Here is a testimony from Dalia, an FDF participant:

“My name is Dalia Sánchez Ipiña, and I am 17 years old.

Three years ago I arrived at the Family Development Foundation in December 2008. It has been one of the biggest blessings that God has given me and each day I spend there I thank Him for connecting me with FUNDEFAM.

Ever since I can remember I have always been interested in helping my neighbor and also in finding people who can offer me help in case I would ever need the same help I am offer to others.

Being a part of FUNDEFFAM has had an impact in every aspect of my life, even in the smallest things. I started by attending the Youth Club where I continue to participate and where there is always someone with whom we can talk and we can completely trust. We are certain that their interest in us is sincere. In all of the activities there is always love, respect, friendship and trust. I have had the pleasure of seeing the group grow over the years and here I have found much more than just a service organization. I have found a family where everyone’s opinion is important.

Currently I participate in the Youth Club, Project Down and the summer VBS. I am also participating as a volunteer of a new program called Project Change. This has been an amazing experience where we work with kids 7 to 12 years old and we show and teach them values, a healthy self esteem, self respect and respect for others. It has been a huge satisfaction because these young ones have taught me important life lessons.

I dream that FUNDEFAM could be recognized throughout the country and even the world so that all of society could be helped by these important projects. I know that even though we can’t change the entire world we can plant a seed. It is important to begin to act rather that stand back with your hands crossed watching as others do the work.”

For more information on this project, click here.

Earlier this month we received an update from Partners reporting that the political climate in Burma had been showing some signs of improvement. Since 2003, CWR has partnered with Partners in providing mobile medical clinics though the Karen Department of Health and Welfare in Eastern Burma. This is a critical need for a people who have often been denied healthcare by the Burmese government.

Although the ceasefire represents a step forward, the peace remains tenuous. “What is important now is that this ceasefire agreement leads to the respect and protection of human rights by both parties. It is also crucial that both parties encourage and cooperate with independent investigations of allegations of widespread human rights violations that have occurred in Karen State,” said Oddny Gumaer, international advocacy coordinator for Partners.

Marci Haigh, the manager for Partners Karen Medical Project, used the dwindling battery on a satellite email connection to write Covenant World Relief straight from the Burmese jungle. “Everyone welcomes the end of fighting, although some worry they will get overrun with Burmese companies, taxes and land confiscation. The medics are more hopeful and are making some great plans at better infrastructure for health – including water-sanitation projects, immunizations and staff certifications at an international standard for public health.”

Haigh added, “It’s an exciting time here–but the Karen always caveat it with ‘we aren’t sure if we can trust the Burmese yet’”.

The future is full of hope and uncertainty for the Karen people. “Please stand with us in prayer for justice as well as peace in Burma,” Haigh asked. Help us support the efforts of Partners’ mobile medical clinics by giving here.

According to the state government, 640 people have been killed, 860 have been severely injured, over 200 children have been kidnapped, and over 38,000 herds of cattle have been stolen. Clearly, these violent attacks have been devastating on the community.

The ECCSS has stepped in and helped 38 families who have been affected by the violence. They are providing these families with bags of maize, flour, oil, mosquito nets, water, and bush-clearing tools. With the help of CWR funding, these important materials have saved lives and supported families through this difficult time.

Please continue praying for the people of South Sudan.

For many of us, a good education is something that is taken for granted. With the new semester beginning this week (and my stress level rising!), I forget how blessed I am to be able to have such a great education. However, that is not the case for most people in the world. Many youth in Vietnam, for example, are unable to receive a good education. These young students are forced by poverty to drop out of school because they cannot afford tuition, uniforms, and books.

Our partnership with South-East Asian Relief provides hope for the youth of Vietnam by giving them the opportunity for an apprenticeship or job training. There are many possibilities for training, including sewing, beauty trade, motorcycle and bicycle repair, and mechanical trade.

With this opportunity, students are able to earn a living for themselves and their families and return to school. They even have the option of beginning a business of their own, where they can employ others to benefit their community’s economy.

For more information on this exciting project, click here. Chua ban phuoc! God bless you!

“Dr. Kwan Kew Lai, from Belmont, Mass., recently worked with hurting people along the Kenya/Somali border for Medical Teams International – thanks to the support of Covenant World Relief.

She soon witnessed how difficult it was to reach people who desperately needed medical care. An estimated 4 million people in the region need assistance.

Fighting in the region as well as weather conditions complicate delivering care that people need. Sometimes, months of drought and famine turn roads into dust. Then, fall rains deluge those dirt roads, turning them into impassable, muddy ponds.

Volunteers, like Dr. Lai, had to be ready to move when a helicopter was available so they could reach people stranded at remote mobile clinics. Many of those people would not receive care for days and weeks.

“I saw a number of malnourished children, anemia, pica, worm infestation and fungal skin infections seemed quite rampant,” Dr. Lai said after visiting one clinic.

“I drained a foot abscess of a youngster who fell off a tree and poked his foot with a thorn, cleaned a machete wound on a hand.” She added, “A cute baby had a bad case of impetigo but was still smiling despite all that uncomfortable sores.”

Thank you for your continued prayers and gifts to help our Medical Teams International volunteers and staff deliver life changing outreach in 2012.”

Unfortunately, the conditions in East Africa are still incredibly devastating, yet the area is receiving little, if any, media attention. Please pray for our brothers and sisters in the Horn of Africa, and consider giving here.

January 12, today,  will mark 2 years since the devastating Haiti earthquake that left more than 1.5 million people homeless. Most of these have had to live in small crowded tent communities, hoping someday to have a house of their own. CWR is thankful to be in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to build 450 houses in Leogane near the epicenter of the earthquake.

I visited Leogane in August and was pleased to see how effectively Habitat works with the community. Habitat has trained and employed more than 200 Haitians. Even after the project is completed these people will be highly employable because of the skills and experience they have gained. The Habitat community coordinators are Haitians who work with the community leaders to identify those most in need of housing. Beneficiaries, including children, participate in the construction of their houses from the digging of the foundation. The new owners take great pride in the house that they have helped to build. I met one elderly woman (see photos) who was so happy to be able to move from the cramped little tent into her own house.

The houses have a very strong foundation, are hurricane and earthquake resistant, and are built in such a way that they can be upgraded in the future. Each house has a water catchment system. For every two houses that are built, one latrine is also constructed.

You can give here so that more Haitians can experience the blessing of living in a house of their own.

The political situation in Burma has been very cautiously improving. The government may even let the pro-democracy party register officially to contest future elections in the military-ruled state. There has been very little fighting during the heavy monsoon season this year. However, now that the rains are dying down, local people report the Burma Army outposts nearest to them are receiving resupplies of ammunition. The fear is that this is in preparation for attacks. Clinics, as always, keep their staff on alert and everything packed neatly in case of a hasty evacuation to the jungle hiding sites. Please keep them in your prayers.

The update also introduces us all to one of the medical staff. Her name is Hser Eh Krit, which means “sweet love of Christ.” In this photo she is laughing and teaching educational games to the village health workers so that they can spread knowledge about preventative medicine.

Are you particularly interested in this project and seeing it continue? You can give to this project here.

CWR is partnering with Hindustani Covenant Church (HCC), the Covenant Church in India, and India’s Covenant Social Services (CSS) in Chopda to transform this community. The development project has three major goals: empowerment of woman, economic upliftment of the community, and establishment of legal identity of unauthorized villages.

CWR has been working with HCC in Chopda for quite some time, and we just received another update from them about the latest work that is happening. Some of their biggest efforts right now are forming self-help groups for women where they can work together and encourage one another in their work and small businesses. The groups have been very successful. CSS is also holding sewing classes that will allow women to learn a trade that they can use to earn a living; currently, there are 16 students in the class and the communities are showing interesting and are taking responsibility to continue the classes on their own.

CSS also holds non-formal education classes for children in these tribal villages in Chopda. The children are receiving classes and nutritional supplements; even more, the staff meets with parents to encourage them to understand the issues related to their children.

There has also been an increased awareness among the people of Chopda about health and access to medical facilities. This has subsequently increased the health condition of the people there, particularly women and children.

CWR and HCC have undertaken a very similar project in Dang, located in a western state in India. Here a section of HCC’s update on the project:

“58 children are coming to the non-formal education centers. Each of the centers has teachers from the same villages, who know the children and their parents very well. It is increasing participation of the parents in running the classes. These children are getting locally available nutritional supplements.

The self-help groups are functioning well. The members who have received micro-finance are using it as capital for business initiatives.

Health camps and awareness meetings are organized in target villages focusing the health of women and children.

More interest was seen among the women and adolescent girls who are receiving the skill of sewing. These women are coming from villages which are five kilometers from the centre. These women are using the skill to earn an income for the family.  Marketing of products is a challenge for them.”

Lastly, we also received an update from HCC/CSS about a similar project we have partnered on in Orissa, which is located on the east coast of India. Here is the encouraging news they shared:

“The non-formal education classes are continuing with 35 children who are able to learn basic things. The parents see obvious changes in the lives of [their children]. Five of these children were given admission in regular school. Health improvement is seen among the children through regular nutritional supplements and health check-ups.

Sewing classes are continuing in two villages. 34 women and adolescent girls from at least 7 villages are walking all the way to the centre and learning the skill. Two of the girls are continuing their college education through the small earning they get by stitching clothes of neighbors.

The women who received micro finance loans have initiated businesses. Two of them are successful in their work. One is improving her business on dry seafood products and the other one is doing well on chicken selling business. Other women who received micro-finance are also doing well but they need more follow up and needed guidance.

The self-help groups formed meet on regular basis and the staffs are trying to link them to bank and government agencies to avail loans and schemes.”

CWR and HCC/CSS have been working in Chopda, Dang, and Orissa since 2007, and it is exciting to see that the projects are being taken over by local people who now have the resources to sustain them themselves.  God is good!

The first (and biggest) component of this project is that these women are in self-help groups. The self-help groups consist of 10-20 women who meet weekly with the purpose of developing skills to start their own craft and agriculture businesses to generate income for their families. In the second phase, self-help groups will work together to pool resources in to build larger-scale business like craft markets and community agriculture, and to address community needs, orphaned children and victims of HIV/AIDS. In the third phase, women create a conglomerate to advocate for social, economic, and healthcare reforms in their communities.

This three-step process is a proven community development program model. Through this model, Zimele is creating long-term, sustainable solutions to poverty that can be replicated throughout South Africa.

Here is a story of this process at work. This story comes from an update we received from Zimele about a woman named Doris Ncobo (pictured in back):

“One of the most unassuming members of the groups we are currently training in Swayimane is our highest earner. Doris Ncobo began with Zimele back in 2007 and she was then married with 3 primary school girls and a boy just in high school. At the time she was managing her household on a disability grant and child grants coming into the family. She also started to sell meat to supplement her income and in the year of 2010 she made R600 from her business which is a small amount of an extra R50 per month. Through the SHG savings groups she also borrowed enough to buy a stove, which made a big difference from cooking on an open fire with wood.

Doris started on the Craft Programme at the beginning of this year 2011. Our first training with the groups started in February and March, and the main training happened in May and June. At the time of the training Doris appeared to be very shy and somewhat slow at what she was learning. Well we were to be proved wrong. Doris persevered and became one of the best crafters and highest producers of her group. When we were buying stock in order to have items to take to trade shows, it was Doris who consistently had the highest standard and amount of work. In June she earned an amount of R870 for the month, which went up 30%in July when she earned R1185 for the month and it increased in August again to an amount of R1440 (something that well exceeds her yearly income from meat sales). These amounts certainly add to her monthly income and have increased her ability to buy food and provide for school going children with clothing, as well as pay for the family health care needs.”

To give to this project, click here.

After my time in October helping out in the tsunami areas of the Pacific coast of Iwate prefecture, I was eager to get back and help once again.  The week of November 28-December 2 gave me that chance.  This time I went with Matt Williams.  Matt is 25, and is from Redeemer Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN – one of our faithful supporting churches.

Matt and I left early on the morning of Monday the 28th, and took the same route I travelled when I went up in October.  We left the Tohoku express highway in Ichinoseki, and went due east to the coastal city of Kesennuma.  From there we worked our way north up the coast to the city of Miyako.  Since I had been there before, it was good to see it through Matt’s eyes, as he was looking on the devastation for the first time.

You can read more on the Carlson’s blog here.