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Working Together With Grassroots Communities March, 2002
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Working Together With Grassroots Communities March, 2002
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Connecting with Someone Far Away
by Julia Aker Duany
photos by Siri Sitton
In 1993, I returned to south Sudan after an absence of ten years. I saw how the devastation of war had disrupted normal patterns of food production. In the absence of men, women had become heads of households, but without the ways and means to provide for the family, trapped in a humiliating cycle of dependency.
When I returned to south Sudan the next year, I brought with me dozens of little envelopes of vegetable seed, given to me by the people of my church. I gave these to the women and showed them how to plant family vegetable gardens. Our first community garden space was behind the Presbyterian Church in Akobo. I encouraged the women to share the harvest with other women, and spread the idea of gardening to the remote villages.
Ever since, I have been collecting envelopes of vegetable seed in the United States and distributing them to women in south Sudan. The connection between giver and receiver is intangible. But it is very real.
Last year, two young girls in the United States brought the emotion of this connection home to me. After I had spoken in Rebecca's church, she gave her little savings to SSFI to "buy food for the hungry children in Sudan." A few weeks later, the daughter of SSFI's chairman saw a television program about south Sudan. Amber told her mother, "Now I know what to do with my money. I'll give it to Mrs. Duany." I used Rebecca and Amber's money to buy vegetable seed, which I took with me to Sudan in September 2001.
Getting practical help to the people in
south Sudan is expensive, time-consuming, and sometimes dangerous. This is why
outside help seldom reaches the remote areas. That's why I ask the women to
share the vegetable seed with the women of other villages. They can make the
journey. And that's how Amber and Rebecca's concern touched the life of a woman
named Buk.
Last September, I met with women from the villages surrounding Akobo. Buk, balancing her baby in a cradle on top of her head, had walked a long distance to attend the meeting. When she arrived, she put her baby on the ground. Soon she began telling about the sad thoughts that turned over and over in her mind.
Buk was sad because her baby was hungry. She was sad because her old mother seemed too weak to resist the fever of malaria. She worried about the children and the elderly in her village. How many will survive the days ahead? How many will die from gunshot, disease, or starvation? It had been a long, long time since someone had visited her village with a message of hope and peace. Buk said she felt like a woman who had nothing to live for.
Before I could answer Buk, a woman from another village responded. "I felt the same way at the beginning," she said. "But after I got my seeds, I felt good every morning." Nyaluak went on to describe how the other women had taught her to plant the seed and how she had gone up and down, breaking the soil with a big hoe. She told how she went back and forth from the river, carrying water for the garden. Nyaluak said she once ran outside during a heavy rainstorm to check on her garden, because she was afraid the seedlings would wash away.
When Nyaluak began harvesting the vegetables, she fed her children. Then she took vegetables to the church and also gave some to her friends. (North American gardeners will surely smile at Nyaluak's delight in growing so many enormous zucchini.)
Other women who had planted gardens were happy, too. "This is what we should have done a long time ago," Nyaluak said. "Now we are getting up and doing things for ourselves. But how could we have done it without the seed?"
Buk extended her hands to receive several paper envelopes of seed. She could not read the words, but she knew what the photograph of vegetables on the front of each envelope meant. The envelopes made a soft, crinkling sound as she squeezed them in her hands. It was a gift of hope from someone far, far away.
Buk's story
shows that Rebecca and Amber gave so much more than food to children in southern
Sudan. 
They gave entire families a way to provide for themselves. The women who
plant family vegetable gardens feel that they are starting life again. They are
encouraged, because they know that somewhere in the United States, there are
people who care about them. The heart-to-heart connection does make a
difference.
I want to thank everyone who is making it possible for SSFI to help women like Nyaluak and Buk plant their own vegetable gardens. These women are not going to sit around and watch their children die. They are going to do something to help themselves. They will plant and harvest, and save the seed to plant again and again.
This spring, you can get involved with SSFI's small garden project by simply collecting envelopes of vegetable seed and sending them to me at P.O. Box 8582, Bloomington, IN 47407-8582. I'll deliver them to the women on my next trip to south Sudan. The women love easy-to-grow varieties such as squash, zucchini, greens, Swiss chard, cabbage, beans, tomato, corn, carrot, peppers, and onion. Please include $1 for every ten envelopes to help pay shipping costs.-
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Help with
We also can
use long-range radios, |
SSFI's First Mobile Medical Clinic
SSFI's long-range goal is to establish a network of locally managed medical, literacy, and develop-ment centers throughout rural South Sudan. The healthcare branch of the project has been a challenge to develop, because it requires personnel with specialized training and significant resources.
SSFI's vision for a mobile medical clinic is designed to connect resources with need and to compliment the services of a primary healthcare facility. It is a de-centralized, village-driven approach, giving local ownership of the service and connection with the larger effort to achieve self-sufficiency.
Medicins Sans Frontier (MSF) has been operating the hospital in the Akobo region of Upper Nile. Many of the people who need treatment cannot make the journey to Akobo, and the medical services are subject to disruption by attack and raiding. Under these conditions, there is no way to disseminate general knowledge about disease prevention and health management into remote villages.
In addition, many of the individuals that MSF and other organizations have trained over the years still reside in the Akobo area. These people could be treating illness and educating for disease prevention, but they lack resources.
Last year, SSFI's dream of taking basic health care to the remote villages became a reality. The mobile clinic project is a collaborative undertaking, led by Sudanese physician Gatlik Gatlou, with help from Christian Aid (UK). Dr. Gatlou is based in Akobo, where he will identify individuals who have had training in health services and orient them into the program. Then Dr. Gatlou and his workers will select villages, conduct need assessments, and set up village dispensaries. Healthcare workers will remain in the villages.
Dr. Gatlou began his work with a supply of medicines donated by the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the First Presbyterian Church of New Castle, Indiana, and with vitamins from Backstreet Mission, Bloomington, Indiana. More medicines, supplies, equipment, and training materials are needed. Air transportation into Akobo is expensive, and it is the only option. SSFI's budget for the mobile medical clinic for the year 2002 is $25,000.-
Restoring
Civil Society
Bible College for Sudanese Pastors
Many Sudanese Christians in leadership roles have been denied the opportunity to receive training because of decades of war. This is why SSFI was so pleased when Calvary Ministries Bible College in Sultan Hamud, Kenya opened its doors in January 2001 with thirty-five students, coming from Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan. Students represent various Christian traditions, including Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Pentecostal.
The five students from Sudan came from Kakuma Refugee Camp near the Kenyan/Sudan border. SSFI selected these men because of their commitment and calling to serve the Church of Jesus Christ in a pastoral role. Because the five Sudanese are refugees, they had no paperwork allowing them to be in Kenya. With the help of Kenyan authorities, the United Nations, and the College, the proper documents were obtained. The Sudanese arrived at CMBC with only the clothes on their back. This necessitated many unanticipated expenses, and bedding, clothing, and all of their personal affects ultimately had to be purchased by the College. The Sudanese students have jobs on campus to help with their support.
The Sudanese students plan to finish the three-year program and return to Kakuma Refugee Camp to minister until they are able to return to their homes in South Sudan. They are Rev. Andrew Gatwech Gai, Mr.Peter Majok Makuac, Mr. Simon Dual Deng, Mr.James Biel Malou, and Mr. Simon Nyok Majok. Please keep these men, their families, and Calvary Ministries Bible College in your prayers.
SSFI's 2002-support goal for the Sudanese Bible College students is $8,000 (or $133 per month per student). This support goal will cover all expenses for all five men for one year of study.-
Pray for:
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