Cross Cultural Workshop Offered

// January 10th, 2012 // No Comments » // Disaster Relief, field work

Caring Across Cultures

Cross cultural sensitivity and self awareness in humanitarian work

On the 24th-25th of February, five mental health practitioners will be leading a workshop in collaboration with Global Hope Network International.

This workshop, which has limited space available, exists to serve those working in an aid or development capacity within a culture different from their own. It will cover areas such as cross cultural dimensions, the neurobiology of stress, and coping skills.

Date: Friday 24th February (17:00 – 20:00) & Saturday 25th February (9.30 – 17.30)
Location: Webster University, Route de Collex 15, CH 1293 Bellevue, Switzerland
Cost of the workshop is 275 CHF (includes coffee & lunch on the 25th)

To register for this workshop, or if you have any questions, please email Jessica.Marchand at ghni.org

Download the flyer here.

GHNI Medical Relief Team to Libya

// May 21st, 2011 // 1 Comment » // Disaster Relief, field work, Libya, Volunteers

We are now recruiting for a
GHNI Medical Relief Team to Libya

Travel Dates:

• Arrive Cairo, Egypt, June 22
• Depart Cairo for Benghazi, Libya on 23
• Depart Benghazi for Cairo, June 29
• Depart Cairo, June 30 (or stay on longer for personal visit)

Purpose: Medical relief and relationship building with local health officials

Desired Team Members: Surgeons, specialists and nurses

General Plan: After 1 day preparation in Cairo, take in and deliver meds and work with local health leaders

Costs:

1. Air fare to/from Cairo, Egypt
2. Daily hotel and ground transportation: $100 per day max
3. Ground transportation Egypt-Libya: plan on $200 round trip

Accommodations: Secure, 3 star hotel

Visa: Visa on arrival for Egypt $15, no visa needed for Libya

Passport: required, with expiration date not less than 6 months after expected departure

Team leader and contact: Peter McLewin: inglesideinternational@gmail.com

Required Forms:

1. Download Medical Questionnaire
2. Download GHNI Liability Release Form
3. Download Field Trip Security Agreement

News Behind the News

// January 6th, 2011 // No Comments » // China, Ethiopia, field work, Indonesia, Kenya, Sudan, tcd, Updates

News Behind the News is a publication released by GHNI’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Most of these news clips come directly from our staff in the field.

Eastern Ethiopia: GHNI completed a dormitory for teachers in Garmaam Elementary School. Around 600 children attend this school. During the construction of this school it was amazing to see the community develop and take ownership. Almost 1,200 people are living in this village.

Southern Ethiopia: Wako and Achalu are hard workers and were struggling with many different difficulties in order to change their lives. Wako has 4 children and Achalu has 5 children. After joining GHNI they attended TCD training and they commented how this training has changed their lives. After the training they started to plow a small acre of land. Now they have each harvested different kinds of vegetables. Wako earned 2000 birr from his harvest (about 4 months of wages) and Achalu earned 1,200 birr (about 3 months’ wages).

China: GHNI met with our network in the mountains that are working with the Yi minority group. They relayed very encouraging news of the impact of buffalos we have loaned to families there. These loaned animals are transforming the families. Now we hope to be teaching Community Health to move the villages towards transformation.   

Egypt: Field visit to Zarayeb El Nakhel area:

Farhan, Azmi and Nabil (LifeWind – Egypt) visited the area and met with Isaac and Einas who are leaders in the local church. LifeWind has already started assessment work in the area for the last six months and welcomed our full participation in the area. They welcomed us wholeheartedly. After a thorough discussion with them, we came to the following understanding:

• The local community is in desperate need of help.
• The plan is to help 200 families to become self-sustainable.
• The starting point is to have medical research and tests. Children will have the priority in the initial stage.

Indonesia: Pak Agus is a new partner with GHNI’s income generating projects. He lives in a village called Clowok in the town of Salatiga. He has lived in the village for several years. Pak Agus desires to help the surrounding community. He has seen that most of the people who live in his community have livestock. So he thought that the need for organic supplemental food for livestock might be high. He wants his community to adopt an organic farming system for their livestock by using organic materials. To help him start this business, he applied to partner with GHNI.

Kenya: GHNI’s TCD work in our pilot village, Gambella, has been so successful that many other villages have requested our program. Our staff Wubshet and Habiba have interviewed and chosen three additional villages to help beginning in 2011. Also, they had new baby, named Abraham!

Lebanon: GHNI has been working in Bedawi, a Palestinian Refugee camp for several years. A few times, during fighting, we were the only ones there via our courageous staff guy, Michel. UISP (Unione Italiana Sport per Tutti) and UNRWA inaugurated a new sports playground in an UNRWA school in Bedawi Camp. The Italian Sport Association UISP funded the EUR 16,500 project.

Sudan: There have been numerous instances of carjacking perpetrated against INGO’s, UN agencies, and UNAMID over the course of the past few months, raising concerns about the feasibility of continued operation under the given security constraints.

Despite the situation on the ground in Darfur, GHNI has been able to drill four (4) new boreholes over the course of the past month that will provide potable water for approximately 8000 residents of South Darfur. GHNI’s activities in Otash camp continue to provide valuable education in community health and hygiene as well as support for the livelihoods of many camp residents. South Darfur continues to pose challenges to the delivery of humanitarian services, but GHNI continues to reciprocate with perseverance for the sake of those who are suffering.

Turkey: Recently there has been an increase in terrorist activities that have coincided with our move to the region. More than two dozen troops have tragically lost their lives last summer due to roadside bombs or in conflict with guerilla fighters in the mountains. As usual, the oppressed people who are just trying to make a living and send their kids to school are caught in the crossfire. It is into this desperate situation that we are trying to bring hope.

Parable of the Three Committees

// December 23rd, 2010 // No Comments » // field work, Indonesia, tcd

GHNI’s Phil Costello (pictured left) is working in Indonesia and gives this great post:

GHNI has been working for several years in the slum community of Camba Berua in Indonesia. While there have been great relationships, community projects and progress, the concept of Transformational Community Development (TCD) is still relatively new.

A couple of weeks ago, Jackie and I sat down with the local government official, Pak Lura (pictured right), and had a heart to heart with him. To help explain the importance of the TCD Committee, I opened our meeting by telling him the “Parable of the Three Committees”. It goes kind of like this:

The first committee was lead by an extremely dominating and controlling person. Every meeting this “leader” of the committee would tell people what to and would make all of the decisions for the committee. 

The second committee was different than the first in that they all had equal say; not one person was “the boss”. The problem was that they didn’t get along. This person didn’t like that person, and these two people didn’t like those two people. Every meeting ended up with someone walking out or getting angry. 

The third committee was different. They were elected by the community and were merely an “extension” of the community. They had a heart for helping their village solve their challenges and worked together to do so. 

After sharing this story, Pak Lura, Jackie and I had an awesome conversation about what this new committee will look like, what their role will be and how often they will meet. Jackie and I are hopeful that Camba Berua will embrace TCD and true transformation will take place.

Here is a video of Jackie “pitching” TCD:

Phil Costello
GHNI Project Manager
Indonesia

Two Trust-Building Risks in Darfur

// December 16th, 2010 // No Comments » // field work, Sudan, tcd, TCD Water

I can only think of a handful of people that would sit together with village leaders in Darfur and eat a generous portion of unpasteurized goat yogurt, without hesitation. Brian Purdy is one of them. Albeit to say, he even surprised the village leaders. Brian is one of GHNI’s incredible field staff not only risking his digestive health, but also his personal safety to serve the people of Darfur. This is his first-hand story of friendship, risk, and a village’s hope for clean water come true:

Sheikh el Deen is a village leader representing the people of Solba in South Darfur. Solba is an Internally Displaced Persons community located outside of Nyala town, the location of GHNI’s South Darfur sub-office.

When GHNI visited the area to assess the needs for water resource development in August, we took time out to accompany local community leaders in eating a hearty Sudanese breakfast complete with Fool (beans), Shai’a (meat), and A’esh (bread).

At the end of the meal, Sheikh el Deen ordered Zabadee (local, unpasteurized yogurt made from goats milk) in order to communicate his excitement that GHNI would choose to assist his village. He was even more excited that the foreigner who came along on the assessment trip (myself) ate nearly the entire pot of Zabadee.

He communicated that the white people who had visited in the past would never sit and eat with him and that he was very happy to find that GHNI staff “cared about his people enough to eat breakfast with him.” He explained further that his impressions of foreigners remained skeptical, but that he now knew that GHNI staff were “good people.”

He communicated that he was aware of the kidnappings of foreign aid workers which had taken place in his area over the course of the past several months, and was very appreciative that GHNI would still provide assistance to his people at great risk to their own personal safety.

Before GHNI installed a handpump well in Solba, residents of the community had to walk a total of 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) per day to retrieve water from an open hand dug well. The roundtrip time was approximately 3.5 hours, not including water collection time.

Sheikh el Deen can be seen in picture above of him testing the well after construction of the handpump itself. The second picture is of him praising God for his community’s new handpump well.

The Fruit of TCD in Ethiopia

// December 9th, 2010 // No Comments » // Ethiopia, field work, tcd, TCD Food, TCD Income

I was talking with a friend of mine who grew up in a big city. As a child, if you were to ask her where apples came from, she would have answered, “The store!” We joke about it now, but the reality is, someone has to grow the food. For those of us in the West, we barely think about it as we peruse the beautifully stacked oranges and neatly packaged strawberries down the produce isle.

And then I think, what if there were suddenly no stores or infrastructure to transport food? What would we do then? Now you’re picturing what it’s like in drought-ridden southern Ethiopia.

For our friends in southern Ethiopia, growing their own fruits and vegetables is the only way to eat more than one small meal a day. Not only that, it’s also a means of income.

In the village of Tuka, GHNI recently began teaching some agriculture lessons from our Transformational Community Development (TCD) training. Zerihun Kassa, our GHNI Director in Ethiopia, shares this story:

“Wako and Achalu are hard workers and were struggling with many different difficulties in order to change their lives. Wako has 4 children and Achalu has 5 children. After joining GHNI they attended TCD training and they now believe that this training has changed their lives.

After the training they started to plow a small acre of land. Now they have each harvested different kinds of vegetables. Wako earned 2000 birr from his harvest ($120, or about 4 months of wages) and Achalu earned 1,200 birr ($70, or about 3 months’ wages).

In general the people of Tuka are engaged in cattle rearing, but the cattle are dying from the drought. As a result of our small activity a number of people want to start farming.

Now, almost 35 families are beneficiaries of our activities. We hope that within a short time we can improve the lives of a number of families in Tuka village by providing a balanced diet and income generating activities.”

If you’d like to help families like those in Tuka start a farm, you can purchase an “Abundant Food Drip Irrigation Kit” at our GHNI Holiday Store!

Or you can buy GHNI Gift Cards for loved ones this Christmas!

Naomi Schalm
GHNI Web Journalist

Solar (em)powering in Afghanistan

// December 3rd, 2010 // 2 Comments » // Afghanistan, field work, tcd, TCD Income

I could sit down with you and tell you all about how solar cookers can help poor families and widows in Afghanistan. I could even show you a solar cooker and demonstrate how it works. But it’s just not the same as hearing from those whose lives have been radically changed by such a simple device.

So, Ithought you might want to hear from some of them. These are their stories:

“I live in Ghor province. It is a very long way from my home to a place where I can get wood for my fire. 1kg of gas costs nearly $2.00. It is very expensive to boil water using gas. I saw the solar cookers and was able to buy one. At first I used my solar cooker to boil water, and then I began to cook food on it. Now I am able to boil water in the morning and put some into a flask. I always have hot water ready to make tea for my guests. I am very happy with my cooker. Using sun power is a great way to cook.”

“My family live in Ghazni. We never believed that you could cook on a big wide round dish pointed to the sun. Mr. Enoyat put some beans into a pot and showed us how to cook them. Now my family boils all the water we need and cook their food on our solar cooker.”

“My health has improved since I started cooking on a solar dish. There is no smoke, so I cough a lot less.”

“I live in a village near Yakawlang. My mother was killed in the war and it was very difficult for our family. I was given a solar cooker. After one week I was able to cook nice food on it. We were very happy to have it. In my village firewood is scarce and you have to walk a long way to find it. Gas is very expensive. I now have more time to go to school. For me the solar cooker is good.”

These Afghan women and families thank you. We thank you. Because of your support of GHNI’s Solar Cooker program, we are able to subsidize the cost of the cookers and offer them to needy families at affordable rates. In doing so you are helping GHNI bring dignity and emphasize ownership and not dependency through continuous “hand-outs”.

Help a family get a Solar Cooker at our GHNI Holiday Store today!

Give a GHNI Gift Card this Christmas!

Naomi Schalm
GHNI Web Journalist

Camba Berua, Indonesia

// November 4th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // field work, Indonesia, tcd, TCD Water

Phil Costello captures below through film and word some of what GHNI has been working to accomplish over the last several years in Camba Berua, Indonesia.

On the outskirts of Makassar, Indonesia lies a small fishing community called Camba Berua. With a population of around 10,000 people, most residents earn their living through some connection with the fishing industry.

Global Hope Network International has been working in this community for over three years, helping provide clean water and wellness education. Because of GHNI’s partnership with the community, approximately 100 people now have access to clean water.

Before GHNI, the biggest challenge for many people was finding clean water for their families. Many people live in make-shift houses and cannot afford to have water piped into their homes from the city. In order to find drinking water, many families are forced to walk long distances to buy expensive bottled water, or resort to drinking filthy water from local streams and water ways (above left).

Global Hope Network International is partnering with the government and the local village leaders to install water tanks for the community to store clean water. Around 50 families pool together to buy water from the city and GHNI provides the tanks to store the water (above right).

Partners in Transformation: With two water tanks installed and the third in the works, GHNI is helping bring help and hope to Camba Berua. Pak Lurah, the local government leader (above right), the maintainer of the third water tank (above left) and I stand over the future site of the third water tank.

A man prepares dinner for his family after a long day of work.

A woman sits along the fishing canal, enjoying the afternoon sun on her face.

College Grad finds Career
in Compassion

// October 28th, 2010 // No Comments » // China, Disaster Relief, field work

“So, what are your plans now that you’ve graduated from college?”
“Find a job? I’m not sure…I’m trying to figure out what I’m doing with my life.”

Sound familiar? This is a hypothetical conversation that many college grads can relate to. In fact, the question posed becomes “the dreaded question” most uncertain graduates avoid.

A few years ago, a young Chinese man, Raffy, was in this same predicament. He had just graduated from university and didn’t know what to do with his life. Then, a GHNI Compassion Trip came to his hometown in Inner Mongolia. Raffy decided to volunteer his time and help the team.

One of our GHNI team members recounts the rest of Raffy’s story:

Through this short period of time of being connected, he saw how we loved and cared for the people. This made a significant impact on his life and he decided that this is what he wanted to do with his life. When the earthquake happened on May 12, 2008 [in Szechuan province], he committed himself to help and was subsequently trained by GHNI partners as a counselor. Now he is an effective counselor and trainer. After the April 14, 2010 earthquake in Yushu County, he was sent as a trainer of counselors in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He and his team of counselors were able to train around 260 volunteers! Without our mentoring and love, perhaps he would still be wandering around not knowing what significant things he can do with his life, just like many young people these days.

We at GHNI believe that each life has significance. In this case, an educated young person was transformed within a few short weeks, and is now impacting hundreds of others, who are impacting others, who are impacting others. I think you get the idea. When a life is truly transformed, there’s no telling how far the ripple effect will go. It’s like what GHNI President, Hal Jones, always says, “Changing the world, one person at a time”.

Poor Farmers in India Branch Out

// October 21st, 2010 // No Comments » // field work, India, tcd, TCD Income

Perhaps you can relate, but it seems in the current economic state of our nation, more and more people are looking for ways to supplement their income, or to even have a job at all.

I have friends who are selling cosmetics, cupcakes, and even getting into photography to make some extra cash. Nobody that I know, however, is selling pigs – at least not here.

Thousands of miles away in the village of Dhoker Jhara, India, GHNI is helping farmers branch out in new ways to climb out of poverty. We’re introducing an additional form of income: pig farming.

GHNI India Field Manager, Sushil Marandi, shares this personal report:

Recently I went to the village and met a couple of farmers to know their opinion about this project. They told me that many people are waiting for the piglets so that they will also grow them. I am sure this will give new insight and motivation to all the farmers. If we are able to create a good market for pork, these farmers’ income will double. Those who normally have to leave their village to search for work would not have to. Their children will have a better education.

At this point, the farmers are not making a sufficient living from their local crops. During the dry season many farmers leave the village in search for work, sometimes for as long as six months out of the year. They are often separated from their families or take their families with them having to pull their children out of school.

The farmers are eager to begin this strategy of marketing pigs. It would not only provide additional income, but would help keep families together and children in school. Sushil continues:

Bosam Marandi, our village worker, is very excited about this project. He is a visionary. He encourages all the farmers to follow his example. We have set up a village development committee to ensure that community development is emphasized in the village…I am very hopeful about this project. This will transform the living conditions of the villagers and really give them a new beginning.

It’s amazing what a little help and hope can do.

If you would like to learn more or support the village of Dhoker Jhara, you can do so here.

Naomi Schalm
GHNI Web Journalist