December 7, 2006

Dear Friends,
 
You've all received Ken's latest update of Aid Africa.  Now I have some news of my own for you.

I am leaving on Jan. 6th for Uganda and I will return close to the end of the month.  While I am there I will check in with Rosette in Jinga to see how our efforts to become a recognized Ugandan charity are going.  Then I will travel to Gulu where our new office is and our three new employees, Freda, Priscilla and Martin.  These three fairly young people are bright, enthusiastic and eager to work with the poor people in the refugee camps.  However, they lack training and direction from Aid Africa as to what they should be doing.  I will spend time with them explaining how community organizing works, because that's really what they have to do.  Three people can't solve a million people's problems.  But they can show people how to help themselves and that knowledge can then spread through whole communities.

Yes, there are about a million Ugandans in camps around Gulu. T he Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) no longer exists.  It's leader, Joseph Kony, and his officers turned themselves in last spring and peace has broken out.  No more brutal bloodshed!  But the people remain in the camps.  Many have lived there their whole lives.  The battle with the rebels started about twenty years ago so many refugees have nowhere to return to.  Those who do return find their villages gone and that the bush has reclaimed their homes and farmland.  It will takes years to get things back to a kind of normalcy.

The United Nations World Food Service that has supplied food to the camps has a new strategy to encourage people to move back to the countryside away from the cities.  They stop giving food to the close-in camps and tell the people that if they want food, they'll have to go to the many smaller camps in the countryside.  So the people return to their farms and continue to get some help.  Great, yes?  No.  The elderly, infirm, young mothers and infants can't walk back to the new camps.  They are left destitute in the old camps and cut off from relief supplies.

Aid Africa will continue with its programs that are our strength--fuel-efficient stoves, fighting MAD (malaria, anemia and diarrhea) and getting clean water sources.  As Ken mention, we want to expand our services to include reforestation.  While I am in Gulu, I will look for a good brick maker for our stove project, identify some of the camps with the most needs and work with our employees and volunteers, Hugh and Rhonda, on our medical program.  My time is best spent on education.  The brick markers have to understand about our bricks that do not absorb a lot of heat.  The people have to understand why they should abandon their generations old ways of cooking and use our Rocket Stoves.  In fighting malaria, we need to teach that the mosquitoes bring the disease and that mosquito netting is something of value--not to be used for wedding veils or for fishing!

All of our projects cost money.  The stoves are about a dollar apiece and we want to build 100,000 in Gulu.  Taking one baby to the hospital for treatment costs about ten dollars and there are hundreds, if not thousands.  Malaria prevention programs are really inexpensive--perhaps a quarter per household.  But there are thousands of homes.  We'd like to have a good well drilling rig that we'd buy here in the U.S. and ship to Uganda.  That will cost upwards of $30,000.

Our income so far has come from a couple of dedicated donors and many many small contributions.  We need people like you to make donations to help the refugees around Gulu.   There is hope. They have rich farmland and can grow crops that will reestablish their economy.  There is a rail line that can take their crops to international markets.  All these people need is a helping hand and a new start.  You can be part of that effort.  I would personally appreciate your support.

If you would like to make a donation, please send a check to:

Aid Africa
c/o Ken Goyer
285 Maple Street
Eugene, OR 97402

Aid Africa is a registered non-profit organization and your donations are tax deductible.

I will send updates as I am able from Uganda and I look forward to your responses.

Sincerely,

Peter Keller