What's Woody Doing Now

God Given Dreams

This summer I had the opportunity to tell my story and the dream of the Congo Water Project at a number of Presbyterian Churches in central Indiana. The following is an excerpt of a sermon given on August 7th at Grace Presbyterian Church, Fort Wayne. You can download the entire sermon with pictures (Download God Given Dreams).

The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. Genesis 37:17-19.

During one of my early trips to the Congo, I was discussing my mission with a Congolese man. Today, this man is unknown to me, I can’t remember his face, and I can’t even remember the village or city where I was. But this unknown man said that I was like Joseph. It was not colorful shirts. It was not my charming looks. It was my dream to help the Congolese people.

This morning for a few minutes I would like to share some of my dreams of Congo with you. I dream of access to safe drinking water to poor rural Congolese. Officially, you will read that less than 50 percent of the Congolese have access to safe drinking water. But in reality, seven out of ten rural Congolese have access to safe drinking water. We will just say that 50 percent do not have access to safe drinking water. No matter which you slice it, millions of Congolese do not have access to safe drinking water. They are the “Other Half”.

Let’s define access to safe drinking water. Get up right now, pour yourself a glass of water and drink it. If you return to your chair in less than 30 minutes, walked less than a kilometer in safety and did not become ill, your water meets most of the definition for safe drinking water, as published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, in 2006.

Congo Helping Hands dreams to purify unsafe drinking water with bio-sand filters and with LifeStraw Family filters. We dream to bring water nearer to the poor by drilling water wells and building water cisterns. We dream to bring basic sanitation systems to the rural poor, too.

I so believe God have sent me to the Congo to help his people, the poor Congolese women and girls who walk miles to get water for their families. I believe God have sent me to the Congo to help his people, the poor baby girls and boys who drink dirty water and get sick. Our God wants us to bring safe and near water to the ‘Other Half’.

Please pray for me and others as we implement these water and sanitation projects. Pray that God opens our heart, eyes, and ears to the needs of millions of poor Congolese. Amen.

Searching for Clean White Sand

We searched several creek beds but found no clean white sand. The creeks in the town are mostly filled with clay sediments. We need clean white sand for the bio sand filter project.

Today, Moise is going to the one the rivers about five miles out of Kananga.

Another Setback for Congo

The US got tough with the Congo.  The rapes and other humanitarian abuses by Congolese soldiers were cited as the reason.   Maybe this setback will lead to some positive results.

VOA | DR Congo Decries Loss of Favored US Trade Status | Africa | English.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is criticizing the loss of its status as a favored U.S. trading partner. An order from President Barack Obama Tuesday stripped the DRC of its status as a beneficiary of the African Growth and Opportunity Act.

The designation gave Congo specific trade advantages to encourage economic development and reforms. U.S. officials say the move stemmed from large-scale human rights abuses by the Congolese armed forces, especially rapes.

Congo, Rebels and Nuclear Materials

Here's a dangerous combination.  The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a third world, lawless, poor, African countries.  Eastern Congo is a wild, lawless place where rebels groups from neighboring countries roam around to rape, pillage, and loot.  A Congo mine produced uranium, and other nuclear and radioactive materials.

As a result, the US signed a nuclear proliferation deal with the Congo.  We must remember Congo is not your typical poor African country.

AFP: DR Congo signs nuclear proliferation deal with US.

The United States and Democratic Republic of Congo on Tuesday signed an agreement to prevent trafficking of nuclear and radioactive materials, the US embassy said. The deal comes after a November UN report revealed that a group of Rwandan rebels in the east of the country attempted to sell six containers of uranium which dated back to the days of Belgian colonial rule.

The agreement highlights Washington's commitment to helping DR Congo effectively deal with proliferation of nuclear materials, the US embassy said in a statement. The United States has signed similar deals with Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, the statement said.

The uranium discovered by UN experts came from the country's only uranium mine in Shinkolobwe, Katanga province, which closed in 1960. Uranium from Shinkolobwe was sold to the United States by Belgium in 1943 and used in the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

DR Congo and French nuclear giant Areva agreed a deal to develop uranium mining in March last year.

Mobile Justice Being Developed for Congo

The Mobile Justice sounds interesting.  We will have to see how it is implemented.  And more importantly, if it is used by the police and courts to bring them to justice.

Launch of the GSMA mWomen Program.

And we (US State Department) are developing an innovative program that addresses the particular needs of women. For example, we are in the early stages of developing an idea we are calling Mobile Justice to help women in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where sexual violence against women occurs at a horrific rate. In many parts of that country the police and court systems have disintegrated, so women who are attacked have no way to get justice. They can’t even realistically travel to the urban centers where courts have been reestablished. But these cell phones give women the ability to collect evidence and record and transmit their testimony, so women in rural areas may be able to bring justice to them.

  

 

Witnessing History Up Close

At a recent Toastmaster meeting, my speech project was to bring history to life.  It was a speech out of the Storytelling Manual.

The original speech was ok at best.  After the meeting, I decided to rework the speech and record it.  Not because it was better but because I thought you may want to know about my first trip to the Congo in August 1998.  During that trip, I witnessed history taking place.  And it changed my life.

Witnessing History Up Close

 

Water, Sanitation, and Birth Registration

The lack of improved drinking water and adequate sanitation continue to cause high childhood (under 5-years old) mortality.  One out of five children die before reaching their fifth birthday.  Ironically, the rate may be more since, two out of three children (under 5-years old) were not registered. 

UNICEF - Congo, Democratic Republic of the - Results of 'Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey' released.

Among the worrying tendencies are the degradation of birth registration and the stagnation in the use of improved drinking water sources and improved sanitation facilities.

Still today, only one in seven people in DR Congo lives in acceptable hygienic conditions and less than half of the population has access to safe drinking water.

Two out of three children under five do not have a birth certificate, a situation that has worsened over the past decade. Indeed, while 34 percent of the country’s children under five were registered in 2000, this figure dropped to 28 per cent in 2010.

Is There A Polio Booster?

This polio outbreak is alarming!  It's atypical.  Normally, it attacks children and mostly causes paralysis.  This polio outbreaks is affecting more males, more adults, and is more deadly.  That's scary!

I hope my doctor can give me a polio booster before January.

 

Congo Republic Declares Polio Emergency - NYTimes.com.

An explosive outbreak of polio is taking place in the Congo Republic, with 201 cases of paralysis found in two weeks and 104 deaths, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

The government in Brazzaville, the nation’s capital, has declared an emergency and announced plans to vaccinate the entire population with oral drops three times with help from the W.H.O., Unicef and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Pointe Noire, the port city where most of the cases are concentrated, “We’ve got two hospitalswith hundreds of paralyzed people and many dead,” Dr. Bruce Aylward, the W.H.O.’s director of global polio eradication, said in an interview from Geneva. “And a couple of things about this outbreak are different and deeply disturbing.”

Polio normally strikes young boys and girls equally, killing no more than 20 percent of those it paralyzes; death ensues when paralysis moves up the spine to the nerves that control the breathing muscles. In Pointe Noire, 85 percent of the cases are in teenagers and adults, most victims are male, and the death rate is much higher.

Eight killed by epidemic akin to polio in the Republic of Congo

 

Every time I hear POLIO, I think of these two young boys that I saw recently in a Congolese village.  They are the only two children not standing erect. They were stricken and crippled by polio.  Also, they were too poor and did not have access to braces.  So they crawl around in the dirt and dust.  BUT, they were lucky!  They were alive!!

Health officials said "There is a serious outbreak of polio in the Republic of Congo:120 cases of acute flaccid paralysis (a syndrome related to polio) and eight deaths."  I heard the story last week at a Rotary District 6560 meeting.  Our Polio contact just mentioned southern Congo was the site.  I thought it was about my Congo (the Democratic Republic of the Congo) instead of the other Congo (the smaller and northern neighbor, the Republic of Congo).

IRIN Africa | CONGO: Eight killed by epidemic akin to polio | Congo | Health & Nutrition.

An epidemic akin to polio, which has raged for nearly two weeks in the main commercial city in southern Congo, Pointe-Noire, has already killed eight, and several dozen cases have been reported, say health officials.

"Patients admitted to hospitals have flu-like symptoms. They are also presenting with paralysis starting in the lower limbs which spreads to the upper limbs, "said Director-General of Health Alexis Elira Dockekias.

"This epidemic is related to the recent polio outbreak. The only difference is that this time the disease affects adolescents and adults, unlike polio which affects mainly the young and children," he said, adding that those affected by the epidemic are aged 15-45.

He called on the public "not to panic but to observe strict hygiene measures: boiling drinking water; washing vegetables properly; and cooking cassava [the staple food] thoroughly."

The Parallel between Automobiles and Electronics

Rubber from Congo fueled the automobile industry. They brought us closer together. But 20 million Congolese died in the process over 20 years.

Coltan from Congo fueled the electronic (computers and phones) industry. They brought us closer together. But 6 million Congolese have died in the process. It is still happening every day.