Economic Develoment and Health Care

Ray asked me to blog for him today...
Because of Him,
Randy




Yesterday we drove over 2 hours into the mountains to a village where Cheetah will be involved on project #2. The Village of Bomalang'ombe is a very remote village of about 5000 people. Cheetah will be working again with food value chain issues but with different products and in slightly different ways than in Ilambilole where Project #1 will be taking place. Both are highly productive villages as a whole, as well as very proud villages. This was very evident in the way they took care of themselves, their homes, shops, & village.
There are two Doctors on our team. One is an Anesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic. The other worked with the first for 10 years at Mayo and now operates a consulting business. He also operates a clinic in the remote mountains of SW Kenya west of Nairobi. I have visited two dispensaries in these two villages with the doctors to photograph and record their visit. As we have visited these remote mini-clinic the Doctors have discussed HIV-AIDS education, they have looked at everything from the number if instruments to patient protocol to try and discover how they best assist the clinics. We were amazed at the quality of the first which even had a liquid oxygen cooled freezer that had a very good supply of vaccines.
We were also amazed at the second clinic, but for very different reasons. Being so very remote and difficult to get to makes for its own sets of challenges.
Yesterday as we spoke with the nurse in Bomalang'ombe one doctor asked her how many of the mothers that deliver babies each month are infected with HIV-AIDS. She said of he 15-20 she sees deliver each month, 70-80%! She shared with us that they have discovered that often times the middlemen that come to town to buy products pay for sex and are to cause for much of the spreading of this disease. I later discovered from Ray as we discussed the day that the going rate is in the village is about 500TSH. (Tanzanian Schillings) that works out to about $.35! Yes, that is 35 CENTS. The decimal point is correct. It was very interesting discussion that developed as we began to work through the issues of economic development when the workforce could possibly not be viable within a short period of time.
This expanded into confirmation of why our church is supporting Cheetah in the first place. It is. Not about all the "Benjamins". It is a holistic approach to adding value with what is ready in place from the perspective of the village. It must be a perceived value on the part of the people generated by the ideas of the villagers themselves.
I am being reminded of the intertwined complexity of the issues. Please pray for wisdom for all involved.
This fact alone spoke volumes to me of the fact that this is
Because of Him,
Randy

(Sent from my Verizon Wireless CrackBerry)

Bicycle Factory Chapter 3: Wonder Welders

(To start at the beginning, go to http://cheetahdevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/bicycle-factory-chapter-1.html)

I was on the trail of finding welders to work in a possible bicycle factory . It was recommended that I stop by Wonder Welders and see what they have.

But let me back up a little. Tanzania has enlightened laws to protect the employment rights of handicapped people. But with only 15% employment (not UNemployment) a handicapped person, whether by birth or injury has little chance in the world.

There are a few organizations in Tanzania working to help. Wonder Welders is one of these. I met the new Director, Elly Kay in the workshop. Their organization employs exclusively handicapped men and women. They teach craft skills including welding, paper making, specialty soaps, glass bead creation, and more. At first they give some art guidance and then they set them loose to create. On May 29th, 2009, I stopped by and met them.

Using scrap materials, these artists make beautiful works that could be treasured across the world. They pay an above average salary and then give the artists a commission on everything of theirs that is sold. 44 disadvantaged people have a new life of dignity.

Wonder Welders is operating at about break even. It could use some accounting help to organize their finances and calculate the costs of pieces. We are looking to coordinate this with business students from the University of Dar es Salaam. (See related story.) There is more demand for their products than they are able to meet, but exporting has its own complications and requires building up a large enough stock to make it work. That requires cash flow and there is none available.

I didn't find welders for the bicycle factory, I did find artists!

Check out their website at http://www.wonderwelders.org/