Tag: children

  • Thoughts on Health & Economic Development, from World Relief

    06.02.11 | Comment?

    “How Can a Church That Cares About Health Change a Community?” by Maurice Kwizera

    The World Health Organization (WHO) uses a broad definition of health “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”

    In Rwanda, WR is partnering with many local churches committed to address people health in broad sense – but with a definition that includes “spiritual health” as well.

    Before I share about their work, here are a few facts about health in Rwanda:

    Health Facts for Rwanda:

    ● 43% of households in rural area are headed by women, widows, or children.

    ● 19% of children under 5 are malnourished.

    ● 1 in 5 children will die before their 5th birthday – most from curable and preventable disease.

    ● 3% of adults have HIV/AIDS.

    ● Life expectancy is 52.7 years.

    Churches are well positioned to minister to the health needs of the vulnerable: more than 2/3 of the population attend church at least once a month. Churches are in the remotest areas where access to health care and information can be poor. The community trusts in church leaders and church members in general; any health initiative from them is recognized as a crucial component in successful delivery of health services.

    A church delivers health services with remarkable cost effectiveness: Churches are able to use their volunteers and influence to cascade information throughout the community in a short amount of time. Rwanda has many health success stories on this:

    Maternal and child health: In one district where World Relief empowered 2,800 church volunteers and 350 church leaders in community mobilization for maternal & child health, more than  29,000 households were regularly visited  twice a month for health education. As a result, the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets increased from 3% to 70% in the target population, severe malaria cases in district Hospital decreased from 570 cases (2003) to 108 Cases (2006), and annual death cases due to malaria among children under 5 years of age steadily decreased from 30 to 0 within a period of five years.

    HIV/AIDS prevention: World Relief worked with the local churches from which 5,800 peer educators were selected, equipped with knowledge and tools and then committed to the education of youth on HIV/AIDS. After 5 years, more than 373,000 youth aged 12-24 years were reached with knowledge and life skills for HIV prevention through small groups regularly meeting at church.

    Fighting stigma & traditional beliefs: Word Relief has also worked throughout the country to help churches overcome the stigma of AIDS and be a leader in the community at accepting the sick for who they are.  Also, church are fighting traditional beliefs and encouraging people to go to hospitals instead of “traditional healers.”

    Where a local church cares about health, a holistic healing is brought to the community.

    Photo: A volunteer from a local church helps weigh a baby as part of a nutrition and child survival intervention in Rwanda.

    (Maurice Kwizera is the community mobilization manager in WR’s Child Survival program and has previously served as manager of WR’s HIV/AIDS program.)

    ~~~

    “Why Is Economic Empowerment More Important Than Giveaways?” by Pascasie Nsanzabozwa

    We’ve all heard the saying, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” As cliché as it sounds, the concept of giveaways versus economic empowerment is a huge issue in development work. In Rwanda, there are many people with serious and urgent needs and sometimes we just don’t have the ability or resources to take care of the root causes of their poverty.

    As we try to follow Jesus’ example of having compassion on the vulnerable, we instinctively want to help that immediate need as we are able. However, handouts are not going to create a sustainable skill and often rob those we try to help of the self-esteem and independence they could achieve from learning how to improve their economic development.

    “Savings for Life” groups in Rwanda are mobilized by church leaders. WR’s role is to train volunteers from these churches in how to train these groups to save.

    So how do savings groups work?

    1. 15-25 community members are mobilized by local churches to form groups.
    2. Groups meet weekly and each member deposits their weekly savings (usually less than $1) into the group savings fund.
    3. As the fund grows, members borrow from the fund to start small businesses.
    4. A social fund is set aside as an emergency grant for members who experience crisis.
    5. Group members add to savings between meetings using daily savings.
    6. Loans are repaid with interest and the savings fund grows even more!
    7. At the end of the 9-12 month cycle, each member receives their savings PLUS a portion of the interest collected. (They use these funds to pay school fees, buy livestock, and start small businesses.)
    8. The group then decides to disband or begin a new cycle. (Almost all continue for several additional cycles.)

    Because the church is involved, members learn more than how to save in these groups; they form relationships with others who are trying to lift their families out of poverty. Over time, they grow to love and trust each other.

    I visited a group last week called, Twitezimbere which means “let’s prosper.” The 20-member group, almost all of whom are women (78% of the program’s clients are women), are growing in unity.

    Hadidja, a Muslim member has been welcomed into the group. She has been inspired by how the group members, most of whom are Christians, love each other.

    Another women’s husband has been hospitalized for the past three weeks, and the group decided to donate the social fund to his family and spend time together weeding his cassava fields.

    These examples of compassion and caring for people who might have been strangers 2 months ago, is truly moving.

    These savings groups are giving a ministry to churches to empower people to help themselves – rather than making them dependant on support from outside.

    Photo: A savings group gathers at a weekly meeting to contribute to their savings fund.

    (Pascasie Nsanzabozwa is the economic development manager at WR Rwanda.)

  • Thoughts on Church Empowerment, from World Relief

    05.25.11 | 1 Comment

    “How Do We Know When a Church Is Empowered?” by Clemence Nkulikiyinka

    Jesus promised that He would build a church that would even resist the gates of Hades (Mathew 16:18). Christ’s church is called to accomplish a holistic mission. That is to evangelize and make people disciples, and serve needs (social, psychological, financial and physical needs). And at the same time the church has to be trustworthy (Acts 6: 1-4).

    At World Relief our mission is to empower churches to serve the most vulnerable. This means partnering with them as they overcome challenges to achieve this calling.

    Together with church leaders we have come up with a list of characteristics to measure if a local church is empowered to accomplish its holistic mission and is equipped to sustain its interventions within its community.

    Each of area of focus is based on the principle of Faith in Christ Lived Out. This is the idea that pastors and congregation members’ faith in Jesus Christ is lived out with commitment and enthusiasm that is demonstrated by practical application of word and deed (James 1:22).  

    We desire to see four characteristics lived out by the church:

    1)    Restorative Relationships: The church members live in peace (shalom) with one another and the broader community. The church advocates for justice and restoration within the community.

    2)    Holistic, Qualitative Service to the Most Vulnerable: The church is actively reaching out to serve the most vulnerable, addressing the social, spiritual, and economic needs both in and outside the Church, in a way that sees God’s transformational work take place in people’s lives.

    3)    Appropriate Organizational Structures and Practices: Financial, organizational, and logistical structures are in place and followed to ensure accountability and transparency in whatever the church is doing.

    4)    Freedom from dependency on outside institutions: Churches understand that God equips them with the resources they need to carry out their ministry. As a result the ministries they carry out are sustainable in nature. Rather than being dependant on outside support to address problems in the community, they are training and equipping other churches to serve the community.

    These four characteristics summarize what it means for a church to be empowered to serve the most vulnerable. The list is not exhaustive, as it represents the needs and translates to the mission of the local church in the Rwandan context. There are measureable indicators to each characteristic to mark a milestone for progress made towards the desired empowerment of local churches.

    As churches grow in these areas, the impact they have in the community grows as well.

    (Clemence Nkulikiyinka serves as the integration support and monitoring & evaluation manager at World Relief Rwanda.) 

    ~~~

    “Why Does the Church Need to be Empowered to Serve Children?” by Louise Uwineza

    Whoever receives a child in my name receives me. ~ Matthew 18:5

    Jesus gave the church a mandate to serve children. When the church serves children this way, children are loved, valued, and equipped for the future, and the church is blessed in the process. When a church is served, the future leaders of Rwanda are trained in the way they should go and when they are old they will never turn from it (Proverbs 22:6).

    Unfortunately, many churches in Rwanda don’t understand their calling to serve children, or they are poorly equipped to minister to the needs of children.

    In some cases children are viewed as a burden. On Sundays, many churches are often worried about keeping children quiet so that they don’t disturb adults. So the children get sent out for Sunday schools that are not well structured or equipped to teach children.

    The church needs to be empowered to be able to notice that children have a great ability, and the potential to improve the lives of their families and others in the community.

    In the community of Masaka, Rwanda, local churches partnering with World Relief have been equipped to start new children’s ministries on Sundays and throughout the week. One approach is the use of after-school clubs called “care groups.” In these groups, volunteers from the church are teaching children lessons on health and hygiene, social skills, and from the Bible.

    These groups are effective. People see this change happening every day. Not just in the lives of children, but in their homes, schools, and among their friends. The church has received many requests from parents to let their children participate in care groups.

    For example, two care groups of children from an empowered church have collected money and food for vulnerable families. So far they have supported 14 families (almost 70 people). This is an inspiration to the church and the whole community. People throughout the community are seeing children in church as role models to other children who are not attending churches. Children grow in the Holy Spirit and share compassion.

    When the church is empowered, there is lasting value because the church is a sustainable, trusted institution of the community. Many more churches in Rwanda need to be empowered to be to deliver service to children in order to build their future.

    As part of the Church Empowerment Zone being started in Musanze, Rwanda, with the partnership of Bethany Community Church, we are excited to see more churches empowered to value and teach children to be part of Christ’s kingdom and act as agents of transformation of the world.

    (Louise Uwineza is the manager of child focused programs at World Relief Rwanda.)

  • Water to Run, or Running to Water

    05.17.11 | Comment?

    by Kari Husby

    I’m a wimp when it comes to carrying water.

    While many runners strap water bottles to their waists and backs and arms, I refuse to carry extra weight over long distances, even if that weight is oh-so-vital water.

    If you’ve ever participated in a race, though, particularly a marathon, you know the importance of water to reaching your goal. Your body depends on it to keep itself cool and to break down nutrients into usable forms of energy. Runners who forgo carrying water bottles count on the availability of water along the course, and some races even host “aid stations” or “water stations” at every mile marker to ensure the health and performance of their participants.

    As a runner I need water to get where I’m going. Many people around the globe, though, need to go in order to get water. For them, water is not the means; it’s the goal, the finish line. Individuals in impoverished communities often walk for miles, for hours, to reach any water, let alone clean water, to carry back to their villages; and according to Living Water International, the burden of obtaining water for the community often falls on women, thereby disempowering them. “On average, women in developing countries walk 6 kilometers a day to collect water,” the Undersecretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs recently reported. Time these women could spend pursuing an education, earning a wage, caring for their children, or getting much-needed rest, they instead spend journeying toward water, the most basic of needs.

    And the weight these women then trek home with! While I balk at toting a 16-ounce bottle in my hand, many women in East Africa balance 5-gallon jugs on their head. When I think about the women and girls who literally bear the weight of the world water crisis on their shoulders, I’m struck by both their fortitude and their plight.

    Consider these sobering statistics (UNDP 2006 Human Development Report):

    ●  A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds.

    ●  The daily water need (“international minimum norm”) for a family of 5 is 100 liters (26.4 gallons). The  minimum only accounts for drinking and basic hygiene requirements.

    ●  This 100 liters weighs roughly 100 kilograms (220 pounds).

    ●  In Uganda, the average actual water consumption falls below the “international minimum norm,” at 12-14 liters per day per person of potentially unsafe water—or even under 5 liters per person in parts of East Africa during the dry season, a heavy burden in more than one sense.

    ●  The World Health Organization recommends a water source within one kilometer of a family’s household.

    ●  The average walk to obtain water in developing countries is 6 kilometers (3.7 miles); it may increase to well over 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) during the dry season.

    ●  In rural Africa, households spend 26% of their time obtaining water (UK DFID, 2007).

    ●  Women and girls are typically responsible for fetching water for their families.

    ●  School attendance rates for girls have been shown to increase significantly for those who live within 15 minutes of a water source, as opposed to an hour or more.

    The next time I grab water while running, I hope I will think of those for whom water is not so commonplace, so disposable, so secondary to a greater goal. And I hope I will continually ask myself how I might change my life in ways that help reduce the weight borne by women around the globe. It may not be an easy burden to bear, but that’s exactly why we need to share it.

  • From the Lips of a Child

    04.28.11 | 1 Comment

    by Erica Goos and Helena Goos

    Q: Who are you?
    A: Helena Goos. I am 8 years old and in 2nd grade at Wedgwood Elementary. I have attended Bethany Community Church since I was born.

    Self-portrait by Helena Goos, age 8

    Q: What motivated you to get involved with Spilling Hope?
    A: I wanted to help other people get clean water.

    Q: How did you contribute to Spilling Hope in the past two years, and what do you hope to this year?
    A: When I was in kindergarten, I did chores around the house to earn money to contribute to Spilling Hope — I think it was about $10. This year, I will contribute a portion of my weekly allowance.

    Q: What has been the best thing for you in contributing to Spilling Hope?
    A: I am helping other people to have wells built in Uganda and other villages in Africa so they can have clean water.

    Q: How do you think you make a difference in being part of Spilling Hope?
    A: I am doing what God would want people to do: to give to others. I know that every penny collected counts towards a new well.

    Q: What would you like to tell other people, especially other children, about how they can be involved in Spilling Hope?
    A: No matter how young or old you are, you can help contribute to bringing clean water to those in Uganda and other villages in Africa.

    (dictated by Helena Goos and transcribed by Erica Goos)