from USA Today This article examines the many ways that US missions help to fulfill people. People are finding that fulfillment in Africa. - KaleBy Rick Hampson, KIGALI, Rwanda — On the last day of spring, Tom Wheeler left home in Southern California with his wife, his two kids and two audacious dreams.As a civil engineer, he hopes to bring standard, nicely paved sidewalks to a city with almost none.As a follower of Rick Warren, the evangelist who wrote the bestseller The Purpose Driven Life, Wheeler dreams of making Rwanda the world's first "purpose-driven nation." That means spreading the Gospel and helping this tiny African country, which 14 years ago endured the worst genocide since the Holocaust, continue its unlikely journey toward peace and prosperity."Rick challenged us all to...
from The Watertown Daily Times Summer time is when kids are out of school, and they have time to taketrips and lend a helping hand. This one is for building houses in Mexico. - KaleMEXICO MISSION: Local teenagers brave variety of challenges to build houses for the poorBy GABRIELLE HOVENDONThe 10 adults and 34 teenagers who signed up for the fifth annual Watertown First Presbyterian Church Mexico Mission Trip found themselves faced with poverty and tough conditions when they arrived in Tijuana, Mexico, on July 1.The group, led by the church's associate pastor, the Rev. Matthew D. Schultz, partnered with a San-Diego based organization called Amor Ministries to build three houses for Mexican families.The ministry was founded in 1980 and has built more than 12,000 homes in poverty-stricken...
from the Des Moines Register The great thing about lending a hand is when your done, you want to do it again. This story profiles 3 girls from Iowa who helped the people of Appalachia. - Kale, Poverty News Blog Editor.By JULI PROBASCO-SOWERSThree Johnston High School students have returned from a trip they say makes them look at life more realistically, appreciate family more and be less materialistic.Haley Johnson, 17, and Kara Highfill, 15, both of Johnston, and Caroline Byrd, 16, of Urbandale just returned from a mission trip to Kentucky.Three crews totaling 12 people from Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Urbandale repaired and improved houses for families through the Appalachian Service Project."I just had such a great experience last time," Byrd said. "I learned so much from...
from the North Jersey Record This shows that there actually benifit to going overseas and doing charity work. This article from the North Jersey Record profiles a man who has had enough of the rat race. - KaleBY JOHN CHADWICKDuring his days working in corporate America, Doug Garofalo may have seemed an unlikely candidate for the Franciscan religious order and its embrace of voluntary poverty.But even as Garofalo worked as an accountant for chains like Saks Fifth Avenue and Aeropostale, the River Edge native maintained a strong connection to his hometown church, St. Peter the Apostle, and kept a decidedly modest lifestyle."I had a very modest house in Hackensack," Garofalo, 46, said. "I was living as simple as possible in the retail world of Bergen County."His preference for simple,...
from the Statesman Journal This is a profile of an orphanage in Mexico. Churches in Oregon work with this orphanage sending volunteers and donations their way. Info on how to donate is at the bottom. - Kaleby Dick HughesMario kept his promise: He was graduating.Now we had to fulfill our part of the bargain.So last week found my family 2,594 miles from Salem in the steamy rainforest of southern Mexico.We joined the rows of proud parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and guardians as the middle-school students marched in formation to receive their certificates and grades.Yes, middle school. With elaborate ceremony, Mexican schools celebrate success at each stage — primary, middle and high schools.Making it through middle school was a big accomplishment for 16-year-old Mario.His...
from the Marshfield News Herald MEDFORD -- When most people head to the Caribbean during Wisconsin's coldest and dreariest months, it is to relax on a beach. For Heidi Serrano, the trip offered an opportunity to do some good for others while honoring her late father.For nearly two weeks, Serrano and 11 other individuals from the Good News Project built homes for the underprivileged on the island of Grenada in the West Indies."The people in Grenada are living in such poverty that they can't afford to rebuild after the devastation of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 that basically leveled the island," Serrano said. "It felt good to know we were helping them start to get their lives back."Serrano helped build two homes: one for an elderly woman and another for a family of seven who were living in a...
from WTOL Toledo By Shelley Lee,FOSTORIA - Mission service in the suburbs. Sounds like easy work, help a few kids at a Bible school program, serve in a soup kitchen. No problem.Not quite.Just seven miles from prestigious Boston neighborhoods, working in the town of Lynn, Mass., where 11 Wesley United Methodist youth travelled last week was anything but easy.With 53 percent of the population listed as low income, 80 percent of the school age children on the free lunch program, and a ranking of the fourth highest percentage of homeless in the state, this place was no walk in the park. Healthcare is also mandatory in Massachusetts which creates a serious financial problem for many.Jenny Miller, youth director at Wesley U.M. for nine years, led the group with Paul and Krista Harrison, and...
from the Seattle Post Intelligencer By NOEL LYN SMITHClad in yellow and blue jerseys, 144 bicyclists gathered among the usual walkers and beachcombers Monday morning on the shores at Golden Gardens Park.Each dipped their rear tires in the cool waters of Puget Sound before departing on their 3,881-mile journey. For nine weeks, the group will ride from Seattle to Jersey City, N.J. -- then dip their front tires in the Atlantic Ocean.The Sea to Sea 2008 Bike Tour aims to raise $1.5 million to help those in poverty, and is sponsored by the Christian Reformed Church in North America in cooperation with the Reformed Church in America."It captures people's attention when you have 20 people riding in a group," local organizer Doug Houck said. "But over 100 people riding, that will make an...
from The Columbus Dispatch
After 150 years, the Sisters of Mercy still dedicate their lives to serving the needy
By Meredith Heagney
CINCINNATI -- In 1858, they were a group of 11 young immigrant women who came to America to live in poverty so they could help others who had it even worse.
Today, the local order of the Sisters of Mercy operates a range of services that includes schools, hospitals and countless one-on-one contacts.
The past 150 years haven't changed the order's mission: to serve the poor, sick and uneducated, particularly women and children.
Sister Louise Huitink is one of the sisters carrying on the work of her predecessors. Her specialty is caring for the elderly poor, bringing them groceries, managing their finances and taking them out for their birthdays.
She...
from the Allentown Examiner Community encouraged to support Allentown Lake events June 26-29BY JANE MEGGITT Staff WriterALLENTOWN - Not many rafts float on Allentown Lake, which makes the one that will be launched on Thursday evening even more special.Four team members planning a mission to the African nation of Malawi in August will launch the raft to raise awareness about their trip. They plan to spend 72 hours on the lake from June 26-29.Those interested in learning more about the mission of the Allentown Presbyterian Church can visit the information table that will be set up near the lake. The rafters have also planned a variety of other events to spark community interest and participation, including a wine and cheese tasting at a lake house, music at Pete Sensi Park, a water...
from Nurse dot comMaryland RN and Doctors Without Borders leave their stamp on global povertyDon VaughanJane Hannon, RN, BSN, MPH, knows what poverty looks like. It's the swollen bellies of infants who are slowly starving to death because there's no food to feed them. It's the hollowed eyes of adults afflicted with diseases that were eradicated long ago in more industrialized nations.As a healthcare provider, Hannon felt compelled to help such victims of global poverty. Between 2005 and 2007, she spent 10 months in Mussende, Angola, and six months in Teknaf, Bangladesh, working for the international relief agency Doctors Without Borders (DWB)."I had worked for the Peace Corps from 1997 to 1999, so I knew I wanted to do international health work," says Hannon, who works as a research...
from the Worcester Telegram and Gazette By Bronislaus B. Kush About two years ago, Nicholas Campolettano, a student at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester who was studying religion and sociology, began developing an interest in the plight of some of the indigenous people of Africa.He researched issues affecting Africans and carefully monitored news developments from the world’s second-largest and second-most populous continent.Last year, Mr. Campolettano, a resident of Hicksville, N.Y., on Long Island, even worked with U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, and state Sen. Edward M. Augustus Jr., D-Worcester, to organize a program on the genocide in Darfur.“I did a lot of studying, but you can only read so much,” said Mr. Campolettano, who will be a senior next fall. “I...
from the Boston Globe By Billy BakerDr. Joia Mukherjee really wants to be a singer. That, she has already decided, will be her second career, and she just has to finish her first career, this minor business of "getting all the world's HIV and poverty squared away," before she can get started in earnest."I brought a karaoke machine to Haiti last week," Mukherjee said recently in her office on Huntington Avenue, though her smile turns into a smirk when she notes that she never got to use it. She was too busy saving lives as the medical director for Partners in Health, a Boston-based organization dedicated to fighting poverty and healthcare inequality in impoverished countries.In one single hour in Haiti, she said, the organization saved the lives of five children who would have died of...
from the oak Park LeavesBy BRIDGET KENNEDY bkennedy@pioneerlocal.comWhile looking out into a crowd of people in Zambia in November 2005, a disfigured little boy caught the attention of Dr. Lisa Thornton, an Oak Park resident and pediatrician.Gift Benwa was outside playing with friends when a wind storm hit his tiny village. A metal roof flew off the top of a hut and hit Gift, breaking both his arms and shaving off his face.Living with no running water or electricity, Gift's family threw a towel around him and took him to the hospital.Gift was only 5 years old when he was hit.By the time Thornton saw Gift two years later, he had already had a number of surgeries, but Thornton said they were "substandard.""His arms, of course, healed fine, but his face was a bit of a problem," she said....
from the Ventura County StarBy Clair TenneyFor three-and-a-half weeks over winter break, I embarked on a journey that changed me and my entire outlook on life. Along with 13 other California Lutheran University students, I went for a trip to India led by professors Dr. Paul Hanson and Dr. Druann Pagliassoti. The previous semester of studying the country and seeing slides could never have prepared me for what was to come.My first week in India was a long one. I frequently cried over the sights I was shocked by — sights that I wanted to run away from at the time, sights now that I miss.Roads are complete chaos. I have never been somewhere with so much noise. New York City does not even compare. People use horns to communicate everything. Not one single car, motorcycle, bike, bus or...
from the San Francisco Chronicle Meredith May, Chronicle Staff WriterDr. Frank Artress looked down at his fingers. His nail beds were turning blue. He was running out of oxygen near the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro.A cardiac anesthesiologist, Artress knew the signs of high altitude pulmonary edema. He knew there was a 75 percent chance that he would perish on Africa's highest peak.Artress led his wife to a rock, and they sat together above the clouds. Then it hit him. He wasn't afraid to die, he was ashamed. He had lived only for himself - practicing medicine in a Modesto hospital, traveling with his wife, purchasing luxury vacation homes and collecting art. He felt as if he had nothing to show for his 50 years. He felt as if his life had been a waste.In that moment, Artress and his wife...
fro the Journal Sentinel OnlineConsultant builds African client baseBy RICK ROMELLIt's one of those things that started with college students talking earnestly over coffee.They were in Iowa, but their interest was the Third World and how best to help develop it economically. Someday, they said, they'd go into business together and do just that.That was nearly 20 years ago, but the ocean-spanning friendships those conversations forged explain how a key piece of the development efforts of the African nation of Angola came to be handled from a small suite of offices in the YWCA building on N. King Drive.Those would be the offices of Pinnacle XL Inc., an eight-employee management consulting firm that, improbably, draws about half its sales from Angola, a country that for decades was crippled...
from the Somerset County GazetteA CROWCOMBE man is helping distribute aid in one of Asia's poorest countries, coming face to face with AIDS, poverty and conflict.Richard Butterworth is working with the Government's Department for International Development, which manages Britain's aid to poor countries and works to end extreme poverty.He moved to Burma with his wife and their son in August last year - just weeks before thousands of Buddhist monks started protests against the military government.He said: "At first it was quite exciting, as though this was the moment where things were going to change for the better."But after that it got quite scary and very disappointing that nothing was going to change."Then there was the aftermath where there was a major crackdown by the military - there...
from Inside Bay AreaSouthern California doctor sets up HIV/AIDS facility to help MalawiansBy Kyveli Diener, REDWOOD CITY — There's far more happening in Malawi than Madonna's high-profile adoption scandal.In this relatively small country in southeastern Africa, approximately 80,000 out of 12 million Malawian citizens die of AIDS every year, according to the World Health Organization.As many turn their back on this beautiful yet seemingly hopeless country, where a high mortality rate means children are often raised by other children, one man has been working for nearly eight years to make a difference.Dr. Perry Jansen, 46, moved to Malawi in late 2000 and founded the nonprofit Partners in Hope Medical Center in the country's capital, Lilongwe. His free clinic provides treatment,...
from the East Aurora Advertiserby Alex Nye In 1971, Idi Amin Dada took control of Uganda in a military coup. He became a tyrannical dictator who oversaw political repression, ethnic persecution, and terrible violations of human rights. During his eight years of power, it is estimated that he killed nearly half-a-million people.Despite Uganda's unpopular portrayal in documentaries and Hollywood movies, it is a friendly country with much untapped potential. However, there are still many problems, including malnutrition, dire poverty and AIDS. Ugandans have had to live with this unfair historical stigma associated with Idi Amin. The landlocked African country is far from modernized-many villages do not have clean water or electricity.Kim Hanavan, an East Aurora resident and recent graduate...
from the Daily PennsylvanianNatasha BandukwallaCraig Sinkinson, President and founder of the Mayan Medical Aid, a non-profit organization that funds medically related projects involving Mayan Indians, spoke at Civic House last night. He addressed the impact of maternal and childhood nutritional diseases during pregnancy and early childhood development.His speech was part of Healthy Philadelphia Week, which is sponsored by Civic House and works to build awareness of public health issues in the Philadelphia area.Sinkinson left the United States in 2004 to start a health clinic in a small village, Santa Cruz La Laguna, in Guatemala. This health initiative aims to improve the nutrition, primary health care and sanitation of the inhabitants of Santa Cruz, Guatemala, while maintaining the...
from Inside Bay AreaWoodside students raise $30,000 to help construct school in KenyaBy Alan Fackler, STAFF WRITERArticle Created: 03/23/2008 02:37:46 AM PDTWOODSIDE — Jason Richard Doherty's and Dan Polk's quest takes them far from the hills of San Mateo County.As two of the founders of the Daraja Academy, a newly formed school in Kenya for students whose families cannot afford to pay tuitions, they've embraced a project to help children halfway across the world."It's absolutely incredible to give people an opportunity to pursue an education," said Polk, a history teacher at Woodside Priory School. "When people don't have an avenue out of poverty, it could fester and ignite."Both Polk and Doherty, who is a teacher atHogan High School in Vallejo, have asked their school communities to...
from The Sacramento BeeBy Anita Creamer - acreamer@sacbee.comPublished 12:00 am PDT Wednesday, March 26, 2008Starvation. Poverty. Disease. AIDS orphans.When Americans see the deep problems of the developing world – and Africa in particular – they want to reach out and help.But the point of Village Care International, Jennifer Clancy is saying, is self-sufficiency: Encouraging empowerment from within instead of continued reliance on outsiders."With poverty comes hopelessness," says Clancy, 41, executive director of the Auburn-based nonprofit. "When you see that in Africa, the degree of hopelessness is overwhelming."There are things you can do with the resources you have. You don't have to depend on outside aid from America. You don't have to wait for your government to come, because...
from the Journal and CourierBy TAYA FLOREStflores@journalandcourier.comInstead of sunbathing at a resort in an exotic part of the world during spring break, a group of eight local nursing students traveled to Haiti to help treat the sick.As the students from the St. Elizabeth School of Nursing disembarked from the plane, they noticed the poverty. Haitians begged for money at the airport in Port-au-Prince. Exhaust fumes, dust and garbage created a powerful stench that assaulted the nose.At one point the students stopped at a gas station and a crowd of kids swarmed them, grabbing their arms in hopes of receiving money."The poverty is completely overwhelming," said Melissa Buntin, a senior nursing student who went to Haiti with classmates from Feb. 29 to March 7.Haiti is the poorest country...
from Montana State UniversityBy Evelyn BoswellBOZEMAN -- Montana State University students and faculty returned to west Africa this month to join villagers who want to eradicate malaria.A$462,000 grant from the USDA-CSREES Higher Education Challenge Grant Program allowed five MSU students, two MSU faculty members, a Helena school teacher and a student at Chief Dull Knife College to spend two weeks in Mali as part of an on-going partnership with the village of Sanambele, said grant recipient and MSU entomologist Florence Dunkel.While in Sanambele, MSU senior Eva Mends is sharing her findings on the effectiveness of four native plants that the villagers use to fight malaria, Dunkel said. Mends, a Helena native majoring in biomedical sciences and French, interviewed the villagers and...
from the Observer OnlineShawn Ahmed postpones studies, liquidates accounts to chronicle service trip to East AsiaJoseph McMahonThe mission of the University of Notre Dame calls its students to rise to extraordinary levels in service to others. Still, it is rare to see a student liquidate his accounts, postpone his studies, and travel halfway around the world to hand out mosquito nets and clean water in a disaster area.Shawn Ahmed, a 26-year-old graduate student in sociology, did exactly that, all the while chronicling his exploits on YouTube and Flickr under the pseudonym, "The Uncultured Project." Ahmed has been in Bangladesh since late June."I call it 'The Uncultured Project' because there really is nothing sophisticated about it," Amed said. "I have no formal training or concrete plan....
from the Brown County DemocratBy MARYLIN DAYEarly in January 2008, a group of students from Franklin College visited Brazil to further their education in cultural and sociological studies. I accompanied the group led by professors, Dr. David Chandler and Dr. Jason Jimerson. We learned a great deal about this vast country and it’s history, society and people.Brazil is a tapestry of colors, textures and music. As a relatively new republic (1889), the history of Brazil, since the Portuguese came in search of gold and silver, has been a turmoil of dictatorships, monarchies and coups. Today the mix of peoples constantly influences this emerging, growing country. The current economy is increasing, dramatically and chaotically, almost like a child learning to ride a bike for the first...
from The Pittsburgh Post GazetteBy Chris Gray, The Philadelphia InquirerSIEM REAP, Cambodia -- Let's be honest: It was the specter of tigers, temples and tom yam soup that led my husband and me to honeymoon in Southeast Asia. We wanted an adventure to remember, on a continent where neither of us had been.But as I researched our trip, I realized that we should spend at least a little time practicing "voluntourism," giving back to people who are still struggling for the basics after decades of war and poverty.We found a way to have it all in Siem Reap, Cambodia, home of the ancient temple complex Angkor Wat -- and Ponheary Ly, a tour guide who considers it her mission to help educate as many Cambodian children as possible.I found Ly, a Siem Reap native and survivor of dictator Pol Pot's...
from the Philadelphia InquirerAt his clinic near Sierra Leone's diamond mines, a medical student from Valley Forge confronts the desolation of war and want.By Rathe MillerFor The InquirerThe amputees were everywhere. A leg, an arm, often both arms chopped off at the wrists or the elbows. They barely survived by begging in the streets.Dan Kelly, a third-year medical student from Valley Forge, knew they were the wounded from a decade-long civil war that had devastated Sierra Leone.What he did not know was why no one was helping them.Kelly had come to Sierra Leone - one of the poorest countries on earth - with a mission. He was not sure what form that mission would take, but he knew it was far from treating the kind of medical conditions he would see on the Main Line.His first visit was two...
from the Richmond Times DispatchGhana trip is humbling Some VCU students spend break volunteering in West AfricaBy BONNIE NEWMAN DAVISSPECIAL CORRESPONDENTACCRA, GHANA In her part-time job as a pool lifeguard, Virginia Commonwealth University senior Elizabeth Reeder is able to quickly help people in need.But her training didn't prepare her for what she experienced two days after the New Year's holiday while visiting an impoverished area of Accra, Ghana, in West Africa.There, Reeder and other students from VCU's School of Social Work met Felicia, a 10-year-old girl who appeared to be lifeless in the tiny, one-room dwelling she shared with her mother and eight siblings.Reeder hoisted the girl on her back in a sling and, with the help of other students, carried her to a hospital on a Tro...