January 8, 2008

Greetings from Ken Goyer with Aid Africa and Happy 2008,
 
Sometimes we take the New Year to reflect on our past and to consider our future. Aid Africa has been in operation now for a little more than a year. This has been a time of organizing, learning, and growth for us. We have established a new business starting with only an idea, the idea of helping in any way we could, the people of Northern Uganda.
 
Our first efforts have been to build fuel saving cooking stoves for people, who have been cooking on open fires, and to find sick babies and see that they receive medical attention.
 
A little over a year ago, four of us, Freda, Priscilla and Martin, from Lira, and I, from the U.S., arrived in Gulu. We rented an office and began our program. I soon went home, and they continued. Eventually we hired more staff people and in the coming year five volunteers from the U.S. came and helped. With the help of two Rotary Clubs we purchased a Toyota van, and later we purchased another Toyota van and a truck to help us with our work.
 
Although we are incorporated in the U.S. and we are recognized as a non-profit organization by the I.R.S., our official acceptance in Uganda was more difficult. Probably we were impatient, but eventually everything worked out and now we are incorporated in Uganda, and we have received our official NGO (non-governmental organization) status. Even opening a new bank account in Uganda can be a challenge.
 
I should mention Rosette's efforts. Rosette lives in Jinja, in Southern Uganda. She became our Administrative Secretary and spearheaded much of the Aid Africa legal paperwork. She went down to the port at Mombassa to take delivery of the two vehicles we imported from Japan. She has also started an orphanage and now has 17 children under her charge. And she has also managed the Rocket Stove portion of the Ugandan Rotary Club Adopt-A-Village program and so far has placed a Six Brick Rocket Stove in every home in two villages in Southern Uganda.
 
Last year some of my energies were redirected by my personal illness. I fought (successfully) urinary tract cancer. Not usually one to be sick, this experience has made me more appreciative of living with chronic illnesses such as malaria and diarrhea, and all of the other illnesses that haunt daily life in Africa.
 
Peter has been a tremendous help to Aid Africa. In addition to being on our board of directors, he has made recurring trips to Uganda. He always has good ideas. He is now working at home on some film projects for Aid Africa and about life in IDP camps and the suffering and joys of life in Northern Uganda. But it will be hard to keep him at home for very long.
 
So what else have we accomplished last year? We have established a brick-making site outside of Gulu where four brick makers are making special bricks for our Six Bricks Rocket Stoves. We have made stoves in three camps and we are working in two more camps. So far, these have been small camps. But there are about two hundred camps around Gulu and some have as many as 50,000 people. So there is no shortage of work for the future.
 
Last year we took 430 babies to the hospital. I will continue to repeat, "If you are one year old and you have MAD (malaria, anemia, diarrhea) you will die if you don't receive immediate medical care." Each week 1,000 babies in Northern Uganda die above the expected death rate, which is already high. This is wrong. (I'll leave it at "wrong" and I won't use all of the other adjectives.) We want to do what we can to stop and reverse these unconscionable and unnecessary deaths. Since we are not doctors, what we can do is to take the baby (and its mother) to the hospital to receive proper medical care. If the baby makes it to the hospital, it will probably live. (We did have three babies die.)
 
I hope in the coming year to make both aspects of our project more efficient. First, we hope to make stoves better and faster. Also, we have entered into discussion with Aprovecho Research Institute about distributing Rocket Stoves in Northern Uganda that they are mass-producing in China. Carbon credits might pay for their dissemination. Then our dream of giving a stove to everyone in Uganda might come true quicker.
 
We now have two vans and eventually we would like to get twenty more. This would enable us to reach all of the camps and find very many babies and other sick people and see that they can receive medical attention.
 
Well drilling remains highest on our wish list. Of the two hundred IDP camps around Gulu, one hundred and twenty have no sanitary drinking water. This is the cause of much illness, death, and despair. The Adopt-A-Village program in the South needs wells as well.  :-)  In addition, we have ambitions of starting a tree nursery for reforestation and fruit production.
 
The needs are overwhelming. This is why we must continue to work here. We hope that volunteers will continue to come and bring their energy and their ideas. We hope that everyone will continue to support us as best you can. Your support has made this project successful. Without your support this project would have never happened. Together, we have helped to bring hope to very many people.

This Monday I am starting the trek back to Uganda. This trip like all of the previous ones will present many challenges and many opportunities. I am looking forward to being back in Gulu to see and visit and work with our staff, our friends. Together we have built a new organization, Aid Africa. And now the New Year presents us with the opportunity to continue with our good works.
 
Two closing thoughts:  See our new website at http://aidafrica.net and look for the links to other sites. Freda had a healthy baby boy, 2.8 kg. on December 15th. Freda and the baby are in good health and doing fine.  Thanks to everyone who has made Aid Africa possible.
 
Much love from Ken Goyer, Executive Director, Aid Africa