Butoke Update, September –
December 2005
Dear Brothers
and Sisters,
Hearty
greetings and Best wishes for a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year! Some of you
received our last newsletter in early November, but we have chosen here to
report on the whole period from September to the end December, to give you a
fuller understanding of the different streams of our activities over this
crucial period.
The climate
at this time of year is hard on everyone here in the Kasai. During the day, the
sun shines in full force and we are baked at temperatures reaching 38°C (100.4
F), while at night, it maybe only 15°C (59 F). On cloudy, rainy days, we are
chilled at 15°C or less and receive almost no sunlight.
This is the
season the people of Kasai know as the season of the witches, because so many
people die. Food is scarce and prices high, and malnutrition is prevalent.
Malaria and meningitis are frequent; so is typhoid. Small children perish in
great numbers, but also adolescents and elderly people, especially among the
very poor. Even skilled workers have difficulty making ends meet and therefore,
they often cannot obtain health care when they need it, or cannot obtain health
care at all. As a result, we keep receiving 1-5 emergencies a day and try to
save lives by referring people to local hospitals and clinics or providing
first aid ourselves.
During the
last two weeks of October, Butoke distributed the last beans for planting by
the associations and individual farmers that we support, thanks to a
supplementary grant from ADRA. This was in addition to the main seed distribution
campaign that we described in our previous newsletter. It was an exceptional
privilege to see people’s joy and hope when the supplementary seeds arrived!
On October
20, we went to visit fields for which we had recently provided supplementary
seeds and had the joy to see that the beans had started to sprout. In early
November, a tour of the fields showed excellent work even far above our
expectations in terms of surface worked and sown.
In one of
the remote villages, called Nkonko Tshibundu, made up of people who fled
Mobutu’s army and had never taken up agriculture again but more or less
survived by making and selling charcoal, people have found the courage to
cultivate a 3 ha field and sow it according to our agronomist’s instructions.
Visits made again on December 20 are very encouraging, as the fields seem
almost ready for harvest. May God bless their effort.
Butoke
received funds for two projects on responsible sexuality from both the Child
Health Foundation and the Presbytery of Newcastle in Delaware USA. So we have
started drafting 5 of the 6 teaching modules and hope to train the trainers by
February at the latest.
Butoke also
is trying to manage in the midst of educational chaos, as all official schools
and some private schools were out on strike until mid November. We feared that
the whole year might be lost. We are trying to support almost 600 pupils and
students who are orphans or abandoned kids. The poorest received uniforms and
notebooks from us, but because of the strike, many started classes only at the
beginning of December. Those who were in class were destabilised, until
recently, by fear of attacks on their school.
The
teachers’ strike is part of a much wider strike movement as civil servants in
general have not been paid for 7 months, and their salaries are maintained
about the level of USD 5 to 10 per month. The uncertainly surrounding the
elections and just in the last few days the referendum on the constitution,
adds to the feeling of social unease and potential for new unrest.
Butoke
finalised a proposal in late October for the “Global Fund” to cover 7 health
zones in Western Kasai with preventive and curative measures against malaria.
This project, if accepted, would cover 200,000 people and has provisions that
the absolute poor will be provided free preventive and curative care, while
others could obtain services at subsidized prices. This project has a
tremendous potential to save lives and at the same time experientially combat
superstition. It should make a major dent into seasonal mortality and therefore
in the supposed power of witches. This project might also be the powerful
impulse to establish the right of the poor to free and subsidized care.
However, we have still not had a response to our proposal.
Help the Aged
Canada gave us a small grant ($US 12,500) to develop a variety of activities
for the elderly: food security with existing or new associations, feeding,
habitat, and medical care. We have started systematizing our interventions for
the aged, which we often undertake in parallel with those for children.
We also
have started to construct some housing for elderly people in Tshikaji and
Tshibundu. In the case of Tshibundu, Jean Lumbala started by teaching younger
volunteers how to burn bricks. We hope to build at least four small houses (20
to 25 m2 each) with the bricks made by these volunteers. Butoke will
buy tools, cement, rafts and roofing and feed everyone during work. The
estimated average cost will be about $US 2,100 for one house. This activity has
been embraced with enthusiasm by all the villagers. The village had never made
bricks, and there was only one brick building of a young man in the village.
With the necessary equipment and learning the skills, people dream that at the
end, all will have brick buildings.
We also
started to feed some of the most desperate cases of both children and elderly
widows, at my home and that of Jean Lumbala in September. By the end October,
it was clear that if we did not take in more people and intensify our action,
many people might die needlessly. So we were moved to start feeding children in
Tshikaji that were known to us to be malnourished, using as a base the
unfinished Butoke nutrition center (Tshikaji is a peri-urban village 12 km from
Kananga). We started with 35 children, most with kwashiorkor or prekwashiorkor,
some with extreme cases of stunting and one with marasmus.
From the
first day, we also had to feed some starving widows. It was an unforgettable
scene, most children crying in utter misery, some very tired and withdrawn, the
older women, looking absent minded but eager to eat as much as humanly
possible. The 35 malnourished children became 52, then 75, then 96 in the weeks
that followed. The widows grew to 36, each one more hungry than the other, most
weighing only between 30 and 40 kg for 1,60m and more (66 pound to 88 pound for
a 5’5’’ woman).
In the
nutrition centre, we have gone through the worries about early loss of weight
due to the loss of excess water in the child’s body, followed by the elation of
subsequent weight gain. Two children had to be hospitalised by us for
infections. Another died suddenly, probably of hypothermia, alone at night. By
December 20, all have significantly gained weight, and there is a light in
their eyes. A few still whine, sometimes.
The
littlest was 11 months and weighed only 3,7kg when he arrived. He became
active, ate phenomenal amounts 4 times a day, and now weights 6.5 kg. His
mother had 5 children born to her and has so far lost 4. She now seems to have
a glimmer of hope. We live daily the miracle of return of hope. We hope and
pray these children will live and grow happily.
The feeding
of the elderly came earlier than we expected to do it, but it enters very well
in the framework of our overall trust to focus on the most underprivileged,
including the aged. So far, we have managed on funds from Help the Aged, on a
loan from Branch and Dickens Warfield, and on Cecile’s retirement funds. So, we
have been carrying on merrily, praying that God, in His mercy, will help us
further to provide for everyone.
In
December, we finished drafting a major proposal in Partnership with Africa
Inland Mission Canada (AIM) for submission to CIDA’s Innovation Fund. If
successful, this project will provide support for our Food Security and
Nutrition program for the next two years. That program currently covers 200 ha,
and under the proposal, we plan to expand this to 300 ha with a greater variety
of staple and protein foods.
We are
hoping to get a head start on this project during the upcoming secondary crop
season beginning in January 2006. The previously mentioned contribution from
Help the Aged Canada will help us in this, but in addition, we have prepared a
small project which will allow us to establish 23 ha of bean seed farms and 2 ha
for the multiplication of cassava cuttings. This will allow us to acquire
better seeds and to gain some experience with managing seed farms before
expanding such activities under the AIM project.
The two
principal Kasai personalities carrying a heavy workload in building up Butoke
are Jean Lumbala Muamba (its president) who in June 2006 will obtain his degree
as a medical doctor and who is also a very experienced agronomist; and Rev
Lazare Tshibuabua Dikebele (its secretary) who is a teacher of New Testament at
the Presbyterian University, a pastor and the executive presbyter of Kananga,
as well as an official in an ecumenical network for social action. They
together provide powerful practical and charismatic leadership.
Cecile
continues to support their work asking the questions she knows will arise,
providing technical back up, and liasing with all who are interested in
assisting the work locally or abroad, as well as meeting the people that come
to the office hoping for help. The latter work demands a great deal of
discernment. Indeed, we attract as well the destitute as the resourceful crook,
the deadly emergency as the hypochondriac. This demands a combination of
empathy, firmness and humility. Unfortunately not all can be helped.
The
suffering of children and older women surpasses understanding. The little we
can do for them is received with joy and hope. We find solace in their hope and
joy, in the visible successes in saving lives, and in giving new meaning to
some lives. We also find strength in the presence of our Kasai friends and in
the regular correspondence with friends, family and sympathizers abroad. It is
very good to know that others care too.
All people
in Butoke work hard to further these initiatives, which, without exception,
address vital problems in Kasai society. Slowly, we are identifying more Kasai
people interested in this kind of human development work. The work done in the
last two years is clearly bearing fruit, first and foremost the sweet fruit of
people becoming fully aware that God cares; and trusting he will protect and
guide, the fruit of detecting more people of good will who want to collaborate
and help build a better future.
A big event
for Butoke’s institutional growth in recent months is that we now have our very
own website. Indeed, if you Google “Butoke”, our site should come up right at
the top of the list. Otherwise, check it out at http://www.butoke.org.
We are very proud of our site, and welcome any suggestions for improvements, or
additions.
Please
remember that we can only carry on building Butoke thanks to your support. For
2006, we have so far secured support from the Child Health Foundation and Help
the Aged for work on sexuality and the Aged. We have firm hopes of securing an
important grant for our food security program also, through our partnership
with AIM, but the needs will continue to greatly surpass our meagre resources.
Our support to malnourished children, to the patients and to students is
carried out thanks to your undesignated gifts. Funds can be sent to
Butoke in different ways, but in each case, please send us an email indicating
the designation of funds, the amount and the route you are using to get these
funds to us. The following page on our website will explain how you can get any
donations to us: http://www.butoke.org/HowCanYouHelp.htm.
One in His
peace,
Jean Lumbala Muamba
Rev Lazare Tshibuabua and
Dr Cecile De Sweemer