Happy Lucky’s Teahouse and Treasures in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA, proudly displays the clever tagline, Serving up World Change. They donate 10% of profits from the teahouse to education in Cambodia. They list their products and services as - Teahouse  •Worldly Treasures  •Fairly Traded  •Sustaining Schools.

 

     Located in the old firehouse in Old Town district of Fort Collins, the teahouse has a friendly, cozy environment. The free wi-fi makes it a great place to hang out and enjoy your favorite tea or coffee. They do not just sell tea, though they have 150 varieties from around the world. They interpret it. They get samples of tea from the storage containers and share the aroma, the flavor and to some degree the story of each tea. They also have a variety of tea classes.

 

      Lisa and I enjoyed stopping in recently and will go back. I had a great green tea there reminiscent of our experiences in China, where green tea appears in your hands at any kind of meeting or event. But my interest in Happy Lucky’s is more related to the commitment of the owners to support of educational programs in Cambodia.

 

     George and Kari Grady Grossman traveled to Cambodia in 2001 to adopt a son. This led to their founding of the Grady Grossman School in Cambodia. Friends of the Grady Grossman School was a support organization that became Sustainable Schools International (SSI). Kari tells the story well in a TED video available on youtube.com. Kari’s book, Bones that Float, also shares the story of their growing understanding of the immense challenges in Cambodia to educate children.

 

     SSI has several different fundraising programs underway. Their intent is to make a sponsored school move over a period of years from 100% donor supported through SSI to 100% locally supported. SSI helps them with the planning and learning curve. This emphasis on sustainability is critical to the long-term success of a community school.

 

     Partnerships with local people are key to their process. Developing local leadership is important and basic to the SSI approach. Their website carefully interprets their mission, commitment and strategies.

 

     Cambodians have endured decades of poverty and pain following the Khmer Rouge regime’s genocidal destruction of their people, especially educators. SSI helps Cambodians find solutions within their community that will last.

 

     Happy Lucky’s Teahouse and Treasures has their SSI story posted on the walls and you learn more if you ask. They do not push patrons toward their nonprofit but it shows up at the store and on their website. We admire businesses that see beyond their financial bottom line to work on other important values in developing nations.

Some aboriginal people find a way to live within their preferred lifestyle while also adapting to modern economic needs. The Embera of Panama provide one of the most engaging tourism experiences in the world to share their cultural traditions. We were introduced to this community by Rick Morales, a good friend and interpretive guide and planner in Panamá.

We drove to a parking area upstream on the Changres River at the Changres National Park and Reserve. Embera Indian men led by Mateo, their community chief, loaded us into long pirogues made of balsa for the trip upstream. The dugout canoes have Johnson outboard motors on the rear, small individual benches for seats and orange personal flotation devices. We traveled over gravel bars and up riffles for 45 minutes with the boat guide cutting the engine through shallows under the watchful eye of a spotter in the bow. The pirogue made it all the way to our destination after passing two small villages where we saw platform huts with thatched roofs and people in colorful clothing.

On the gravel bar below the Drua Embera village we were met by a village band playing drums, flutes and maracas. The women who greeted us wore necklaces of beads and coins that barely covered their breasts and short colorful cotton skirts with other beaded beltwork. Most of the men wore a bright orange or red loincloth. They are handsome people with fine features, nut brown skin and black hair.

Their simple homes have a platform floor about 5 or 6 feet up from the ground. This is the main floor used for living, cooking, and sleeping in hammocks. The area below the platform has chickens, stored items, and crafts for sale. The center of the village was a hard-packed area of dirt with a basketball hoop. They used this area for community dancing, soccer and basketball.

When we gathered in the largest open platform building, Mateo introduced us to his tribe, explaining it started with two families and grew to 23 families and about 110. I learned from others that half the families are Catholics and the other half are Evangelicals and they disagreed at first about opening the village to tourists.

Embera people originally came from Colombia and moved up into the isthmus after the Spanish came into the area. Thirty years ago most of them had moved to Panama City to live and work like most Panamanians. They adapted to city life poorly and wished to be back in their traditional lifeystyles. They were allowed to build villages in the national park if they lived traditionally and provided a cultural tourist experience but without their normal tradition of killing local animals for food. They live a mixed life of buying food and supplies, using power boats and cell phones, while also dressing as they have for centuries and maintaining many cultural traditions. They are extremely charming and engaging in every way. Every person comes up to visitors to shake hands and say “hola,” even the small children.

Many of the tribal members have tattoos made of vegetable dye. These wash off after a week or so and can be replaced as they wish. Some paint their lower face black or even most of their body, leaving the forehead and eyes in red or normal color. I sat talking with Angel, an Embera man, who offered to give me a tattoo. I let him paint a diamond pattern around one ankle, a cultura they call it. It is vivid and interesting but it is nice to know it will wear off (and it did).

They served us a delicious lunch of traditional foods prepared simply. We watched the women cooking plantain chunks, then smashing them and cooking them again in a skillet to make patacones. They also served the patacones and rice with breaded and fried tilapia filets. Although the menu of fish and patacones is very traditional, tilapia is an introduced fish. It still tastes great.

Several of the Embera gave brief presentations on native crafts including basket making, dying fiber and tagua carving. Tagua is vegetable ivory, and though it can be eaten when fresh, it can also be carved and then painted and turned into wonderful items that look like ivory and become hard as stone. Sometimes they leave the nut natural on one side to show the tagua and what amazing shapes it can have when carved. Those that look like a turtle hatching from an egg are especially beautiful.

The Embera offer a unique experience for tourists in their rainforest communities. If you visit Panama, a day trip or overnight to their village is affordable and very special and helps them continue their cultural traditions in a way that seems to make sense to them – blending the old and new to achieve a lifestyle that keeps the best of both.

-Tim Merriman

Joe and Jill Wodiuk of Pueblo, Colorado, joined me on an ecotour to Tanzania in 2005. It was their first trip to Africa and my second. We had been friends when I managed a nature center in Pueblo so it was a great reunion to travel together from Arusha National Park to Tarangire and on to Ngorogoro Crater, Olduvai Gorge and Serengeti National Park. They loved the trip and especially enjoyed the visit to a Maasai village and a primary school at the village. Jill is a school teacher and Joe has been a homebuilder for 30 years.

Eight months or so later they surprised me by driving up to Fort Collins for a surprise birthday party for me. We finally had a chance to chat and catch up on the year when most had left the party. Joe said, “I’ve been back to Tanzania twice since we saw you last.” I was amazed. “How did that happen?” He went on to explain that they met Eric Weihenmayer’s agent while skiing in Ouray, Colorado. Eric was the first blind person to climb Mount Everest, the world’s tallest mountain. Joe mentioned how they enjoyed the Tanzania trip and he was invited by Eric to join a climb of Kilamanjaro by six blind people a few months later. He said, “YES.” It was an amazing trip for Joe, serving as a part of the group that would make the climb.

Joe returned to remote Tanzania a third time in that one year due to a request by a former Peace Corps volunteer for assistance in construction of an 8,200 square foot orphanage and school. He raised much of the money for the project locally in Colorado. His deep experience in construction served him well there. He was working with a Catholic priest and his vocational students. The priest, Francesco Msofu, said, We teach the young men carpentry and masonry skills, and we teach seamstress skills to the girls, who also have three teachers. We needed classroom and separate dormitories for the students, for whom we provide everything - food, board, clothes, teaching and tools. This community of Wasa gained a much-needed facility to house children, mostly orphans resulting from AIDS and malaria deaths, as a home and school. The entire project cost $10,000, a little more than $1 a square foot.

Father Msofu recently received assistance to fly to Pueblo, Colorado, and visit with the Wodiuks. He spoke to Jill’s school children and many civic organizations about their work in the Wasa community. His appeal for assistance was thoughtful and compelling. A small amount of money goes very far in helping these communities in remote parts of Africa.

Ecotours, photo safaris and adventure tours to African nations are very appealing. Most folks, who have gone with us on these incredible experiences, have said they went to see the wildlife. They leave saying they enjoyed the wildlife, but most comment on how touched they were by the people and communities.

Joe Wodiuk has been generous in the Pueblo community in supporting programs for kids with special needs and now he makes contributions in Africa, Haiti and other places where he sees the need. He and Jill are generous in giving their time and personal resources to support those who need help. During Father Msofu’s visit Joe said of his Tanzanian friend, His happiness infects me, and his service and sense of peace both inspire and humble me. Many people in the world need the help of those of us blessed in having access to more resources and education. The time to begin is now and the options are many. For ideas about what you can do click HERE.

- Tim Merriman

Museums of Malawi HIV programming in villages include a very strong segment by a man living with HIV. Davison Mkandawire sometimes introduces himself to a village audience by asking, “Who is more dangerous between an HIV positive person and an AIDS patient? In many cases people respond loudly that an AIDS patient is more dangerous. Davison is quiet for some seconds. Then he asks, “How many of you have ever been tested for your HIV status?”  He goes on to say that a person with HIV is more dangerous because he or she may look normal and behave normally but has the ability to pass on the infection to unsuspecting partners. Those with AIDS may be near death. Because they may have physically apparent symptoms, they may not be as dangerous to healthy people who can take precautions against infection.

Davison explains that in 1997 his wife was expecting her fourth child. She was ill.  Doctors conducted all the necessary tests, but she never got well and they did not find the real cause of her sickness. Doctors asked her if they could conduct an HIV test but she vehemently refused saying she is a committed Christian, so there was no way she could have HIV.

Doctors then asked Davison if he would allow them to conduct the HIV test on his wife. He agreed and the HIV tests were conducted without her knowledge. She was found HIV positive. The answer to her illness was now known, but there was no answer as to how she had contracted the infection.

Davison was left to wonder about his status and was concerned that both of them could die from this. In those years he had no place to get advice and he could not share it with anyone else because of the stigma of the disease. What would happen to their young daughter who was only two years old at the time, he wondered. There was no information available about treatment, positive living, and how to handle the stigma and discrimination. Three days later Davison was tested and found to be HIV positive.

He explains that he lost body weight and food never tasted good. After his third test, he asked the clinical counselors what to do and he was told to join an organization called National Association for People Living with HIV/AIDS In Malawi (NAPHAM). There he was counseled about living with the disease but his wife still did not know of her HIV status and he was unsure how to break the news. New therapies being developed were not readily available.

Four years later they both went for testing and he pretended that it was his first time. When both were tested and found HIV positive his wife started crying. He told her that she was found HIV positive four years earlier when she was pregnant. He had been keeping the results to himself as advised by the doctors. He then encouraged her to join NAPHAM too. NAPHAM is a vital resource center for those who are living with HIV.

Davison readily shares his personal story now and listeners wonder how he managed to keep the story to himself for four years. He explained that he was afraid that his wife would commit suicide. They were both introduced to Anti Retroviral Therapy (ARV) in 2006 and both are alive and healthy today. They are now facilitators of HIV/AIDS information and are contributing to saving the lives of others.

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He appeals to people to take the Museums of Malawi program as the opportunity of a lifetime because the information is invaluable. HIV education is a social vaccine because people can learn to live with the disease for life, but they must know they have it to prevent the progressive change into AIDS and avoid passing it to others.

Davison encourages people who learn they are HIV negative to maintain their status by avoiding risks. He explains that being found to be HIV positive need not make you feel unfortunate, but rather lucky because you will have access to the information that will lead to a longer life. ARVs have been free since 2005 so cost is not a limiting factor on survival for most people.

Davison emphasizes the importance of taking ARVs correctly. He explains how they have managed to keep him healthy for over five years. He also explains the disadvantages of the stigma of being HIV positive and how discrimination can kill people. Davison is a passionate spokesman for living healthy and he inspires people to be tested, many of whom regard the risk of HIV as being only among those in the sex trade. At the end of the Museums of Malawi programs clinical workers offer the HIV tests at the site of the programs and most do so.

In Malawi it is mandatory now for any pregnant woman to be tested for HIV. Few men get tested. There is a lot of work to be done, if we are to win the battle against the HIV/AIDS pandemic in this east African nation.

Courageous people like Davison and his wife are vitally important in helping others understand the risks to their lives and their families. Museums of Malawi make it possible for Davison and NAPHAM to get to remote villages. Donations to the museums give them the resources to do more. If you wish to help financially, 100% of donations go to the direct costs of the program.  

Aaron Maluwa, Museums of Malawi

Tim Merriman

P.S. When Lisa and I visited these programs in 2009, we watched more than 1,000 people from the village come to learn about HIV through the Museums of Malawi program in just one day. Their impact in just one week of programs recently led to more than 5,000 being tested. Donations made https://www2209.ssldomain.com/naimembers/webforms/malawi_donation_form.cfm#mce_temp_url# through the National Association for Interpretation go entirely to the Museums of Malawi to pay the logistics costs of this creative and valuable interpretive program.

In 2009 we visited Malawi and Tanzania on a vacation and had an unforgettable experience on the way to Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania. Dick Mills of World Discovery Safaris took us by the home of Daniel, a 65 year-old native of the Iraqw (pronounced i•rak•ee) tribe. He has built an Iraqwi traditional house on his more modern homesite. Daniel has an 8^th grade education and worked as a farmer for years and then as an accountant for Ngorogoro Wildlife Lodge. He retired several years ago and now presents cultural interpretive programs about the Iraqw culture of which he is very proud.

He built an old style earth-covered home out of concern that his people are losing touch with their unique culture. This kind of earth-bermed home was built because they live adjacent to the Maasai, who would steal their cattle. Maasai believe all cattle belong to them as the will of God. Iraqwi homes are earth mounded over a log roof and walls with a vertical log front. Maasai warriors sneaking up on them at night would step on the roof and be heard inside the home, resulting in a retaliatory response by the homeowner. Cows and goats would spend the night in the house with Iraqwi families. Men and women slept separately and the children slept with the women on raised pallets. A very large grain basket of six-foot diameter sits amid the house with a grinding stone on the floor. They raised and ate primarily millet, white maize and corn.

Daniel explained the importance of getting a good wife who would increase the value of the man’s estate. In his culture, women are valued because they are the bringers of life. Marriages are arranged and marrying for love is considered foolish and can result in disinheritance. A woman gets 4 cows as a dowry that she owns along with other cattle for the family depending upon the wife’s family wealth. As soon as a wedding is announced, the mother begins preparing the wedding apron, a beautiful goatskin wrap with detailed beading to depict the sun, trees, and other common items of the home. A pattern of squares is created to show the ups and downs of life. Colored bands of beads represent black, white and red people living in harmony. Green bands are for the earth and yellow bands for the sun.

Daniel’s program included finding out where we were from, what we knew. His knowledge of U.S. settlement history was obviously greater than anyone in our group. He would ask from which state we had come and then he would tell us about the history of our state and its relationship to his community. He wove the fabric of his story with the story of how people move and live and it was fascinating. He mixed this with the history of Tanganyika during German occupation. Later the British provincial rulers said it would take fifty years to make Tanzania a free nation. It took only fifteen but they had to change the country rapidly, tearing down traditional homes to put up new ones. He built this one to remind his own children of their 2,000-year history in the area as farmers.

He dressed several women in our group in goatskin wedding skirts and they assisted him with the wedding dance. We then went to see his underground house. He also taught us how to throw a club and spear, which he does with great accuracy. I tried to throw the spear and found that it was very heavy and unwieldy.

After the cultural tour, Daniel took us to the backyard to see his biodiesel operation. He scoops cow manure into an underground tank with cow urine and water and seals the lid to produce methane, which powers the lights and stove of his home. There is no electricity in his community. He said he learned how to do this from trial and error (three tries) after hearing a speaker at an extension office talk about biodiesel systems. We toured his home and bought lots of hand crafted items and then left with heartfelt goodbyes.

Tanzania has more than 120 tribal cultures. Amidst the challenges of malaria, HIV/AIDS and a growing population of orphans, people like Daniel share their love for life, their culture and people in general. We were inspired by his personal and community story of hope and survival.

-Tim Merriman

The very name of Kathmandu conjures up an image of exotic foreign travel. The bustling city of one million is the capital of Nepal and the jumping off point for Himalayan trekkers. It is also home to thousands of homeless children. That may sound like an oxymoron, but it is simply reality. During the civil war that gripped Nepal over a decade (1996-2006), enterprising child traffickers convinced poverty-stricken, uneducated villagers in rural Nepal that it was safer to pay large sums of money to send their children to Kathmandu where they would be cared for and educated instead of being forcibly conscripted into rebel armies.

            Unfortunately, once the children arrived in Kathmandu, they were often abandoned in the streets or sold into slavery, doubling the trafficker’s money but leaving few options for these stolen children. Fortunately for some, aid organizations have stepped in to try to rescue as many children as they can. One man, an American named Conor Grennan, went one step further and is attempting to reunite children with their families in their home communities. The stories of the children that initially inspired his efforts are told in his book, “Little Princes: One Man’s Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal” and on the website of the nonprofit organization he founded, www.nextgenerationnepal.com.

            As I read this book, I was touched by the author’s honesty and compassion for the children under his care and the communities from which they came. Caring for a child is never an easy commitment, but when stressed with the overwhelming circumstances that face the villagers of Nepal, it becomes even more challenging. Part of the challenge for these particular children came when attempts to reunite them with their families led to concerns from their parents – knowing that their children were safe and getting an education with the author meant that their dreams had come true. As much as they missed their children, many felt the children were better off remaining in Kathmandu where they were fed regularly and in school instead of struggling for an existence in villages where running water and toilets don’t exist. So the author arranged visits home to their families in Humla, the region from which they came, and an amazing thing happened. After seeing their communities with new eyes opened by the education they received in Kathmandu, the children’s dreams changed. “They no longer spoke of becoming astronauts or football players, but of becoming doctors and teachers in their villages.”

            Communities are much more than constructed buildings – the fabric of any community comes from its families and how they care for each other. The work of Conor Grennan and his partners speaks to the need for thinking about what matters and how to make a positive difference in the world - one child, one community at a time.

- Lisa Brochu

I just finished reading Courageous Journey: Walking the Lost Boys’ Path from the Sudan to America by Ayuel Leek Deng, Beny Ngor Chel and Barbara Youree. Barbara writes fiction including novellas and novels, but her work on this story is non-fiction of the greatest importance. She co-authored with Ayuel and Beny to tell the story of their journey from Sudan to Ethiopia and finally to Loki, Kenya. They are two of the thousands of Lost Boys of the Sudan.

            We hear of genocide on the news, usually too late and often without the vivid images from where it happens, when it happens. We had daily journalists’ stories from the War in Iraq but somehow our major news media made very limited reports of the incredible tragedy going on in the Sudan for over two decades through the 1990’s into 2005. Like Rwanda’s tragic civil war and genocide, stories of the greatest importance are overlooked in places that lack strategic interest to the United States.

            Following the personal path of Ayuel and Beny on their journey of more than a thousand miles across desert and through rivers while being shot at, starved and bombed is depressing. When you realize these boys were the age of American kindergarten kids or first graders, it is even more unsettling. They formed a surrogate family unit of seventeen boys that helped each other survive, but not all made it to Kakuma (means nowhere in Swahili), a refugee camp in Kenya. When offered the chance along the way to travel with an uncle with more access to food, Ayuel declined and stayed with his group. They had taken care of each other and he was not going to break that trust.

            When the boys reached Kakuma and somewhat more reliable food supplies in a huge refugee camp on barren ground, they began to get an education. Over a dozen years they learned of the oil discovery by Exxon that led to the Islamic government of the north becoming interested in tracts of land once used only for grazing goats and cattle or farming millet and beans. They learned of Osama bin Laden’s presence in their country and encouragement of northern forces to destroy the homes of the Animists and Christians of the south.

            Most of the people killed, displaced from homes, and turned into refugees were Nilotic people such as the Dinka (Muonjieng), Nuer and Luo. Their homes had been burned, crops ravaged and cattle slaughtered. Women and girls captured were raped and enslaved. Men were killed or suffered amputations. Fleeing was the only choice and thousands died on the forced walk toward sanctuary. And when they seemed safe and starting over in Ethiopia, a war there began and they were again slaughtered and driven south to Kenya.

            Aid from the U.S., Canada, Australia and United Kingdom and other nations provided some food and clothing. The United Nations provided organization, health services and governance while the most educated refugees became teachers for those with less education.

            I need not retell the story. The book is simply wonderful because the reader learns of this tragic chain of events in the chronological order the boys experience it. In the late 1990s and early part of the new century, many boys were taken from the camps to live in the nations that sponsored aid. America was a very desirable destination and Ayuel and Beny were among those who became immigrants to this nation. Most notable was their continued hunger for education and a chance to return some day to the Sudan to help their family and friends. Along the way some were reunited with lost brothers and sisters. This sad story of their journey is uplifting because so many of them were dedicated to doing more than surviving. Some of the lost boys now live among us as new American citizens, while many refugees from Somalia, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Burunda and Uganda still wait for a future in Kakuma. Ayuel and Beny made it to St. Louis and then Kansas City, going on to complete college and graduate degrees. Now they make plans for a future that almost did not happen. This book brings their story of challenge and courage to light and reminds us all there is much more to do to help the other lost boys and girls find their own futures.

            -Tim Merriman 

The Maasai are starting to come to grips with the threat of HIV and AIDS in many communities. Their traditional lifestyles have protected them in some ways and in others made them more prone to infection.

            Estimates are that more than 1.2 million Maasai live in Kenya and Tanzania, a Nilotic people who migrated down from the Sudan centuries ago. They are pastoral people, who wear colorful red, blue and purple robes of cotton and carry throwing clubs, spears and sometimes bows and arrows. At age five boys and girls tend herds of goats near their thorny acacia fenced villages. At age 13 the boys become men and herd cattle all day, sometimes distant from their homes. The live on the mixture of blood and milk from the cows in a calabash (gourd) they carry. Young women marry at age 13 and have children. Many of the men are polygamists and may have from two to ten or more wives.

         I have visited with Maasai communities on ecotours and enjoyed their rich experiences of sharing their lifestyle with visitors. I have no personal knowledge of the HIV/AIDS statistics in Kenya and Tanzania with the Maasai people. But there are some excellent articles on the Internet that explore the potential problems. Wasting sperm: The cultural context of condom use among the Maasai in Northern Tanzania by Dr Ernestina Coast explains the challenges of encouraging condom use, abstinence and monogamy in cultural communities that are traditionally polygamous, sexually promiscuous and that view the giving of sperm as a gift, not a danger.

         Many Maasai men now work in urban areas where their sexual mores bring the risk of HIV infection. If they return to their tribal community as a HIV infected adult, they may easily expose several other people in their social network fairly easily because it is common to have multiple sexual partners.

         Dr. Coast reported on a study that indicated that 98% of the Maasai have heard of HIV/AIDS. And 92% of males and 88% of females know it is often fatal. The study indicates that 53% of men and 39% of women know it is preventable. About 96% of the men know about condoms and 78% of women do also, but they are not available in many communities.

         Health statistics in Kenya indicate that the percentage of infected people has declined, but largely due to the death of infected individuals, usually with inadequate or no treatment at all for many afflicted by the disease. There are concerns in some health quarters that HIV has already spread in the Maasai community but testing is not widespread enough and many cultural barriers exist to being tested.

            Recent reports from AVERT indicate Kenya is home to one of the world’s harshest HIV and AIDS epidemics. An estimated 1.5 million people are living with HIV; around 1.2 million children have been orphaned by AIDS; and in 2009 80,000 people died from AIDS-related illnesses. Just a few years ago there were only three test centers in Kenya, but now more than 1,000 clinical locations in Kenya test for HIV and the target is 2 million people a year to be tested. The current percentage of HIV infection in Kenya is believed to be about 6.7%. This recent expansion of health care and distribution of ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs) at no or little charge is heartening in nations where many people have little or no income.

            There is still a very negative stigma for those infected and some seek cures from witchcraft instead of through clinics. The statistics I could find did not specifically suggest whether the Maasai were more or less affected by HIV infection, but certainly they are seriously affected. Maasai elders in some communities are bringing people together to discuss strategies and that can help.

            Some volunteer programs are available to bring people from developed nations to volunteer with the Maasai and people of other nations. Rustic Volunteer and Travel and International Volunteer Travel are just a couple of the many groups doing this. Good reviews by people who have used these programs are available. Volunteering as a teacher or health professional to work in Africa or other developing nations is a very thoughtful response to the need. I cannot attest to these specific programs. If you do consider this kind of effort, do a thorough job of checking references to be certain you are being well supported in what you do. Some programs are better than others. Try using a search engine (google.com) and enter “International, volunteer, travel, Maasai” to see the many options or use the reviews link above to see how the programs fare with their critics and fans.

            We continue to support the HIV work by Museums of Malawi because we have visited their programming and know what they are doing and how effective they are in local communities. If you have done something similar in Africa, please share your experience with us in the comments section.

-Tim Merriman

P.S. For more about ecotourism with the Maasai visit our Communities with Heart Blog. Photos of a Maasai community at Facebook.com.     

On the way back from a personal trip to Malawi and Tanzania in 2009, we had a full day to sightsee in Nairobi, Kenya. We had been there once before but with no time to look around the city. Dick Mills of World Discovery Safaris recommended several things to do that turned out to be a very interesting view of community efforts to protect wildlife and give women a new lease on life.

            We first went to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust on the edge of Nairobi National Park. Founded in 1977 by Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick in honor of David Sheldrick the founding warden of Tsavo East National Park where he served from 1948 to 1976. We paid roughly $4USD each and entered at 11 AM when it opened and found habituated warthogs wandering at the entrance, uninterested in us.

            The program began almost immediately with a hundred or more people standing behind a rope as keepers brought half a dozen baby elephants of less than 3 months of age down in front of us just a few feet away. They wore blankets to keep them warm and keepers held them near us by holding very quart bottles of formula with huge nipples. The babies fed enthusiastically and a young woman biologist shared the individual stories of each animal. Some were found in snares set to capture bush meat, one fell down a well, and many were orphaned due to draught and poaching of their mothers.

            After feeding the babies were led out and six more a few months older were brought out to feed. We learned the formula comes from United Kingdom and that cow’s milk will not work for the babies. After three rounds of elephants (tembo in Swahili), they brought a handsome baby black rhino down and we heard about his story. After the program we were invited to adopt (donate for a year’s support) babies and we signed up to support the baby rhino and a baby elephant. They shared their story well and it was easy to make a donation to support this fine program

            Babies are raised for 7 or 8 months at the Trust and then will be transported to Tsavo East National Park to be acclimated to the wilds by age five or six, a very long process. These large parks provide critical habitat for these large animals.

            East Africa’s wildlife stories are important for a substantial part of the economy of Kenya and Tanzania involve photo safaris to see and photograph these magnificent animals in their native environs. The wildlife safaris provide jobs for local guides, cooks, drivers, and agents as well as for the courageous wildlife wardens who defend animals against poachers armed with automatic weapons.

         We left the Trust and drove on over to visit Kazuri Beads, another fascinating facility and story. The property is part of the original farm of Karen Blixen, made famous by the movie, Out of Africa. Lady Susan Wood was born in a mud hut in Africa, the daughter of missionaries and she married Michael Wood, a doctor. Dr. Wood and Susan founded the East Africa Flying Doctor Service, that later became the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF).

         Susan Wood set up a small business making pottery beads in a shed in her back yard. She hired two disadvantaged women and learned that there were many more women with the need for employment. Kazuri Beads was born and would move to a factory location in 1988 and expand to employ more than 350 women in need.  “Kazuri” means “small and beautiful” in Swahili and this business is certainly beautiful in what it provides for their community.

         Our guide was one of those disadvantaged women and she told the story well as she led us on a free tour around the buildings and grounds. We watched dozens of women and a very few men shaping beads, painting them and placing them in kilns. They also make some table items such as plates, sugar bowls  and salt and pepper shakers in beautiful wildlife patterns. We bought many examples to take home as gifts, to donate to charity auctions and just to support their work. In 2001 Mark and Regina Newman bought the business and continue the legacy of helping women in need with dignity and jobs.

         If you get to Nairobi, Kenya, both of these interesting programs share a unique story of helping people while helping wildlife and women. Kazuri Beads are sold at many shops around the world, but all originate with the rich clay of Mount Kenya in the hands of women working to have a better future.

- Tim Merriman

Several years ago we learned of Bead for Life from Mark Jordahl, a naturalist, ecologist and educator working in Uganda with his wife, Devin Hibbard, a co-founder of this non-profit group. Mark learned of our interest in HIV and malaria education in Malawi, so he encouraged us to take a look at Bead for Life.

            (How it started – from their website)

            BeadforLife began with a chance encounter between a Ugandan woman, Millie, who was rolling beads near her mud home, and the founders, Torkin Wakefield, Ginny Jordan, and Devin Hibbard. Stopping to admire the beads, the women learned that there was no market for her jewelry, and that Millie worked for a dollar a day in a rock quarry crushing stones in the hot sun.  They admired her paper beads and bought a few, never realizing that their lives, and the lives of so many impoverished Ugandans, were about to change.

         Eradicating Poverty One Bead at a Time is the tagline or theme for the organization. Women in this innovative program roll colorful beads from strips of paper cut from old magazines, newspapers, and posters. They coat them with a glue/glaze to and sell them to Bead for Life for resale in varied forms as kits and jewelry.

            People in the U.S. can order a sales kit for a party and invite friends over to hear the Bead for Life story and buy their products if they like them. We ordered some for our family and friends just to make an investment in their work. The items were beautiful and useful as well.

            The money Bead for Life makes is invested back in the women in the community. They get assistance in starting small businesses and grants/loans assist them with the financing. They attempt to make the women independent from their assistance in sixteen months.

            They also pay women in northern Uganda villages to harvest nuts from the Shea tree. The very best grade A nuts are turned into Shea butter, a valued oil and salve with varied applications. Shea butter is called “women’s gold” in Uganda because it gives them an income and access to education, health services and independence. Bead for Life has developed new Free Trade markets for the Shea butter and improved the prices paid to women for the rich nuts. Bead for Life has grown to become a 4.5 million dollar a year non-profit while investing 91% of their profits back into services on the ground for women.

            Empowering women through education is proving to be one of the most important strategies in reducing poverty, abuse and exploitation of people in general, but especially women. One of the champions of this kind of work just died in Kenya this past month. Dr. Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for her Greenbelt Movement that planted trees while also empowering women.

            National Public Radio just broadcasted a story this past weekend about the varied birth control programs in India thirty years ago. Most of these were sterilization or birth control programs. Educating women has proven to be a more effective approach than most of what was tried.

            If you have not taken a look at Bead for Life, check out their website and Annual Report. The short videos on their website tell their story well. They are making a difference in myriad ways in one of the more challenging situations in the world.

-Tim Merriman

I have written about the Museums of Malawi’s HIV and malaria education programs in rural areas before in this blog. Their work is simply amazing. The situation is grim and yet their response is upbeat, thoughtful and untiring.

            Aaron Maluwa and Michael Gondwe have worked with rural populations of people for years. But who protects those people? – the Police. How are they coping with HIV infection in the general population? Take a look at the statistics.

 . Population of the country 13.1 million people

. Number tested for HIV is 4.7 Million

. Number of HIV Positive people is over 1 million

. Number of orphans more than 1 Million

. Number of people on Anti Retro-viral Drugs (ARVs)  450,000 as of August 3, 2011

. Number of Police Officers who have died of HIV/AIDS related diseases from 1990 to 2006, 2552

. Number of Police Officers’ spouses who died of the same is estimated to be the same also.

• HIV rate for female Police Officers 32.6% UNDP August 3, 2011 report

• HIV rate for male Police Officers 26.1%. These figures are well above the national rate of 10.06% as of August 2011.

• Further research has revealed that the HIV/AIDS rate in the Police Service is the highest in the government and they are second highest to the HIV/AIDS rate of prostitutes.

The impact of this is very challenging for the police.

            • Increased absenteeism, health bills and burial costs

            • Increased recruitment and training costs

            • Loss of knowledge, skills and experience and reduced productivity

            • Increase in orphans and poverty in their families

           A recent series of HIV educational programs was provided to 700 police officers in varied police districts. The Museum of Malawi’s programs begin with Davison Mkandwire, who is HIV positive, talking about his years of challenge in overcoming the disease to live a healthy but cautious life. Davis is a member of NAPHAM (National Association for People Living with HIV/AIDS). Mike Gondwe and Aaron Maluwa explain the social circumstances that make HIV even more dangerous in Malawi. Polygamy, Kuchotsa fumbi (men invited to teach a 13-year old girl about sex), wife inheritance, traditional healers and other unique cultural practices are spreading the disease quickly.

            The end of these half-day programs include an invitation for all to be tested for HIV. Men continue to be more reluctant than women. But education about HIV has made many more be tested than ever before. Aaron writes that:

                  As churches and police stations are everywhere, both rural and urban areas, these can be used in addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic by being centers for the provision of ARVs to community members.

                  He adds that “HIV education is a social vaccine.” It gives communities and traditional institutions such as the police a better understanding of the disease and their vital roles in reversing this growing pandemic in eastern Africa.

                  You can help. Donations can be made through National Association for Interpretation at http://www.interpnet.com/malawi. No administrative costs are taken from donations. All you give goes to Museums of Malawi for transportation, meals, condoms, health supplies and mosquito nets.  

-Tim Merriman

Aaron Maluwa of Museums of Malawi sent us this personal story of a woman who attended their unique cultural programming about HIV.

Mary Banda’s Story

In spring of 2011 Mary Banda of Kamwendo Village in Mchinji District of Central Malawi met Aaron Maluwa and Mike Gondwe of the Museums of Malawi. Her husband died three years ago leaving her with their five children to raise. He seemed to suffer from several different diseases. She continued to farm to support her kids after losing her husband.

She had learned about HIV/AIDS from health workers during ante and postnatal exams when her five-year old was born several years back. Like most women in villages she was not tested due to fear and the stigma of discrimination. Many in Malawi think that only prostitutes get the dreaded disease. When her husband died at age 35, she did not consider HIV/AIDS as a potential cause.

In July of 2009 she was searching for firewood when she heard a baby crying in a large pit dug to make bricks. Being winter, she found the crying baby in the pit covered with a piece of cloth. She carried the child and inquired at a nearby house, but no one knew to whom the baby belonged. She was referred by her village chief to the police who gave her permission to look after the child. This healthy two-year old still lives with her since no parent has been located.

She began to suffer from several ailments earlier this year and she learned of the upcoming presentations by Museums of Malawi in her village at Kamwendo Model School. She attended to enjoy the cultural dances and see the HIV/AIDS video being shown. She later said that the program changed her life completely. She learned how HIV is transmitted and realized that AIDS might be what took her husband’s life. She decided to be tsted at the program.

Mary was found to be HIV positive and at a well advanced stage. She was referred to Mchinji District Hospital the next day and started treatment on that first visit along with counseling by both the museum and hospital counselors.

Unlike many who learn of their infection for life, Mary treated her knowledge as a positive turning point. She offered to give personal testimony at a program at Nkhwazi School and gave it with all of her energy. Many had tears streaming down their faces as they listened to her story. She expresses her gratitude to Museums of Malawi and donors in the U.S. who support these programs by museum staff. Museum staff helped her with clothing and food supplements for her children.

Aaron Maluwa and Mike Gondwe continue this work and Mary’s story is one of thousands each year in their programming. Mary will continue to care for her six children and get treatment through her local hospital, but museum programs broke the psychological and cultural barriers to her being tested for HIV. The trip to her village from the museum in Blantyre was about 400 miles on rugged terrain. These gentleman are in a different community each week with their own cars, health care workers, HIV positive individuals who will tell their personal stories and donated funds for gas, meals and medical resources.

You can support their work through National Association for Interpretation in Fort Collins, Colorado. All funds are put toward their programs and no administrative funds are taken from contributions. To give CLICK HERE.

If your job was to study and preserve national cultures, but people were dying at such alarming rates that cultural heritage was most threatened by that, what would you do?

      In early 2007 I heard a presentation at National Association for Interpretation’s (NAI) International Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, by two amazing gentlemen. Mike Gondwe and Aaron Maluwa, Museum Educators at the Museums of Malawi.

      They wore suits and ties and spoke modestly of their work. They explained that their jobs involved interpreting the cultures of their nation of 13 million people. But they are losing their cultures to famine, malaria and HIV.

     In 2009 Lisa and I were going to Tanzania for an ecotour as a personal vacation so we flew into Malawi first to see firsthand an HIV program in a village. We visited the museum in Blantyre one day and it has exhibits and collections you might expect at a small national museum but we saw no visitors. They explained that museums are in the cities and most people live in rural areas.

     We went with Aaron and Mike the next day to the Chikwawa community near the Shire River and pulled up under a giant fig tree near Baeru School. We were greeted by teachers, administrators and elders as our friends set up for the day of programs.  We were introduced to over 300 young people in grades 1 through 8 and learned that the school has 1,850 students and only 14 teachers. Most of the classrooms are the bare earth beneath giant fig trees.

      The program was powerful. Mike and Aaron are skilled interpreters and they talked to the kids about HIV and the threat it poses. They joked with them and had the youngsters asking questions about sex and HIV. Many in Malawi believe only prostitutes catch the disease.

     David Mkandawire, HIV positive since 1997, was up next. He shared his personal story and the kids listened attentively. David would ask them if they had sex yet, and many young people put up their hands.  He talked about the danger they faced without knowledge and protection. He encouraged them to be tested and start anti-retroviral medications (ARV) immediately if HIV positive. It has saved his life to know his situation.

     After the program about 70 boys and girls lined up to be tested. Olive and Fanni from NAPHAM were the clinical workers who came along to do the testing. Several of the children were HIV positive and were immediately scheduled for counseling and medication. The Bill and Melinda Gates and Clinton Foundations are getting the needed drugs into the communities, but fear of being tested is the barrier. Aaron and Mike and their troupe of workers pull down that barrier.

     After lunch the same programs were conducted for adults in the community. Women participated enthusiastically while the men stood at the back, reluctantly listening. The talks in the afternoon were followed by dancing and storytelling. Local women using the lyrics they had learned months earlier from Mike and Aaron that blended the HIV messages into traditional songs, dances and stories. Most rural people in Malawi have a fourth grade education, so this approach works better than the usual educational approaches.

     The impact was impressive. About 56 women and six men were tested and six turned out to be HIV positive. There were more than 1,000 present by the time the dances were over so most chose to not learn of their HIV status.

     For four years, since the Vancouver presentation, we have been personally sending money each month to Aaron and Mike, as have a few other NAI members. Our donations pay the auto expenses, buy syringes, and pay some of the workers for being there.  We buy mosquito nets for the malaria program to protect pregnant women and children as they sleep. There is never enough funds to do the complete job that is needed.

     We could not have been happier with the investment or more touched by the emotional environment of afternoon. Only five million of Malawi’s thirteen million residents have been tested and one million are HIV positive. With treatment there is hope but without the ARV meds, the future is grim.

     Aaron and Mike are our colleagues. We have spent our lives working in heritage interpretation to protect the environment and cultural stories. But these guys are saving lives as well as interpreting their cultures. They are making a difference. Learn more HERE.

-Tim Merriman

The fictional work, The Leopard Tree, was written to expose readers of all ages to the incredible challenges faced by people in African nations. HIV, malaria and hunger are problems made worse due to widespread illiteracy and limited public resources.

This weekly blog will introduce you to a wide variety of ways to get involved in this challenge to empower people on the ground to save lives and secure a reasonable future for their families. Our personal financial  investment each month is in support of a program by Museums of Malawi run by Mike Gondwe and Aaron Maluwa. We will share stories from their work on a regular basis. Some are very sad but all are inspirational. People are working to help each other and make a difference.

Also, we hope to share the story of many other independent foundations, philanthropists, government agencies and non-governmental organizations that work to keep hope alive in desperate circumstances. Sometimes we will suggest how you can get involved, but our primary focus will be to share real stories about positive change and challenges on the ground.

We would also enjoy hearing about your work on the ground in Africa or stories of hope you encounter. Do not hesitate to send us a guest blog article about this topic. We will be happy to share it with others.

- Tim Merriman and Lisa Brochu

Be the change you want to see in the world - Mahatma Gandhi