA News - Belgium, DRC Collide Over Human Rights, Business Deals.

Belgium, the Democratic Republic of Congo's former colonial ruler, is encouraging Kinshasa to make economic reforms to attract foreign investors, especially in its mining industry. But the Belgians are also ruffling feathers in Kinshasa by raising concerns about DRC's human rights and dealings with China.

Belgian Cooperation Minister Charles Michel, who is in a delegation visiting Congo, says his government supports development in Congo and encourages the government to take measures necessary to attract foreign investment.

Michel says the DRC government is right to encourage private investment, especially in the mining sector.

But Belgian Foreign Minister Karel De Gucht angered Congo's President Joseph Kabila by raising concerns about DRC's human rights record, slow pace of economic reforms and a lack of transparency in recent infrastructure contracts with China. Mr. Kabila accused De Gucht of arrogance.

PRAYER:

Dear Heavenly Father, help Congo to grow in wisdom.  Help Congo to accept and adjust to criticism.  Help Belguim and other western countries to question Congo's action as a partner.  AMEN.

Lisa Jackson Speaks in Indianapolis

I got a chance to hang out with Lisa Jackson, the film maker of "The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo".  She was spent the night and day in Indianapolis to participate in the Indianapolis International Film Festival and other related events.

She discussed plans for film screenings around the world including Kinshasa, the capital city of DR Congo.  The film will be translated into more languages.

Lisa was recently a guest on The Diane Rehm Show. 

The world needs to know about the plight of women in eastern Congo.

THANKS Lisa!

Today's Prayer Concern - Empower Women and Girls through Education, April 30, 2008

One of the keys to breaking the cycle of poverty is to educate the world's poorest women and girls.  When you look at the statistics of the world's poor, women and girls are "the leastest of the least".

Education should be core of any women empowerment program.  Educating women and girls produces hugh benefits in their poor communities and villages around the world.

In Congo, women and girls are "the leasest of the least".  They are also the hardest worker.  Sometimes they are the only visible workers, too.

Congo Helping Hands supports the education of girls with scholarship and support of a local girls school. 

Link: ADRA: ADRA Commits $1.5 Million to Empower Women and Girls Through Education.

Around the world, 1.2 billion people live on less that $1 a day and approximately 70 percent of the world’s poorest are women and girls. Women and girls also account for two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people; earn only one-tenth of the world’s income; own just one hundredth of the world’s property; and die at a rate of 500,000 each year from preventable complications of pregnancy.

By contrast, agricultural productivity would increase by as much as 20 percent in some places, if women had equal access as men to fertilizer, seed, and land. Also, children whose mothers have five years of primary schooling would be 40 percent more likely to live beyond the age of five. In South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, there would be 13.4 million and 1.7 million fewer undernourished children, respectively, if women had equal decision-making influence at home.

PRAYER:

Dear Loving Father, help us to educate the poor women and girls of Congo.  AMEN.

What’s Noo? » I’ve flipped for my new camcorder

"Small, portable and extremely easy to use" translates to QUICK and INCONSPICUOUS while video taping in Congo.  The Congolese children sees a camera and each one of them want to be Rambo or some other action hero.  So, you have to be fast, quick, and sneaky to get a natural picture.

Also, I have not thought about lower resolution video is a good thing for website like YouTube.

Thanks, Woody

Link: What’s Noo? » I’ve flipped for my new camcorder.

The Flip Video Ultra has become popular because it is small, portable and extremely easy to use. But it also has become popular because its lower resolution video is the perfect format for video web sites like YouTube.

Today's Prayer Concern - Mosquito Nets are needed for other family members, April 29, 2008

Do you believe in coincidence?  Coincidence is defined by Webster's New Explorer College Dictionary, "two things that happen at the same time by accident but seem to have some connection."

I do not believe in coincidence.  On last Sunday, I did the sermon at Southminster Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis.  The sermon and bulletin insert are available here.

After the sermon and preceding the offering, the pastor asked me the question if I given $25,000 what would I do with it.  I responded that it would be used for mosquito nets and for the charity care fund.

The next day, the below article appeared, "Malaria still biggest killer" in Congo.

Our program goal is to provide nets to pregnant women and children under.  The article explained why malaria is the still biggest killer, in part.  Nets are given out to only to pregnant women and children under five, while other family members are left out and exposed.

Coincidence?

Link: IRIN Africa | Great Lakes | DRC | DRC: Malaria still biggest killer | Children Health & Nutrition Conflict | News Item.

KINSHASA, 28 April 2008 (IRIN) - Exaucée Makembi, aged three, has been very weak for three days and sleeps in the arms of her mother, Tina Nzongola, who has taken her to a health centre on the outskirts of Kinshasa.

She is suffering from malaria. The doctor prescribed water-soluble artesunate, but Nzongola complains she does not have the funds to buy it, as it costs around US$5.

Other patients lie on beds next to her - young and old - taking quinine and antibiotics because their cases, according to the nurse, are serious.

“Most of the patients we receive have malaria,” said Baby Bilo, a consultant at another health centre in the area.

The situation is repeated all over the country.

PRAYER:

Dear Heavenly Father, please provide the resources needed to prevent and treat malaria, the number one killer in Congo.  AMEN.

Today's Prayer Concern - UN troops involved in arms, gold, and ivory, April 28, 2008

MONUC, the UN's Mission to the Congo, is made up of troops from member nations.  Traditionally, the troops were from second-world countries or developing third-world countries.  Since these countries are poorer and have a lower quality of life.  UN service is welcomed by their government and by the individuals.

Still there is no tolerance for doing wrong and in some cases, being counter-productive to the MONUC misssion.  The troops see duty with MONUC as an opportunity to make some additional funds.

MONUC will disclipline member troops and still do the mission.

Link: BBC NEWS | Africa | UN troops 'armed DR Congo rebels'.

The UN has covered up claims that its troops in Democratic Republic of Congo gave arms to militias and smuggled gold and ivory, the BBC has learned.

The allegations, based on confidential UN sources, involve Pakistani and Indian troops working as peacekeepers.

The UN investigated some of the claims in 2007, but said it could not substantiate claims of arms dealing.

UN insiders told the BBC's Panaroma they had been prevented from pursuing their inquiries for political reasons.

The UN peacekeeping operation in DR Congo is the largest in the world, with 17,000 troops, spread across the country.

PRAYER:

Dear Heavenly Father, help the member nation troops to professional.  Keep them from wrongdoings that discredit MONUC's mission.  AMEN.

Your Minute for Congo - Pray for the Women and Children, April 27, 2008

When I was a child, it was a common practice “to draw a line in the sand” to bring or enforce peace. At a conference in Berlin, fourteen nations drew lines across the African continent. But, these lines have not settled anything.

These Congolese children were told to stay behind the line.

About 21 years ago, I was encouraged to participate in the Berlin Marathon. I recognized it as big deal. An international and historical but divided city would be the site for my first marathon. On a beautiful fall Sunday afternoon on October 4, 1987, I completed my first and only full marathon. The next day, I had plans to tour the city and the Berlin Wall but after 26.2 miles of running through the city, I changed my mind.

A century earlier (1884-1885), Berlin was infamous for Africa’s borders. "The Berlin Conference was Africa's undoing in more ways than one. The colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African continent."*

Congo became the personal kingdom for Belgium's King Leopold II. Under his rule, over half of the region's population died. The death and maiming did not end until the church got involved.

Still today, the political fragmentation still grips eastern Congo. It has indirectly caused the unnecessary deaths of 5.4 million Congolese since 1998. Deaths from violence were less than one percent. Instead, most of deaths were caused by malaria, diarrhea, pneumonia and malnutrition. These are preventable and treatable diseases. About half of the deaths were children under the age of five. Indirectly, even peaceful areas like Bulape are affected. It is time for the church to get involved again.

* de Blij, H.J. and Peter O. Muller Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1997. Page 340.

You can affect the outcome in the Congo, please pray for the women and children.

April 27, 2008

You can get a printable copy of this bulletin insert. Download 04-27-2008.pdf

You can get a printable copy of a church presentation given April 27, 2008.  Download christians_can_save_millions_of_congolese_again_with_notes.pdf

“From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live,” Acts 17:26

Today's Prayer Concern - Rwandan Hutus in eastern Congo, April 27, 2008

The Rwandan genocide ended in 1994.

The Congo civil war or Africa's first world war ended in 2003.

The fighting still continues in eastern Congo in 2008.  Peace does not mean peace.  As a result, the UN suspended food aid to displaced women and children. 

Link: BBC NEWS | Africa | New fighting stops DR Congo aid.

Renewed fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo has forced the United Nations refugee agency to suspend aid to displaced people.

The army says it is planning a major offensive against the FDLR.

The UNHCR says violence in Kivu has now displaced almost 900,000 people.

UNHCR officials said most of the displaced people are women and children who are sheltering in public buildings.

The FDLR includes some of those Hutus involved in the 1994 genocide, who fled to DR Congo after Tutsis took power in Rwanda.

Rwanda has long demanded that the FDLR be disarmed, saying they are the cause of the instability in the region.

PRAYER:

Dear Loving Father, bring peace to eastern Congo.  AMEN.

Today's Prayer Concern - Microfinance is key to teaching the poor to fish, April 26, 2008

Microfinance. Microloan. Micro economic development.  It is all about helping small business persons, mostly women, fund and start small businesses.

In developing countries like the Congo, the amount of money needed to start a business is so small.  Since the poor makes only about a dollar a day.  A loan of $50 would take a person decades to save.

Microfinance is key to teaching the poor to fish.  Pictured are local Bulape fishermen who wants to explain their business.

The demand for microloans exceeds the amount of available of loans by a factor of 10.

Link: Business News for the Central Pennsylvania region including the Harrisburg, York and Lancaster areas - CentralPennBusiness.com.

A World Bank study ranked it (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) as one of the hardest places on Earth to do business.

All which made it seem like a pretty good place to set up shop in Peter Greer's eyes.

"It was like, you know - fits us!" Greer said. "We want to go to places that no one else wants to go into."

Greer is president of Hope International Inc., a Lancaster County microfinance nonprofit that operates in 13 countries from Afghanistan to Ukraine.

One of Hope's clients in the Congo is Mama Monique Ngalula, a mother of nine who received a $50 loan in 2004 to buy equipment and supplies to start a juice-making business. Since then, Ngalula has repaid eight loans and now earns enough money to send her children to school every day, according to Hope. She provided all the juice for a celebration of Hope's third year in the Congo, Greer said.

"This was a woman who was just ... full of pride as she saw everyone sipping," Greer said. Ngalula's story is typical. As with many microfinance institutions, Hope's clients are usually women, and they usually pay back their loans. Microfinance institutions such as Hope do not take collateral. Instead, they require borrowers to cross-guarantee loans. If one member of a group defaults, the others will have to repay the loan. That leads to discipline among borrowers and gives them a forum to share ideas, too. Over the past 10 years, Hope's loan repayment rate is 99.6 percent, Greer said.

PRAYER:

Dear Loving Father, help organizations like Hope International as they assist women and other in starting businesses.  Help them to attract the needed resources to expand the opportunities of microfinance to more poor people.  Give those new business owners courage and perseverance to be successful.  In Your Name, we pray, AMEN.

Today's Prayer Concern - Stories and Scenes by Dr. Denis Mukwege (Part 4 of 4), April 25, 2008

Dr. Mukwege is more than an observer to the war against women.  He doctors, repairs, and consuls these abused women.  Dr. Mukwege and Panzi Hospital is an oasis of hope in a desert of despair and shame.

You must watch Dr. Mukwege in action on the CBS' 60 Minutes special. 

Also, he appears in Lisa Jackson's The Greatest Silence.  Lisa Jackson will host a discussion following a April 29 showing (Landmark Keystone Arts Cinema) here in Indianapolis.

Link: Doctor brings attention to chaos in the Congo -- baltimoresun.com. By Andrew Kipkemboi | Sun reporter April 18, 2008

The militia of young men raided a village and took away a woman after peeling off the child that was strapped on her back. They then frog-marched her to a nearby bush where, in front of her husband and older children, they raped and then killed her.

This is one of the tales from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where war is an enduring fact of life.

Dr. Denis Mukwege, the director and chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Panzi Hospital in Bukavu in eastern Congo, has heard of, and sometimes witnessed, such heartrending scenes.

"The militia are using rape as a weapon of war to humiliate, demoralize, destroy, kill and terrorize the society," said Mukwege, who has been featured on CBS' 60 Minutes. He is also in filmmaker Lisa Jackson's documentary, The Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, airing this month and next on HBO.

PRAYER:

Dear Heaven Father, support and strengthen your servant Dr. Mukwege.  Help him to find more resources for his work.  Touch his patients with your healing hands.  Protect him from all physical harm and mental stress.  In Your Name, we pray, AMEN.