Emmanuel Health Clinic in Gallo, Central African Republic

Tuesday (January 19) was the inauguration of the Emmanuel Health Clinic in Gallo in the western Central African Republic. Deborah and I attended the event along with some 2000 others, including representatives of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), The Evangelical Lutheran Mission of Germany, Hermannsburg (OELM), Global Health Ministries (GHM), and Lutheran Partners in Global Ministry (LPGM).   Until now the health needs in Gallo and the surrounding villages have only been served by a small Lutheran dispensary, with the nearest hospital an hour away over a dirt road full of potholes.  The Emmanuel Health Clinic boasts a modern operating theater, laboratory, maternity ward and 18 beds.  The opening of this clinic will greatly boost health care in this underserved, poverty-stricken region. 

For humanity as a whole, the health improvements achieved since 1960 have been unprecedented. In the past 50 years, mortality among children under five years old has dropped by two-thirds world-wide. There are a few countries, such as the CAR, where these improvements have not occurred. According to the United Nations, the CAR is in the midst of a severe humanitarian crisis, with the population shrinking due to lack of medical care, insecurity, and economic collapse. The CAR is currently third from the bottom (out of 182 countries) in the Human Development Index. Despite this, little humanitarian service—in terms of money, personnel, or supplies—has flowed into this country. 

In CAR, roughly 300 to 400 excess deaths occur each day due to the lack of a functioning health system. The country's security problems and poor infrastructure are not the greatest barriers to relief and development, rather the biggest limit is lack of global interest. If we want to improve the lives of the poorest citizens on our planet, perhaps CAR, where the barriers to doing good are small and the potential to do good is large, would be a great place to start.   Small efforts, such as the Emmanuel Health Clinic, will make a huge difference in a corner of the world that has been neglected for too long. 

The photo above shows Deborah translating for Pastor Tim Iverson, Executive Director of Global Health Ministries, during the inauguration ceremony.

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic.   Pastor Deborah teaches at the Lutheran Theological School in Baboua.  Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers.

New Clothes for the New Year

One of the beautiful things in Africa is the locally made fabric and all of the clothing made from it. Cotton has been grown in this part of Africa since before independence. The local cotton was made into cloth and is dyed the old-fashioned way in small batches. Consequently, churches and other organizations can have fabric specially made for an event. They then sell the fabric and often everyone has clothing made from the same material.

 

The Women for Christ in Central Africa (FCC) have just released their 2010 fabric (see photo above). Women from all Lutheran Churches in the Central African Republic will be buying the material and then trying to outdo each other in the style of their clothing. The goal is for the women who attend the 2010 Women for Christ Conference in February to demonstrate their solidarity by all wearing the FCC fabric.

 

Joe

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic.   Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua.  She also works with the FCC and the Village School Project to improve communication between Central Africa and the United States. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers.

 

A New Year in CAR

One of my favorite scriptures for New Year's Day is "Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare…"  (Isaiah 42:9a).  What new things have happened in the Central African Republic (CAR) during the past year?  What does the new year hold?

In Baboua, where we live, one new thing that has come to pass in 2009 is that we are now connected to the rest of the world by cell phone.  We are no longer quite so isolated from the rest of the world.  Another new thing is the appearance of Chinese engineers who are building a highway from the Cameroonian border to Bouar, headquarters for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the CAR.  This distance of some 85 miles now takes about four hours to traverse on the dusty, pot-holed, dirt road that serves as the main highway connecting the capital with the rest of the world.

During the past year, peace reigned throughout most of the CAR, though there were a few small disturbances in the far north and east of this Texas-sized country.  Pray for peace to continue in 2010, especially throughout the presidential election and legislative election scheduled later this year.  According to the United Nations, "CAR is now ranked 179 out of 182 countries on the Human Development Index." This is actually a slight improvement from 2008, but it indicates the severity of problems such as infant and maternal mortality, malnutrition, lack of education and medical care, lack of access to clean water, etc.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church of the CAR has weathered a difficult year.  Nearly half of its funding comes from the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America).  Mission giving was down in 2009, resulting in cutbacks first of 7%, then 10% to ELCA's grants to CAR.  Programs which have suffered include treatment for AIDS patients, clean water for villages, and education for seminary and Bible School students.  So far the church has been able to make some budget reductions without having to close any programs.  Yet, if the cuts continue, some difficult decisions will have to be made.  Your continued support of our work here and of Global Mission makes a big difference in this country which is so impoverished.

One bright spot has been the construction of the health clinic in Gallo, a town about thirty miles east of us.  Questions still remain as to how to fund the continued operation of this clinic, but it will open its doors in early 2010 to help improve the quality of health care in this part of CAR. 

We want to say "Thanks!" to all of you who have supported us financially and have prayed for us and for our work here in CAR during 2009.  Your help has made a difference.  We could not be here without you.  We look forward to continuing our partnership with you, serving Christ together in 2010.

Your missionaries to CAR,

Joe, Deborah, and Christa Troester

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic.   Pastor Deborah teaches Greek and English at the Theological School in Baboua. Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers. Their daughter, Christa, attends seventh grade at Rain Forest International School in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

 

 

Christmas Time!

When it comes to Christmas, I can be a bit of a Scrooge. My daughter wrote this poem to capture her father's feelings about the season.  However, the photo seems to have caught me in a good mood.

 

Christmas Time!

 

          By Christa Troester

 

Christmas time, Christmas time

The roads are filled with traffic

Christmas time, Christmas time

Everyone's busy wreaking havoc

Christmas time, Christmas time

Everyone's busy hurrying

Christmas time, Christmas time

No time for anything but worrying

 

There are Christmas songs everywhere

The same old songs filling the air

The same old songs buzzing in my head

The songs that fill me with Christmas dread

 

There are decorations all around

On the ceiling and on the ground

There's even tinsel in my beard

Does no one else find this weird?

 

Christmas time, Christmas time

No one seems to care a thing

Christmas time, Christmas time

All they want to do is sing

Christmas time, Christmas time

Everyone's honking like geese

Christmas time, Christmas time

All I want is Christmas PEACE!

 

World Toilet Day 2009

This Thursday, 19 November, is World Toilet Day—a day to celebrate the humble, yet vitally important, toilet and to raise awareness of the global sanitation crisis. Forty percent of the world's population does not have a toilet. In the town where we live in the Central African Republic, 70 percent of the homes do not have a latrine (such as the one pictured above). As you can imagine, the practice of open defecation spreads disease and contaminates water sources. This only complicates the task of the Water Management Project (known as PASE for its acronym in French) where I serve as technical advisor.

 

PASE works with villagers to teach them proper hygiene and helps to provide sources of clean drinking water. We would like to also improve sanitation in villages, but we are limited by lack of funding and personnel.   In a country such as the CAR, which has so many problems, most people are not concerned about sanitation, so the first step is raising awareness of the problem.  Thank you for your support of our program, during these times of continued financial difficulties throughout the world.

 

Joe Troester

Baboua, Central African Republic

 

Photo: The photographs above are of an improved latrine. The walls are about 1.5 meters (5 feet) high. The hole is about 15 cm (6 inches) in diameter, with a plastic lid to keep the flies down. The dirt floor around the hole is mounded, so that rainfall runs away from the hole.

 

Joe and Deborah Troester are ELCA missionaries in Baboua, the Central African Republic.   Joe serves as technical advisor for PASE, which provides clean drinking water and promotes good hygiene and sanitation to villagers.  Pastor Deborah teaches at the Theological School in Baboua. 

 

 

Dry Season

The following letter was sent to our Lutheran supporters regarding cutbacks in funding in ELCA-Global Mission.

__

Dear Friends,

Here in the Central African Republic (CAR) the dry season is on the way. Rainstorms are becoming less frequent and shorter. Soon the rains will stop altogether until April. People hope that the crops they have stored will carry them through till the harvest next fall.

It seems that dry season has also arrived at ELCA Global Mission. The church-wide office in Chicago foresees the possibility of a 30% reduction in giving. This is apparently in protest of actions taken in Minneapolis a couple of months ago. This reduction comes on top of a 10% funding cut earlier this year, due to the world-wide economic downturn. Losing so much funding in one year has required GM to make some drastic cutbacks in personnel and programs.

Regardless of anyone's opinions regarding the actions taken by the General Assembly, protesting by withholding funds has serious consequences which are detrimental to the work of our partner churches, including the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the CAR (Also known as the EELRCA, after its French acronym). Due to this sudden drop in funding, ELCA-GM has been forced to withhold the 4th quarter grant to its partner churches. The EELRCA counts on these quarterly contributions of ELCA, which constitute almost half of the EELRCA's annual budget of $670,000 (less than the annual budget of some larger congregations in the U.S.).

Without ELCA's promised 4th quarter contribution, church projects are now out of money here in the CAR. Salaries cannot be paid, and may not be paid for several months. With no money for activities or salaries, the development, education, and evangelization projects funded by ELCA in CAR cannot do their work and are closing their doors. Other programs continue, but without the necessary funds, how long will they be able to keep on providing services?

For example, where Deborah teaches at the Theological School, students may have to go without their $40 a month stipend. Some of the students there gave up careers such as teaching to become pastors – and more pastors are desperately needed in the CAR. Now they may have to watch their children go hungry. Money for doctor's fees for their families will be impossible to pay.

Others who may suffer include AIDS patients, villagers waiting for clean water, and families who cannot afford medicines or school fees for their children. We don't think that ELCA members who have decided to withhold funds from Chicago wish for these outcomes, or even know that as a result of their actions people are suffering in the CAR.

Now is the time when you can help turn this situation around. We thank you for your continued support of our ministry, and ask your help to convince others to continue to support the work of Global Mission, especially in the neediest countries, such as the CAR. May God bless you as you serve Christ in your community and around the world.

Your missionaries in the Central African Republic,

Joe and Deborah Troester

Giving thanks: Robin Strickler

 Visit the Hand in Hand blog digest to read the first of the "Give thanks!" series by ELCA missionary Robin Strickler (Rwanda).  Make it easy:  follow the "Subscribe" link at http://blogs.elca.org/handinhand (upper right-hand box) and have new posts e-mailed to you.