November 15, 2007

Dear Friends,

You haven't heard much from me about Aid Africa in several months. So you ask, "How are things in Gulu?" Things are great and our staff carries on.

But before I give you the whole scoop, I have a request of all of you. If you're looking for a Christmas or Hanukkah gift, or whatever other occasion comes up, please consider a tax-deductible donation to Aid Africa given in the name of your recipient. Send your donation to me and tell me how many full sized gift cards you'd like and I'll send them to you by snail mail. It'll look like this...

 
Of course we'll take any donation and send you a receipt.

And now, back to my Aid Africa report. I have to tell you how pleased I am with our staff and our program! To refresh your memory, our niche is building the Six Brick Rocket Stove in the camps of Internally Displaces People in northern Uganda. Approximately 2-million people have been forced from their homes and villages and live in the worst of circumstances, forced out by the Lord's Resistance Army as well as their own government.

Since we started our program in 2005, we have completed over 40,000 stoves with help from our staff and partnerships with the Rotary Clubs in Uganda and the International Lifeline Fund. We are very proud of that fact. However, we perhaps find even more satisfaction in the lives of babies we've saved.

Whatever camp our staff is in, they find mothers with sick babies. Ken Goyer and I made up the term MAD - Malaria, Anemia and Diarrhea, the diseases that kill so many children under two. We aren't doctors, so if a parent says their baby is sick, usually with a MAD disease, Aid Africa takes both the mother and baby to the hospital. We pay for the baby's admission and treatment (60¢) and give the mother money for food (another 60¢). Aid Africa staff checks on our patients every day and advocates on their behalf if it is needed. When the baby is well enough, we transport both mother and child back home. We have transported literally hundreds of babies and mothers. A malarial fever, diarrhea or starvation can kill a baby in just a day or two. What we do saves the lives of young people who are loved and cared for just like our own children.

Aid Africa has eleven employees now: Rosette is our Country Administrator; Freda, Priscilla and Issa work in the camps doing stove work and taking care of sick babies, Gloria is our social worker at the hospital and Daniel is our chief brick maker. And we also have four other brick makers working under his guidance. All these people are wonderful human beings! And we are so lucky to have them all. Ken and I are thousands of miles away and they continue our program. If you'd like to read a sample report, just ask me. They are very uplifting.

I hope you can see the value of our program and the value of your donation to aid Africa. Almost all your donations are spent in Uganda, except for bookkeeping fees and such. Looking at the other organizations working in northern Uganda I'm very proud of how much we accomplish compared to most of them. I know how valuable your donations will be and hope you come to Uganda to see what we're doing. I look forward to hearing from you.

Peter