African SMILE Fall 2009 Newsletter |
IN THIS ISSUE:
Artist Shares Talents to Assist Tanzanians
Afflicted by Leprosy ................................. PAGE 1
A Letter From Dr. Brian Savage, MD ... PAGE 2
African SMILE Work Completed
April 23 – July 10, 2009 ......................... PAGE 3
Urgent Need For New Mattresses
at Iambi Hospital..................................... PAGE 4
(Articles are posted below or select the PDF version to the right for printing.)
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(Gale Mord with his fundraising fish, forged from tin cans.)
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Artist Shares Talents to Assist Tanzanians Afflicted by Leprosy
by Gale Mord
In 2006 my son-in-law Lance and I joined Naomi and Gary Blumanthal on a mission trip to Tanzania. African S.M.I.L.E. was building staff housing for Iambi Hospital, and they knew Lance’s skills as a carpenter would be a valuable asset. I used my background as an art teacher to teach a water color class and soon realized that I would return to teach pottery. My speciality is three dimensional art, and the abundant red clay in the region called out for pottery.
After shipping a pottery wheel ahead, I did indeed return with the Blumanthals in 2008 for a two month stay. While there I instructed volunteers at the CHAREDELECO Center in the art of pottery making. The Center was set up to teach lepers and their families skills so that they might earn income for themselves. Although pottery is considered “women’s work,” a male volunteer named Martin quickly learned how to use the potter’s wheel. Encouraged by his innate talent, I became determined to raise funds to send him to pottery school.
(Martin in Arusha for continued studies.) |
Subsequently, Martin left for Arusha to continue his pottery education at a nonprofit organization that also teaches about the manufacture of water purifiers made from the indigenous clay. My long term vision involves having the CHAREDELECO Center become the hub for producing and distributing water purifiers in the Singida region.
For right now, the Lord gave me the idea of making and selling fish forged from tin cans (see picture) in order to support the work at CHAREDELECO Center. Each fish comes with a note that reminds the buyers to pray for the people that will receive the benefits of the fish funds. I encourage others to use their creative gifts to assist these families in becoming self-sufficient. A wise man once said, “An artist isn’t a special kind of person, rather every person is a special kind of artist.” Please join me in supporting this worthy ministry.
(CHAREDELECO Center) |
Please contact Gale via email,  , if you would like to buy a fish in support of CHAREDELECO.
Each fish is $50 plus postage. All funds collected will be used to support the center.
CHAREDELECO (Charity Relief Center for Destitute from Leprosy in the Community) is located in Nkungi on three acres given by the village. African SMILE began and completed the walls and roof on the first of three CHAREDELECO Community Center buildings in 2008. The second building was started in 2009 and the floors and inside walls of the first building were completed. The Community proudly harvested their first crop of sunflower seeds in 2009, earning their own income. African SMILE needs to raise $10,000 to finish the second building. |
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(Eye surgeon, Dr. Brian Savage, examines a patient.) |
A Letter From
Dr. Brian Savage, MD
It is good to have the opportunity to talk about our work in partnership with Iambi Hospital and African SMILE. Iambi Hospital is just over 30km from Haydom, over the border from Mbulu district and into Iramba. We aim to visit four or five times a year. It’s not always easy to get there. In the rains the mud can cause obstructions in the road, and sudden downpours can flood the bridges in front - even washing them away sometimes! So most of our visits are in the dry season. We also visit some other villages not far away such as Nduguti and refer patients to Iambi for further treatment.
We work closely with Sister Martina who looks after our post-operative patients. Yes, we also do operations at Iambi, having done over a hundred and twenty in the last two years, while examining 700 patients.
We usually arrive quite early at Iambi on an eye clinic day, and sister Martina comes out and greets us when she hears the vehicle arrive. We unload the vehicle and put our boxes of surgical gear on a trolley, and push it off to the theatre. Then we sign in at the office, greet Dr. Ngowi if he is available, and sometimes see Don Etzel if he is around. Then it is into the clinic to see the line of patients, who have had their visual acuity tested so we can identify those with really serious problems. Then we look for patients with cataracts and put them on the list for surgery in the afternoon. Unfortunately advanced glaucoma is also quite common, and patients come at such a late stage there is little we can do to help. After prescribing medicines for some, and glasses for others, we go and set up the theatre, and operate through to the evening. Often we sleep the night in the Iambi guesthouse, finding our way there in the dark by torchlight.
The next day, we do the first post-operative check on the patients and prescribe them a month’s worth of medicine.
(Long line of patients waiting to see Dr. Savage.) |
Fortunately, we usually have very satisfied customers, who can see much better even on day one and want to tell everyone so! So it is a blessing to be able to minister at Iambi, and we are glad to work with Sister Martina and Dr. Ngowi and his staff. Also a big thank you to African SMILE for assisting us financially to provide this service.
God Bless you all!
Brian Savage, MD
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African SMILE Work Completed April 23 – July 10, 2009
1. Air strip graded and sand distributed down the center. Culvert added across the airstrip to prevent soil erosion during the rainy season.
2. Finished the chapel. Lighting, altar, and cross were bought and installed. Benches to seat one hundred people purchased. Desks and chairs were added to both offices.
 
(Progress on Infectious Ward Building )
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3. Continued work on Infectious Ward Building.
4. Finished nurse dormitory where 26 rooms and the halls were painted. We built two bathrooms with three showers and toilets, four sinks in each with two SIM tanks and two septic tanks for sewage. This was helped paid for by the ELCA Minnesota Synod.
5. Eye Clinic improvements. Payment to Haydom Hospital to have Dr. Savage and his assistants to come to Iambi every other month operate and treat patients.
6. Completed first building of Leprosy Complex; walls, cement floors and windows and doors. Second building started and walls completed to ring beam. Also bought forty sacks of corn to be stored and used during drought season.
7. Work on second Nurse Classroom: walls finished inside and out, windows and doors installed and roof is on.
(Electrical Repairs.)
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8. Work on the Reproductive Child Health Care Building: cleaned and repaired both inside and out.
9. Repaired four Staff Houses.
10. Repairs made to hospital electrical system.
(Students in the new library.)
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11. Built a library at the Nkungi Primary School next to the hospital. Improvements to an existing classroom were cement floor installed, finished and painted the walls. Built and installed bookshelves, tables and chairs. Also, we provided funding for books in Swahili. This will be the first library in an elementary school in all of Tanzania.
12. Donation to the Catholic Church for moving their church from the airstrip site.
13. Donation to Wenzelya Lutheran Church next to the hospital.
14. Labor Costs – hired 41 men and four women for three months.
Please consider joining an African SMILE work mission!
See Travel Dates
Help Us Keep These Projects Going with Your Financial Gift
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Urgent Need For New
Mattresses at Iambi Hospital
(Old foam mattresses with torn cover.
Photo updated Apr. 2010)
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Sally Moe, RN normally works in the sterile confines of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at Providence Hospital so when she accompanied Dr. Naomi on her weekly rounds to the neighboring clinics to Nkungi Village she found very different conditions in the dispensaries. Each clinic they visited had dirt floors and walls made out of dirt bricks. The exam tables in these clinics contained mattresses with huge splits in them. These are the tables the women use for child bearing. Over the years the tattered rubber mattress pads have absorbed many body fluids. With the widespread infectious diseases present in the area, Dr. Naomi pleaded for new waterproof mattresses to help reduce the spread of infection for the patients and newborn babies.
The situation at Iambi Hospital was not any better with unsanitary old mattresses that were falling apart due to the blood and filth penetrating the foam rubber. Last Spring, 24 rubber mattresses that are enclosed in a heavy duty washable vinyl cover were purchased for Iambi Hospital. The goal is to purchase 100 additional mattresses and covers at $50.00 apiece.
(New mattress and cover. Photo updated Apr. 2010)
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Will you help stop the spread of disease by buying
one or more mattresses?
GIve a Gift of Health
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Spring 2009 |
(HopeKidz children donating money from their “giving boxes”.) |
HopeKidz Children Help Fund Library at
Nkungi Primary School
Donations Have Exceeded Original Goal
by Roger Bighouse
Children from Wilsonville’s Community of Hope Lutheran Church are saving their nickels and dimes - but it’s not for candy or toys. The “HopeKidz” Sunday school classes are donating their change to African SMILE to build and supply a library room at the Nkungi Primary School in Nkungi Village, Tanzania.
Nkungi Primary School serves over 1100 students from the area surrounding Nkungi Village. Children may walk up to five miles each way to and from school, collecting sticks and branches along the way to be used as firewood to boil water for drinking. Many of the fifteen classrooms have dirt floors. Without electricity or lights, the children gather at the edge of the classrooms to use the available sunlight. Most of the books donated in the past have been unused and damaged because there has not been a proper space to store or organize the books. During the 2008 mission trip to Tanzania, Headmaster Aloyce Issaay requested help in building a library at his school: “[One of] the problems that we face in our school … [is a] school library for keeping the books… we shall be very happy if African SMILE will be with us in order to solve [this] problem.”
(Headmaster Aloyce Issaay at Nkungi Primary School, Nkungi Village, Tanzania)
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At the beginning of the year, Tracy Stebbe, Director of Children’s Ministry at Community of Hope, was looking for a service project for the Sunday school children to help other children beyond our local community and she found a perfect match in African SMILE. Mrs. Stebbe commented, “It was really exciting to partner with African SMILE to get the kids thinking beyond Wilsonville about the needs of kids around the world.”
(HopeKidz children donating money from their “giving boxes”.) |
The HopeKidz started collecting money in “giving boxes” at the start of the school year. Their goal was to collect $500 by April to build shelves, a table and chairs for the library. Within four months, the children had already surpassed their goal! To date, the children have donated over $800 and they will continue to donate throughout the year. All money not used for construction of the library will be used to purchase books both in Swahili and English.
African SMILE will use the money donated by HopeKidz to hire local craftsmen to build the shelves and other furniture. Not only does this benefit the school and the children, but also the craftsmen – their income will stay within the community and benefit the entire local economy.
The library itself will be in a corner of an existing room at the school. This will provide the school with a safe place to store and organize books as well as a place for the children and teachers to read and study. The construction of the new library will be completed during the next African SMILE mission trip, May-June 2009.
(Classroom at Nkungi Primary School, Nkungi Village, Tanzania)
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Talking about the children in Africa throughout the year has helped The HopeKidz children to make a connection, albeit indirect, with the children in Tanzania. They understand the importance of education. “I hope they will learn enough so they could help themselves out of poverty,” said 4th grader Corwin. Taylor summed up the sense of satisfaction shared by her 4th-5th grade class, “I feel good because I know I’m helping someone in need.”
This library program has also sparked the desire for the kids to make a direct contact with their “classmates” in Tanzania. The HopeKidz children have written letters in hopes of starting a regular pen pal program to exchange letters to learn about each other’s lives.
Mrs. Stebbe concluded, “It’s been a great program and we’ve exceeded our goals. To have the kids excited about it and wanting to give is a great thing.”
(HopeKidz children & Marty Welch presenting Don Etzel with a check for $876.06 - the total as of April 19th. There is still one month left to go before the end of
HopeKidz classes so they might even make it to $1000!)
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(Prince of Peace Preschool in Portland, Oregon. Chapel offerings during March, April and May are being collected for African SMILE. Each classroom has an offering basket made in Tanzania where the boys and girls bring their donations.)
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