We are learning daily the dangers of taking for granted the difference between what we left and what people here live with. After four months in Rwanda we are becoming increasingly aware of how little we appreciate the life which individuals face here and the vast gulf in wealth which separates most Rwandans from Europe. This week has been spent with several widows groups. We are trying to develop income generation which is the local term for micro-business and a way of providing something above the breadline for the individual.

Money (or amafaranga in Kinyarwanda) was being discussed on Thursday. I was taught a lesson in humility when I asked how the members of one of the groups live each day. Their immaculately clean personal appearance is deceptive as I discovered when it transpired that a typical daily income is perhaps 2,000 francs (about £2.50). Even this takes all the time an individual has to scrape together, doing whatever work can be found. Bronwen had a pair of shoes mended at the exorbitant cost of 50p. Judging from what I have seen, I doubt the pavement cobbler will see many more than five customers a day. The smart appearance of the widows group was explained by them washing their clothes each night. We take many things for granted. I should appreciate a clean shirt a lot more than I do.

The problems being faced by the widows groups are reflected in the lives of the Mammas who come to help at Bronwen’s morning Bible Club. There are four ladies who are there each day. One, Mamma David has four children and recently spent some time with them in the care of a local orphanage. The orphanage had agreed to look after Mamma David and her children for a month. It seems that now she has left the orphanage with her youngest, David. The other three are still there. We have learnt as well that she has fallen behind with her rent and is facing eviction on Christmas Eve. Her monthly rent is only £13.

Some of the Nyamirambo street-children

On a brighter note, our street children project is gathering momentum. There are about twenty local children which turn up each day for their lunch. We can happily report that boys will be boys, and that Rwandan boys are just like any others. This week, one delightful child decided to climb to the top of the tree outside the hall. From this not insignificant hight he proceeded to ‘Christen’ (I am struggling to be polite) the children below him. An old Edinburgh cry, “garde l’eau” came to mind. Wonderful.

Life is beginning to settle into something of a routine now. Bronwen leaves the house around eight o’clock each morning (role reversal here!) to take the taxi bus over to Nyamirambo. There she organises the INN Club’s morning activities before going on to whoever she is visiting in the afternoon. I am spending my time between helping the Protestant Council, developing the street children programme and working with widows’ income generation groups.

The widows groups are colourful characters. The government encourages them to band together as co-operatives if they want to run a business and so each group has around ten individuals in it. What I have to admire is the determination and resilience of these women. Many of them have experienced indescribable horrors and are living on virtually no income from week to week. Those who have families find it very difficult to make ends meet. Yet they have a stoicism and humour  that can only be wondered at. My stumbling attempts to get my tongue around Kiryarwanda is a source of constant merriment to them.

The other evening our interpreter didn’t turn up. None of the widows spoke any English although one had a  little French. It made for a challenging half hour until another lady who did speak English turned up, but we made progress. Although English is the official second language in Rwanda, French is still very common.

There is no shortage of imagination among the widows for ways to earn some money. At the moment I am dealing with projects hoping to sell everything from wood to fruit juice. There is also a group who do some very tasty baking. Their problems, as ever in Rwanda revolve around money. I have learnt the stock phrase amafaranga pfite – there is no money! Finding the start up capital that is needed to buy equipment or pay the deposit on a shop rental is difficult. There are some sources though and part of my contribution is rooting them out.

Watch this space. If anyone would like a handmade dress in bright African colours made up, let me know!

This week Gavin spent three days in the scenic north with the Council of Protestant Churches (CPR). This was at a conference of church leaders organised to encourage financial autonomy among the churches. This was august company indeed as bishops and archbishops gathered from across Eastern Africa. Historically, churches in Rwanda, and also the rest of the continent, have been funded by grants from European churches and charities. More recently, income of this kind has been in decline and churches here are being forced to become more financially independent.

Getting to the conference meant a two hour coach ride into the mountains through some spectacular scenery. The valley sides to the north become steep and sheer compared to the hills around Kigali but that doesn’t stop the cultivation. Bananas, pineapples and beans are grown on terraced slopes that seem to defy gravity. At even higher levels spectacular waterfalls tumble over the rocks to irrigate the slopes below.

The mountain at the back is a volcano

The town of Ruhengeri is located in the north west of Rwanda surrounded by a semi-circular chain of volcanoes. This is gorilla country and the beasts inhabit the jungle-covered slopes of the volcanoes. Along the main street, Mastercard and Visa advertisements entice the tourists who come in their 4×4s. Elsewhere in Rwanda there are very few opportunities to use a credit card. Any cards used around here are likely to buy a thick fleece. The temperature at this altitude is decidedly chilly compared to further south.

For the bishops, finding ways of maintaining their churches is an issue close to their hearts. However, many of the Rwandan churches don’t have the resources or experience to look after their finances in a way that has become commonplace in Europe and America. We are working with CPR to provide training and support that will allow churches to manage their financial affairs more effectively than in the past.

There is much in Rwanda that is scarce. Electricity is rationed. Water is rationed. Food isn’t rationed but if everyone were to be given some it would be. Perhaps the scarcest commodity of all though, is money. Even in absolute terms, GDP per head in Rwanda is among the lowest in the world. Add to that the fact that what little wealth there is sits in the pockets of a privileged few, what is left is a country of very poor people.

Income generating activity is what preoccupies peoples’ lives here. Even the churches recognise the problem and are making great efforts to help their congregations and local communities find ways of earning money. There is little employment. In Kigali centre a relative few work for the government. There are NGO offices and banks which have staff. In a country of eight million people these amount to no more than a few thousand employees.

For the rest of the population, earning a living means self-employment. Some have succeeded and have found a market niche. But this is a hard ladder to climb onto. Very few businesses can be started without at least some start-up funds and this is the biggest barrier to many people. There are few favours given by the banks who are as strapped for cash here as anywhere else in the world. People who have nothing have no savings and nothing to offer as guarantee against a loan. The greatest irony is that in order to make it you must have it. Very few people around here have money.

Even in an economy where liquidity is scarce, someone has to have something to sell. There are those who grow produce and sell it in local markets. Others bake bread or make clothes. Without a skill, even these activities are prohibited to a significant proportion of the population. Education and literacy are key to solving this problem but this is no quick fix. The old problem of money comes up again. Education means fees. Very few young people can afford to pay from their own resources and depend on donors to come up with the cash each term. Many are orphans without families. School or university, finding a sponsor is the difference between going back next term and doing nothing. Money may not be the most important thing in life but it certainly is important in allowing people to have a life.

Sind Sie eine der Millionen der Amerikaner, die von Gehaltsscheck zu Gehaltsscheck leben? Haben Sie kaum alle mögliche Sparungen mit Schulden bis bis Ihren Augäpfeln und zu keiner Notrücklage? Am schlechtesten, haben Sie dieses wiederkehrende Dilemma des Wunschs, Ihren Job zu lassen und mit neuen Geschäftsalternativen zu beginnen, aber das Problem ist, Sie wissen nicht, zu wo man beginnt, zu dem sich drehen mit und zu welchem ein bisschen Geschäft, zum beteiligt zu erhalten. Wenn Sie nach dem Einkommen suchen, das Ideen erzeugt, Ihr eigenes Geschäft aufzubauen und Ihr Einkommen, Ihre Zeit zu kontrollieren und schließlich, Ihr Leben, sind Sie nicht allein. Das Arbeiten für jemand führt Sie nicht zum Leben, das Sie immer von geträumt haben. Und wenn Sie denken, Sie erhält reich indem Sie ein Angestellter für immer, denken wieder sind. Der ansammelnde Reichtum der einzigen Person von Ihrer harten Arbeit ist keiner anders als Ihren Arbeitgeber. Jetzt wenn Sie diese harte Arbeit gerade wiederholen und sie an Ihrem eigenen Geschäft anwenden können, stellen Sie sich das mögliche Einkommen vor, das Sie für selbst erzeugen. Sie müssen nie um Geld wieder dich sorgen. Sie haben mehr Zeit, die Sachen zu tun, die Sie wie Verbringen von mehr Zeit mit Ihrer Familie tun und Ferien nehmen möchten, als Sie sie wünschen. Sie können ein Heimatbasisgeschäft mit minimaler Investition für Unternehmer des ersten Males, die Anfangsstraßensperre beginnen, die kommt, sich mit der Idee des Beginnens jedes möglichen Geschäfts zu kümmern ist die finanzielle Investition, die jumpstart sie erfordert wird. Ziegelstein- und Mörserarten benötigen einen beträchtlichen Geldbetrag, Sie zu erhalten begonnen. Aber warum riskieren Sie eine riesige Menge, wenn Sie ein Heimatbasisgeschäft mit minimaler Investition beginnen können? Vor das Internet-Geschenke

Geld-Hersteller deckt schnelle u. einfache Geschäfts-Alternativen auf, um riesige Mengen vom Bargeld für den selbstständigen Kleinbetrieb… sogar während der Rezession zu bilden! Für das Haus-gegründete Geschäft scheint die konjunkturelle Abflachung, die 2007 begann, endlos. Die Regierung hat heraus eine Firma nach anderen gebürgt und das Anregungpaket scheint, nur einige Industrien zu fördern. Leute fahren fort, ihre Jobs zu verlieren; Ganztagsangestellte werden gezwungen, auf zeitweilige Entlassung zu gehen, werden Ruhestandsparungen wegen des Finanzeinschmelzens verbraucht und einige unglückliche verloren ihre Häuser zur gerichtlichen Verfallserklärung. Während dieser turbulenten Zeiten in der Wirtschaft, können Sie sicher nie sein, dass Sie noch einen Job morgen haben. Leute schrecken am Gedanken der Arbeitslosigkeit zurück, aber die ist eine nackte Tatsache heutzutage. Dieses gesagt, wissen Sie, dass trotz der Rezession Sie Geld und Lose von ihm noch online bilden können? Die Hochkonjunktur des Heimatbasisgeschäfts erschloß eine vollständige Tonleiter der Geschäftsalternativen für den

For the visitor Kigali city has something of a carnival atmosphere. People greet each other across the street. Lorries drive around with loudspeakers on the back distributing music to everyone within half a mile. Smaller Toyota pick-ups function as taxis, some carrying men in bright pink pyjamas. Yet we are discovering that under the colourful new Rwanda that is gradually being built is a darker underside. Fifteen years after the genocide lurks a suspicion and mistrust among those that remember. They don’t always greet each other so happily. The vast majority of the population can’t afford to go to the pop festival being advertised by the loudspeakers. And the pink pyjamas aren’t party goers but genocidese – criminals convicted of involvement in the 1994 killings. The pick-ups they sit in belong to the prison authorities.

Away from the noise that is the centre of town, I took a trip into the mountains this week. Jali Hill (pronounced Jari) overlooks Kigali and was a strategic victory for the invading Patriotic Front when they took it from the government forces in 1994. From the valley bottom it takes thirty minutes to climb the rough track to the plateau. Recent rains are starting to cut gullies in the soft soil making for yet more off-road excitement. The mountain is covered with fern-like trees interspersed by banana plantations which give a feeling of driving through a real tropical rain forest.

Checking the honey at Jali

The purpose of the hill-climb was to visit the Solace Ministries’ widows community at Jali who have started a honey making project. Aphrodice, my interpreter, translates questions and answers as we look around the hives. There are twenty in all, currently producing 30kg of honey each month. The project has only recently started and is still building production. A population of NGO and government employees in Kigali provides a ready market for good-quality local produce. The hives are kept on steel frames with feet sitting in pots of oil. Over the ground crawl myriads of tiny ants which would kill the bees if they could climb past the oil. I was presented with a tub of new honey before I left and having spread it over several slices of bread since, can vouch that it is very, very good.

Back down to earth and in a suburb of Kigali known as Nyamirambo, I was driving into town. This is always an exciting route, dodging potholes while trying to dodge the taxi buses doing the same thing in the opposite direction. Slowing down for one hole, a child of perhaps nine or ten ran across in front of the Land Rover and disappeared into the gutter beneath the pavement. We discovered a few days later on a visit to the Nyamirambo Youth Project that this was our first glimpse of street children. The gutter is a water channel perhaps three feet deep and is roofed by slitted concrete slabs which form the pavement above. Mostly the channel is dry but during the rainy season downpours are torrential and turn it into a fast running river.

When we arrived in Kigali almost two months ago, a noticeable change from our previous visit was the reduction in the number of children roaming the streets. It was explained to us that they have been mostly taken away and put into homes. Another source, and a reputable one, told us that the home was more often prison and it is the police that do the rounding up. It seems that the problem has been driven literally underground, or at least out of sight.

Some local children at the Nyamirambo Youth project

At the Nyamirambo project many of the youngsters are orphans, have no permanent home, or both. As they are able, the leaders have been making contact with others who are sleeping rough. These youngsters have turned feral and are timid. They sleep in the streets (more rough tracks than roads) around the area where the project is based. But it seems that a dry spot such as an empty container is only safe until a bigger child decides to move in and evict the original occupant. We were told of one tragic case where a child of twelve was found sleeping rough and with help from people with money, put into a school. After achieving excellent marks for two years he stole a mobile phone. For this he was beaten up and killed. Possibly there is no city which is as pretty underneath as the paved and swept city centre streets suggest. Kigali is no exception.

Today we paid a visit to the Evangelical Free Church in Remera, one of the Kigali districts. The area is poor to say the least and is evidently one of many suburbs which have not been touched by the prosperity of the city centre. Many houses do not have doors. Blankets serve to cover the entrance to these single room dwellings.

The church runs a local school for 200 pupils. There is no government support to pay teachers and as ever in Rwanda, parents are asked to pay schools fees. We were told that fifty puplis have left the school recently because their parents simply cannot afford the money.

The church has asked for help in developing a project to breed pigs. The income from the project will be used to help fund schooling for local children. Their problem, and one that we have heard often here is that they have no money.

by Aly Lewis

It’s a blue whale…it’s the Great Barrier Reef…it’s a giant aspen grove!  Guess again, the world’s largest living organism is actually a fungus. Armillaria ostoyae, to be precise.

Commonly known as the honey mushroom, this giant fungus feeds off of the earth and tree roots in the Malheur National Forest in eastern Oregon, has been estimated to be about 2,400 years old and spans 2,200 acres. Additionally, the fungus performs important functions in the forest ecosystem such as fostering nutrient recycling and subsequently providing habitats for animals. Impressive for a low-life…

Read More>>

Manase, G., Nkuna, Z. and Ngorima,E. (2009). Using water and sanitation as an entry point to fight poverty and respond to HIV/AIDS : the case of Isulabasha Small Medium Enterprise. Physics and chemistry of the earth, Parts A/B/C. Available online 11 July 2009. DOI: 10.1016/j.pce.2009.07.007.

Author abstract: South Africa is faced by a number of challenges that include low water and sanitation coverage in rural and peri-urban areas, high unemployment and increasing inequality between the rich and the poor as indicated by a Gini coefficient of 0.77; the second highest inequality in the world after Brazil. The situation is compounded by high HIV prevalence with South Africa having the largest HIV infection in the world. This case study demonstrates how water and sanitation is used as an entry point to address these major challenges and to empower communities. The project has two main components: the Small Medium Enterprise (SME) that trades in water and sanitation facilities and a community garden that ensure food security and nutrition for people living with HIV/AIDS. Income generated through these activities is ploughed back into the community through construction of sanitation facilities, maintenance of water pipes and paying school fees for orphans. In addition to creating employment, the project has also empowered the community to mobilize and address other challenges such as gender, child abuse and crime. The case study identifies weaknesses with projects designed solely to provide domestic drinking water and sanitation and calls for an integrated approach that uses water and sanitation as an entry point to unlock opportunities and empower the targeted communities.

Contact: Dr. Gift Manase, Council for Industrial and Scientific Research (CSIR), South Africa, gmanase [at] csir.co.za

Hampered by the complexities of working in a foreign country, an unknown language and an often alien culture, I found weaving together my picture of the work of the Veerni Project was similar to the process of creating the intricate quilted wall hangings made by the women of Rajasthan – a process in which the final design appears only slowly. My first priority was to develop a thorough understanding of the NGO I am working with, its strengths, weaknesses, needs and capacity.

Veerni works with six rural villages in the Jodhpur region of Rajasthan, India. The team helps to provide health and nutritional care, economic empowerment and education to the women and adolescent girls, and raising awareness of key issues such as malnutrition or domestic violence in the whole community. They run sewing courses to provide women with a means to generate their own income, provide literacy centres for girls who will other wise not attend school, and also fund a hostel in Jodhpur, where 85 village girls are able to benefit from improved health, nutrition and most importantly, a full time education.

Fifteen weeks seemed like ample time from my home in London, time that has now become compressed as I have realised the complexities of development work, even within my own small role. What has gradually emerged from the patches of quilt is a possible synergy between Veerni’s groundbreaking work on nutritional supplements, designed and patented by the nutritional team, and their less developed programme on skills training for income generation. An in-depth survey of the villages, their current nutritional habits and awareness and receptiveness to the idea of new income strategies, could assess the potential to initiate a women’s cooperative to produce the Veerni nutritional supplements. Ideally, this would provide employment and income to the women involved as well as easily available low-cost supplements to local families. This synergy of increasing women’s ability to nourish themselves and their families while developing their self-respect and status through income generation appeals to me. However, it is only by asking the women themselves that I can discover if such a project is viable in the hard grind for survival that characterises their day-to-day lives.

These women are the human capital that is so often wasted in an area that has some of India’s lowest female literacy rates, female to male sex ratios and health indicators. And yet behind the gloomy statistics there lies a wealth of potential. Conducting interviews of some of the girls attending the Veerni hostel I met Shoba Choudhary, a seventeen-year-old from Rajwa village, who has been at the hostel for one year. Rajwa suffers from all the blights on women that plague one of India’s most underdeveloped states: the female literacy rate is 3.69% and the village population is 580 women to 611 men, clearly showing the number of ‘missing women’. Yet despite being married at eight, and now under pressure from her fellow villagers to give up her education and return to her family, Shoba displayed a quiet but impressive confidence and self-knowledge. ‘Education is a girl’s true friend’ she said, and talked of her ambition to attend college, pass the tough civil service exams and work for the government of Rajasthan. Only time will tell if Shoba can overcome the pressure from her village and achieve her ambitions, but her intelligence and maturity are a sign of the immense human capital Veerni is working to cultivate.

Back in Rajwa, as I observed the field staff and the women and children they worked with, the most powerful images were sensory: the vivid pink of the women’s head veils, the Indian sun baking the almost barren earth and dullness of malnutrition in some of the children’s coal-lined eyes. I understood nothing of the Mawari spoken, but what I could appreciate was the respect felt for the Veerni field staff. The men listened when they spoke and the women slowly pulled back their veils in their presence. This respect, and its fruits in terms of the true community engagement and trust it indicated, was a better introduction to the work of Veerni than any annual report or flashy website. It was also a crash course in the patience required for community development; a patience that does not come naturally to most Westerners, perhaps especially those who want to ‘make a difference.’ I may have emerged from the first phase of the internship process, but the real challenge, to develop a little of that patience, dedication and humility, is only just beginning.

Ranibari Youth Club has started charging money for collecting water from a local stonespout. Consumers willing to collect 20 liter water from the stonespout have to buy a ticket worth five rupees [7 US dollar cents] in advance. [...] Earlier, some consumers do not get to fetch water even after queuing up for the whole day in the stonespout due to a large number of water fetchers.

Biki Khadgi, chairman of Ranibari Youth Club told that the club has started ticket system so that the consumers could get drinking water easily. Ticket system has not only regularized water collection from the stone-spout but also provided employment to the some unemployed youth members of the club. [...] The club stated that it will repair and renovate the stone-spout with the money collected from tickets.

Source: Sharmila Kaduwal, Rajdhani / NGO Forum, 9 May 2009

Ranibari Youth Club has started charging money for collecting water from a local stonespout. Consumers willing to collect 20 liter water from the stonespout have to buy a ticket worth five rupees [7 US dollar cents] in advance. [...] Earlier, some consumers do not get to fetch water even after queuing up for the whole day in the stonespout due to a large number of water fetchers.

Biki Khadgi, chairman of Ranibari Youth Club told that the club has started ticket system so that the consumers could get drinking water easily. Ticket system has not only regularized water collection from the stone-spout but also provided employment to the some unemployed youth members of the club. [...] The club stated that it will repair and renovate the stone-spout with the money collected from tickets.

Source: Sharmila Kaduwal, Rajdhani / NGO Forum, 9 May 2009

Over the past year Paul and I have interned with CRWRC Uganda’s country team. It’s been a privilege and joy to discover the potential of community development through the church in this beautiful country. Now, during the month of May, we set out to apply the lessons we’ve gained and deepen our understanding of community development through a study of CRWRC partnerships in different regions of East Africa. We’ll be going on a journey to see God’s hand at work through CRWRC Kenya and Tanzania. As we encounter communities working to improve their economy and their health, their families, and their futures, we will be listening for God’s stories of transformation. Along the way, we will share the stories, adventures and pictures of our work with you!

May 1, 2009
It’s Friday and the citizens of East Africa celebrated their annual Labor Day holiday today. The jovial mood of the general crowds matched our own as we juggled our luggage through the Kampala airport and past the ticket counter, boarding the ten o’clock Kenya Airways flight for Nairobi. Before noon our plane arrived and we soon met our driver, Immanuel, outside the airport. In no time we were on the road, passing along well-developed city streets and large office buildings. We were amazed at the difference between Kampala and Nairobi’s urban layouts and the very Western feel of the latter. For a few sentimental moments we began to recall the feelings of home and then… the police stopped us. We were charged with driving in the wrong lane and the penalty was going to court or paying the bribe. It was a disappointing introduction to the poorly developed judicial system of this country and the corruption behind it.

We drove on until we reached a small compound nestled among some trees and greenery. A sign by the gate read Amani Ya Juu. There we met Amy Thompson, a Bridger for CRWRC Kenya, also our friend and tour guide for the next few days.

After hugs and hellos, we joined Amy for lunch at Amani. She explained that Amani functions as a training center, restaurant, and gift shop employing vulnerable and marginalized women from multiple African countries. Amani focuses on giving women marketable skills and a place to use them. Additionally the program helps the women build Christian community together through Bible study and fellowship. Customer can purchase beautifully crafted garments, decorative quilts, hand-made jewelry, and Christmas crafts made by these women. Amy’s creative selection of meal venues gave us our first introduction to the city of Nairobi and some of the local projects underway to enrich and empower people in need.

May 2, 2009 – Bird of Paradise
We spent this morning with Amy’s Kenyan family, a gracious couple that hosted her when she first arrived in the country two years ago. Before sitting down to Kenya tea, which includes milk, tea, and plenty of sugar, we took a walk around their compound. As we admired the beautiful orange flowers along the walk, Amy’s host father shared with us the story of his Bird of Paradise flowers. Originally he planted them for the family’s enjoyment. Then one day a traveling visitor noticed these plants and how well they grew in the soil. The visitor inquired of Amy’s host father, who mentioned that he grew them recreationally. At this the traveler explained that if Amy’s host father was interested in making a profit, he would buy the Bird of Paradise flowers, as many as Amy’s host father could plant. In turn the flowers would be sold to a buyer in Holland. The plan worked splendidly and Amy’s host father shared the opportunity with his neighbors. Now, together, he and his neighbors grow hundreds of the flowers and sell them regularly. Amy’s host father pointed out that he’s saving the money to help him through his retirement years. His story gave one example of an effective way to use your natural resources and networks to earn an income.

May 3, 2009
A light rain shower this morning turned our walk to church into a puddle-hopping dash. However, we arrived in good spirits ready for worship at the Parkland Baptist church in Amy’s neighborhood. The service combined African and Western worship styles to accommodate its diverse body of members. The Western influence could be seen in the familiar selection of praise songs that we know from back home and the leaders’ efforts to begin and end the service at the scheduled times. Meanwhile the African flavor of the service was reflected in the rhythm and volume of the praise songs, not to mention that many were sung in Kiswahili, the national language. It was a treat to worship with Amy!

In the afternoon we visited the Witteveen’s residence. Fred Witteveen serves as the country consultant for CRWRC Kenya. He and his family welcomed to their home the Kenya office staff and partners for a celebration of the team’s work over the past year. One of their particularly exciting accomplishments in the recent months has been the development of their strategic plan. The document outlines the vision, goals, and action plans of CRWRC Kenya for the next five years. It’s a real sign of God’s faithfulness to CRWRC and the staff team’s commitment to advance God’s kingdom here in East Africa.

May 4,2009
Accompanied this morning by our seasoned guide George, we got an early start on the day’s adventures, the first of which included an experiment with Nairobi’s public transportation system of matatus (minivans). As our crowded matatu careened down the Kenyan roads it carried us away from the city and deep into pineapple country. In less than an hour we reached Thika, home to a Del Monte pineapple plantation and CRWRC’s partner Christian Community Services (CCS).

CRWRC emphasizes the importance of capacity-building partnerships with the community and facilitates the learning and networks of its community partners through program consultants. The community partners in turn are empowered and strengthened in their capacity to teach and encourage the community members in development initiatives.

The CCS community development coordinator, Peter Macharia, met us in town and then drove us to meet two of the Orphan and Vulnerable Children groups (OVC) that his organization supports. Each group consists of about 30 elderly women and single mothers working to raise their family’s orphaned children. The first group welcomed us warmly. As we sat together in a hut on a hill overlooking the pineapple and tea fields below, we listened to their story and appreciated the impact of the group on each of their lives. The women explained how they meet together regularly, sharing their burdens, empathizing, and devising creative solutions. The simple solidarity that they find in the group encourages them and motivates them to believe in their futures.

The women expressed their gratitude to Peter for his support of the group. Through CCS these women have received goats and training on how to use natural fertilizers for the benefit of their fields. They have also started a rabbit raising income generating activity (they told me holding them by the ears doesn’t hurt ).

These women still have difficulties that need to be dealt with daily. We met a woman, the secretary of the group, whose husband had passed away leaving her with a number of children. When her husband passed away, his family conspired against her to steal her land. They burned down her house, chased her and her family off the land, and are now working with the courts to make what they did legitimate. Peter told us that once this happens, it is hard to undo, but CCS and the women’s group is working to bring light on the issue, exposing to the community what the family has done to this woman and is educating the community on land rights to prevent this offence from happening in the future.

A view of the rural area outside of Thika. Most of that green is tea fields

May 5, 2009 – Recycled Manure

Today we had the blessing of visiting a man named John in a village outside of Nairobi called Gathitika. John is an accountant by trade, with an interest both in business and preserving the environment. From his hillside home, he can look over the sweeping valley and mountains in the distance and see the deforestation that happens as the years go. As a way to combat this trend, and to invest in a little business, he has built a methane biogas generator, and it is for this reason that we came to meet.

For the last couple months I have been working with my coworker, Dale Christy, on plans for a bio-gas generator to implement in Lira. A bio-gas generator harnesses methane gas that comes from manure and directs it for use in daily tasks, like cooking or lighting at night. Most of the community in Uganda, as well as in Kenya, still use charcoal and wood to do their cooking, resulting in a quickly depleting forest over the whole region. Bio-gas generators are one way of combating this trend. When I heard through Partners Worldwide (an affiliate of CRWRC), that there was a man working on one in Nairobi, using a loan from a Partners Worldwide organization, I was happy to go and check it out.

John is building a generator that should be able to supply his home as well as the surrounding 20 homes with enough gas for cooking each day. In return for the gas he will charge a small fee as part of this income-generating activity. The hope is that his neighbors will see the benefit of paying for this gas over the hours they spend each day looking for and gathering firewood. I was amazed at his initiative and creativity in bringing his interests together in a way that sustains his family, his community, and his environment.

Standing in the resevoir for the generator, still unused

Women in one of the poorest areas of Mali’s capital, Bamako, have found a way to tackle hygiene issues and earn money at the same time – by making soap.

Djibril Coulibaly, Project Coordinator for JIGI, Mali. Photo: WaterAid.

[...] “Hygiene standards in the Nafadji [slum] area of town were very very low, due to lack of infrastructure and because of ignorance,” Djibril Coulibaly, hygiene coordinator of Malian non-profit JIGI, told IRIN. “We carried out research that showed contaminated water and a lack of water were causing disease, but also that behaviours surrounding hand washing had an impact.”

JIGI (hope in the local language Bambara) has been collaborating with the international charity, WaterAid, for the last eight years to build public faucets and install household latrines in Nafadji.

But when JIGI began its hygiene education programme focused on hand washing [people said] “that they could not afford industrial soap, it was too expensive at 300 CFA [57 US cents].” Coulibaly added. “So we decided to work with a women’s group to look at the problem.”

[...] JIGI and WaterAid supported the Nfadji Women’s Association (AFSAN), a group of some 20 neighbourhood women, to set up a soap-making business in 2003. [...] The number of soap pieces made per week has risen from 150 to 225, and demand is increasing, which has prompted plans to expand the business, said Coulibaly.

[Some] long-held traditional beliefs discouraged individual hand washing [for example that handwashing makes you poor]. [Therefore JIGI runs] weekly awareness meetings on washing hands with soap.

Source: IRIN, 26 Feb 2009

Job: Head of Income Generation, ACEVO

Location: London, England

Summary Job Description:

Leading ACEVO’s delivery of its £1.2 million grant-funded Income Generation national support programme. Managing an in-house team and a range of delivery partners working on the programme, while contributing to the wider objectives and management of ACEVO.

Income Generation Programme Management Responsibilities

• Providing leadership for the Income Generation Partnership including responsibility for:

 Supporting partners and ACEVO staff in planning projects that will meet identified needs and deliver outcomes in line with the terms and conditions of the grant;
 Agreeing and allocating the £600,000 per year budget across the programme with partners.
 Provide challenge and support to partners and ACEVO staff to ensure projects are delivered to time, budget and expected quality standards.
 Evaluating the impact of products and services delivered by the programme and driving a culture of continuous improvement.
• Lead the partnership’s engagement with its funder (Capacitybuilders) including preparation of required plans and documentation, negotiation with Capacitybuilders staff and attendance at meetings and conferences as required by Capacitybuilders.

• Work with partners and IG team to identify and manage risks to successful delivery of programme

• Oversee financial management of programme and provide ACEVO’s Finance Director with all budgeting and financial information required for the running of the programme.
• Manage relationships with ACEVO north, events, marketing, policy and business development teams to ensure programme has all the internal resources required, and strategic links between IG programme and other ACEVO work are fully exploited.

• Provide ACEVO Directors Group and Board with periodic updates on progress of delivery and outstanding risks.

Other Programme Management Responsibilities

• Co-ordinate ACEVO’s high level relationships with CES (Performance National Support Service) to secure funding for projects under these programmes and ensure CES has all the monitoring information needed to comply with terms and conditions of grant.
• Co-ordinate activity of Income Generation and Performance national support services with activity led by ACEVO colleagues on the Leadership and Governance national support service to ensure alignment and maximised learning.

• Oversee London staff deployed on the BASIS funded procurement support services led by ACEVO staff based in Leeds.

• Lead the development of funding applications for any successor services to the current Capacitybuilders funded National Support Services.
• Lead the development of a transition and sustainability strategy for the products and services developed under the first three years of the Capacitybuilders grants.

Other Responsibilies

• Managing the performance and professional development of the two staff on the Income Generation team.
• Contribution to the work of ACEVO’s Management Team.
• Participating in any relevant funding applications or tender preparations.

• Representing ACEVO through a range of external events as required, including members meetings, conferences and external speaking engagements.

Person Specification

• An experienced leader with the ability to inspire and motivate staff, delivery partners and external stakeholders.
• An excellent programme manager with proven ability in delivering multiple projects to defined time and budget constraints.
• Demonstrable knowledge of the financial, political and regulatory environments in which third sector organisations operate.

• A strong understanding of the income generation opportunities and challenges third sector organisations face. Experience of successfully developing and sustaining income generating services in an enterprise or public service delivery context.
• A sophisticated communicator who can successfully deliver strong, inspiring and challenging messages to a wide range of audiences.
• A strong negotiator with experience in working successfully with a range of funders, partner organisations and private sector consultants.
• A keen political awareness which has helped them and their organisations flourish in relationships with local and national government.

For more information or to apply for this position please contact Andrew Denney at andrew.denney@acevo.org.uk or call 0845 873 0943

Unilever has begun replicating Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) rural micro-enterprise [in India], led by women-entrepreneurs, Project Shakti in several international markets.

The project was started in 2001 to empower underprivileged rural women by providing income-generating opportunities [by selling soap, shampoo and other pesronal care products], health and hygiene education. Rural women are appointed as Vanis (communicators) and trained to communicate in social forums like schools and village get-togethers. There are over 45,000 Shakti entrepreneurs covering over 135,000 villages across 15 Indian states.

The project has emerged as a successful low-cost business model and enhanced HUL’s direct rural reach in the so-called media-dark regions. Armed with micro-credit, rural women become direct-to-home distributors of Unilever brands in rural markets. Overall, around 50% of Hindustan Lever’s revenues came from the rural markets in India.

The effort is expected to help Unilever tap fresh growth avenues in emerging markets [which now contribute around 44% to global revenues] up in the face of recessionary trends in the US and Europe [and] the saturation of urban markets.

The project is being customised and adapted in other Unilever markets such as Sri Lanka, Viet Nam and Bangladesh. It is being considered for other Latin American and African markets. In Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, it is being promoted as Joyeeta and Saubaghya, respectively. There is a similar initiative in Viet Nam as well.

Related news: Lifebuoy sells handwashing along with 2.6 billion bars of soap across Africa and Asia, Source Bulletin, May 2007

Source: Kala Vijayraghavan, The Economic Times, 19 Jan 2009

Unilever has begun replicating Hindustan Unilever’s (HUL) rural micro-enterprise [in India], led by women-entrepreneurs, Project Shakti in several international markets.

The project was started in 2001 to empower underprivileged rural women by providing income-generating opportunities [by selling soap, shampoo and other pesronal care products], health and hygiene education. Rural women are appointed as Vanis (communicators) and trained to communicate in social forums like schools and village get-togethers. There are over 45,000 Shakti entrepreneurs covering over 135,000 villages across 15 Indian states.

The project has emerged as a successful low-cost business model and enhanced HUL’s direct rural reach in the so-called media-dark regions. Armed with micro-credit, rural women become direct-to-home distributors of Unilever brands in rural markets. Overall, around 50% of Hindustan Lever’s revenues came from the rural markets in India.

The effort is expected to help Unilever tap fresh growth avenues in emerging markets [which now contribute around 44% to global revenues] up in the face of recessionary trends in the US and Europe [and] the saturation of urban markets.

The project is being customised and adapted in other Unilever markets such as Sri Lanka, Viet Nam and Bangladesh. It is being considered for other Latin American and African markets. In Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, it is being promoted as Joyeeta and Saubaghya, respectively. There is a similar initiative in Viet Nam as well.

Related news: Lifebuoy sells handwashing along with 2.6 billion bars of soap across Africa and Asia, Source Bulletin, May 2007

Source: Kala Vijayraghavan, The Economic Times, 19 Jan 2009

By Mike Lazear: PIC Current Assistant Producer

Bernard Madoff, a force in the investment market, was arrested recently for running a Ponzi scheme last week. If you have not heard the news, check out this article. If the allegations are correct, he actually manged to scam people out of $50 billion in investments.

Amazing!

A Ponzi scheme, is basically the same as a pyramid scheme. The idea is that the early investors in the scheme, and the person who actually created the scheme, are the only ones to benefit. 

Basically, the creator of the scam promises guaranteed and very rich payouts.  At first, the scam pays out as early investors get their rewards from the money of later investors. This attracts even more investors. 

The whole comparison to a pyramid comes from the fact that only people at the top make any kind of profit and there are fewer of them. Once you get further and further down the pyramid, there are a greater and greater number of investors, but their income is less and less because the model is unsustainable. At a point there is not enough capital invested in the system to support huge returns for all the people who buy in and it will collapse. 

How can you spot one of these scams before it is too late for you?

Signs that a business or investment opportunity is a Ponzi or Pyramid scheme:

• Promise of large and guaranteed returns for your investment very quickly
• Little or no effort required on your part to run the business or manage the investment (in other words, it is automatic)
• If it is a business package, weak or no description of what products the business offers or even what it does
• MOST IMPORTANT: a “requirement” to get others to invest in the business, product, or investment in order to make a profit yourself

Not all businesses or investment opportunities that fit some of these descriptions are pyramid schemes, but a lot of them are. It is important that you really familiarize yourself with the source before committing your hard-earned money to anything. Make sure that you can trust it. Believe me, it is not always easy to identify some of these scammers. It is often better to walk away from a legitimate business opportunity than it is to fall prey to a real Ponzi scheme. Keep this in mind if you are even on the fence.

For more on Ponzi and Pyramid schemes:

Wikipedia Ponzi Scheme

More on how to avoid schemes

What is this?

In the coastal region of Mozambique, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is improving food access for more than 100,000 rural Mozambicans through a three-year income generation project that will increase crop sales and productivity, improve health and nutrition, create better access to clean water and sanitation facilities, and strengthen communities’ resilience to disaster situations within the targeted regions.Titled Osanzaya Zambezia, or “Make Zambezia Happy” in the Lomue language, this project will increase food availability and raise incomes in the districts of Mocuba, Maganja da Costa, Ile, Pebane, and Lugela in coastal Zambezia province. ADRA expects to help 60,000 people increase agricultural production and extend access to health care, nutrition, and water and sanitation services to 62,000. At present, some 22,000 beneficiaries are enrolled in the health and agricultural components of this project. ADRA will also train communities in Maganja da Costa, Pebane, Mocuba, and Namacurra to better respond to local disasters. This project, scheduled to end in July of 2011, is financed by a $12 million grant from the Unites States Agency for International Development (USAID) Title II program and a $1 million match from ADRA International.

[...] Through its focus on promoting good hygiene practices, and increasing access to potable water by constructing water filters and rehabilitating hand-pumps and hand-dug wells, ADRA will improve the health and nutrition of entire communities, aiming to increase the number of caregivers who utilize correct hand washing behavior by 40 percent. ADRA is also training community members to maintain the newly constructed and rehabilitated community water points, while improving overall sanitation through the construction of pit latrines that will be used for both household and public use.

[...] ADRA is working in partnership with Samaritan’s Purse, a U.S. -based nondenominational relief organization, which will conduct water and sanitation activities, and provide training in community resiliency and capacity building.

Source: ARDA, 31 Dec 2008

The Grauniad, in December, ran this lovely Notebook item in which I was honoured to have my name misspelled:

We know universities are cash-strapped, but isn’t it going too far to suggest they generate money by building alumni cemeteries, golf courses and breweries? Dr Paul Geatrix, Nottingham University’s registrar, claims he was “joking” when he proposed such things in a presentation to university lawyers, which was made last year but has just emerged on the internet. “I was being intentionally provocative,” he told Notebook. “Although, the University of Virginia does have a cemetery for alumni.” The message in his last slide is clear: “We all need the money £££££££.”

(Guardian Notebook: December 2 2008)

In hindsight I wish I had referred also to the generally under-exploited options offered to universities running a dairy herd. California Polytechnic University, for example, home of the largest dairy school in the USA, makes a tidy sum each year from selling festive cheeses.

Definitely the way to go.

The warning! The coming global genocide!

The warning! The coming global genocide!

Happy Christmas and new year, unless the energy transfer weapon is unleashed in its full glory. I want to share specific details about this energy transfer weapon and its relation to AIDS, cancer, the coming bird flu and the global famine (based on my personal experience and analysis). I will also change psychology by removing emotions and introducing conductivity as “feelings”. In addittion i will remove Evolution and replace it with “Energy transfer change, ETC”. This is an important piece my friends, spread it everywhere!

This weapon is already a global and functioning system, but very few ever understand that they are subject to it. This is because it is a sleep programming system, manipulating you and collecting information or making you part of the response/voice system. Only when the system picks up a very strong brain activity, due to fear, aggression or thinking, will it make a voice contact when you are awake. The system will simply try to kill you! It will use your own brain information to figure out what you react to and then use this to kill you by increasing your already high brain activity. The brain activity will bump into nerves that will activate your body muscles at a leverage of 1/10, using up your easily available energy, thus forcing your body to use “difficult” energy. This will increase your system strain, or increase the resistance or decrease the conductivity.

I will now tell the biggest contribution to biological “psychology” ever: emotions or feelings do not exist! The so called emotions you feel are the degree of “electrical” conductivity in your brain and nerves. The higher conductivity the lesser resistance and heat. The degree of relative difference between heat and cold energy will squeeze your nerves, making it feel like a gentle massage or a gruesome beating. And opposed to traditional belief, there is no universal ranking of “emotions”. Happiness, aggression and fear can have both positive and negative values. This is more easily understood if you try to understand my Universe model that explains that “emotions/feelings” must be replaced with a new definition. Formerly happiness (body external/BODY OUT or body language=social interactions. The same as external nerves in a cell will communicate with other cells) does not need to feel good or aggression (Mind external/MIND OUT equals the brain/nerve message or the talk that BODY OUT will do. Aggression being verbal attacks not physical confrontation, which surprisingly is located in happiness or BODY OUT) fear (body internal/BODY IN and is connected to protecting your body, its energy consumption and waste trail. But this is also connected to enjoying a good meal, which many think is part of happiness.) One “emotion” that Jewish psychology does not even consider an emotion at all is thinking (mind internal/MIND IN, which includes the energy system: nerves and blood system, and the brains energy consumption/transfer. Again some like to think other does not “feel’ good doing it.) What I just tried explain is that you must forget the old and useless Jewish psychological model with emotions and feelings. They do not exist

! What you feel is the relative conductivity in your brain, nerve and body system. Just as when you exercise your body, it will rip your muscle fibers apart, destroying the muscle slightly, then a week later it will grow together stronger and more conductive! Next time it will take more energy transfer=activity to strain the muscle. The same happens in your brain! But people are lazy and not everybody wants this unpleasant experience of controlled self destruction, they avoid it and the muscles stay less conductive. These muscle areas of not conductive muscle feels relative unpleasant using, they are explained as weak body muscles or mind emotions like fear or aggression. “Happiness” feels good because it is a long time programming putting everything positive into the same word, but it is many different areas like “fear”=body in which includes eating food, “aggression”=mind out which includes the messages you communicate with other people etc. Instead of saying happy we should use feel good or similar to break the word programming soup.

You feel good when you are present, not thinking about future or past. Thinking about the past is connected to what you or others did to you, creating a wish to project or transfer the feeling back to the originator. Thus creating feelings of aggression, shame or sorrow etc. It is a way of dealing with a already past opportunity, and feels bad, so the brain occupies itself focusing on this negative=non-conductive area, to improve or exercise this area to reduce the negative future feeling. Thinking about the future is trying to predict it and make a plan, but is of course extremely difficult, forcing the brain into all kinds of unpleasant scenarios. Long time future thinking can become a permanent non-conductive=negative feeling condition we describe as depression or worry. This can lead to suicide later. The energy transfer weapon (mind control weapon) uses any abnormal activity in your “emotions” to ease their ability to aim a deadly blow to your system. By locking on to the largest brain activities and radiating an energy or frequency at your id-frequency they activate your brain 24 hours a day, trying to exhaust your body and mind resources.

My second revelation for you is about evolution. It is not as Darwin (Jewish) said, “Evolution” does nor really exist! I have replaced “Evolution” with RELATIVE ENERGY TRANSFER CHANGE, RETC=an energys relative change through transfer from another energy (i also like self evolvement), meaning that everything and anything changes (evolves) relatively by attracting other things and consuming its energy or self being attracted and your energy consumed. This energy transfer is also part of my coming Curemodel, part of my Universe model.What we normally think of as evolution is that life becomes increasingly more adapted to its surroundings, which is wrong unless you use really long time perspective (millions of years). Extinct species is not because they where stupid, humans may very well go extinct early despite advanced brain! It is all about being able to maintain the relative energy leed compared to your competitors, if your brain does not help you do this you loose no matter “intelligence”. Increasing RETC, by transferring increasingly larger amounts of energy, explains why  a small insect may have higher conductivity and being more evolved than a human, while the human may have larger conductive area making higher energy consumption than the insect. Also a lower conductive animal may use its brain or body energy more effective increasing its future energy attracting capabilities, thus securing a future higher RETC than something that is more evolved at this moment. That we humans think we are intelligent because of our thinking is stupid if we do not use it to secure a sustainable increase in energy transfer. Reducing the energy transfer is a relative change and occurs constantly on micro and macro levels. It sucks sacrificing yourself for others, and that is why reducing your weight is painful while gaining weight feels good.

The energy transfer weapon forces an increase in metabolism or energy consumption, and if you do not keep up they simply waste you. You did not survive their experiment, they love to call an “Evolutionary” program. It is also interesting to know that the master minds behind this diabolic experiment are the Jewish banking elite, that probably would hate if anyone claimed Nazi Germany’s concentration camps where exactly as “Evolutionary”. Both AIDS and cancer are products of this energy transfer weapon, both being high metabolism or combustion disorders, not related to virus or the cancer lump. AIDS is a low energy intake/use case, while cancer is a high intake case. But both taking in too little energy compared to metabolism. The reason for this energy intake and metabolism unbalance is also due to this energy transfer weapons sleep programming and manipulation of social activity, income generation, even manipulating the taste and smell and visuals of foods making them unpleasant reducing your intake. Increasing brain activity while reducing your body activity reduces both energy intake, income and social activity people need to be happy.

You fight them by eating enough to keep a stable weight with high body fat percentage (25-35%), sleeping enough (partner or pet is good to have), socializing and not worry (do not think about the future if possible), talk to people about your experience and start organizing in local groups. Ridicule them with humor and ignore every word they say as lies, I have started liking their stupid fear game! The combined effect of this energy transfer weapon or mind control system is that they are killer number 2 in the world just behind natural death itself. You can estimate a nations exposure to this system by comparing 3 factors: suicide and murder percentage (aggression triggered victims, mostly in developed and fat population in the west), AIDS and wasting diseases percentage (fear triggered victims in poor, developing nations with thin population) , cancer percentage (worry and thinking triggered victims in mostly developed nations with high energy intake but thin population). Happy nations will have low suicide, murder, AIDS and cancer percentages.

VERY IMPORTANT: This system is increasing your energy transfer or wasting you. Thus the energy intake will increase globally every year from now. Reducing the energy is in essence the same as becoming sick. You have had a lower protection shield due to your electromagnetic field created by energy flow, and become vulnerable compared to your competitors which may influence you with their own electromagnetic “radiation” (not viruses, which is a consequence, not reason). Maybe another reason to be skeptic to electronic pollution?. Update: I just found out that the elite may actually have killed them selves with their own cruel system. This is good news folks! Their own system acts as a super being that makes us sick because of its energy field and forces us to survive by handling sky high energy transfer and feeling sick (The body’s waste products like slime, snot and lactic acid (too much gives headaches, stiff muscles) is intended to increase your conductivity, and are a good sign actually), while the decadent elite wants a pleasant entertainment system shielded from this, thus rapidly (years) becoming inferior to the outsiders, even despite more information access! They will have nightmares due to this revelation, they fucking killed themselves..ha,ha,ha!!

Continued… Sick being a stage towards no energy transfer or death. This system belongs to the richest people on earth, mainly Jewish banking elite, maybe some Japanese elite families. These pretty much has monopoly on global food supply. They are now trying to monopolize 1 year seeds by Monsanto etc, and stopping poor people from having chicken (worlds largest poor protein source) with introducing bird flu (H5N1). When they succeed in getting a high enough world monopoly, they will bankrupt these food companies, crashing the poor people and the thin ones in the West (food becomes difficult to get, even with enough money!) into starvation and at the same time activating the energy transfer weapon. This will kill half the Worlds population within a year or two from the launch! Stop them by telling everyone about this Humanocide plan (global genocide) and stop using these monopolists products and start using local grown, old species of food (not gen manipulated). Do not be afraid, be angry and fight them by spreading the word, it is your sword! This message is from:”Two fishes swims in the fjord prawn and the one who spins made a knot out of his family”. Do not fear, I don’t and I should, he,he,he… Happy Christmas!

http://globalcide.blogspot.com/

http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1321552

My blogs are humanocide at Curezone.com  and droword.wordpress.com (they may be hacked or altered, Update: Nope…they simply complained to Curezone, which shut me out of my blog, so i started   http://globalcide.blogspot.com/ instead, never stop fighting my friends