DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITY PROJECTS IN KINSHASA

In this CRN circular, we look at the development of community projects for people living with HIV in Kinshasa. The community has taken bold and unexpected new initiatives over the past year, and is forging a positive and vibrant future for its people.

We also examine the finances of CRN for last financial year (1/July/07 to 30/June/08) and the first three months of this financial year (1/July/08 to 30/September/08), and examine how your gratefully accepted donations are spent. Every year, the financial statement of CRN is audited by top independent accountants, and we have only recently submitted our financial statements to 30/June/08 to the auditor. Let us begin then with a presentation of the financial statement for CRN for the period 1/July/07 to 30/September/08.

CRN Financial Statement

The administrative costs are mainly essential annual costs such as audit and website registration fees. These are more than covered by personal donations to CRN from myself the secretary of CRN. All donations from the public therefore go 100% towards our African compassion projects. CRN has no advertising costs nor do we pay any remuneration to our coworkers. All our work is voluntary.

It has been decided by our Inner Planning Circle, that all donations to CRN received after the payment of administrative costs should be divided into four equal portions, a quarter going to each of the four African projects.

Project 1 to build a US$9,000 Community Fund to provide loans to kick-start jobs for a group of 50 people in Kinshasa with HIV

Project 2 to build a US$9,000 Community Fund to provide loans to kick-start jobs for a second group of 50 people in Kinshasa with HIV

Project 3 to support a voluntary community healing centre in Kinshasa

Project 4 to sponsor training in healing herbs such as artemisia and moringa through Anamed seminars

Only rarely do public donations get allocated for other purposes. One such occasion happened in August/08, when our Kinshasa coworker urgently requested adapters for his computer and printer used for his secretarial work in Kinshasa. Our Inner Planning Circle agreed to cover this cost of A$163.40 = US$140 from CRN funds, because without doing this, a power surge in Kinshasa might otherwise destroy all our computer equipment there.

Let us now look at how your donations are being distributed between the four African projects.

Before 1/November/07, CRN was sponsoring only one project in Africa, which is now named Project 1, or the Community Fund I Project. Following the success of the gathering on 1/June/07 of 134 people with HIV, there was a great eagerness to diversify, and develop more projects. Our Inner Planning Circle therefore decided that all donations received after 1/November/07, available after paying essential administrative costs, would be divided four ways, a quarter going to each of the four African projects.

Expenditure on the 4 African Projects

Now let us look at the development in each of the four African Projects. Projects 1,2 and 3 are all involved with goodwill service activity in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Project 4 has a primary objective of sponsoring coworkers from all over Africa to attend a one-week Anamed seminar, where they learn to cultivate many medicinal herbs that grow in Africa, and to use them in a variety of healing ways.

Project 1, Community Fund I

Project 1 arose following the first gathering of 50 people with HIV on the day of Wesak, May 2007. Most of the people with HIV were unemployed, being rejected by former employers, family and society alike. They were left to fend for themselves on the streets where they were expected to give up and die. Most people in this situation die, not of HIV, but of starvation, because they progressively find it more and more difficult to find food. The people with HIV decided that their greatest need was to find jobs, so that they could earn a living and buy their own food. They did not ask for handouts. They wanted to build their new lives through their own endeavours. They asked simply to be provided with loans, that would be repaid in monthly installments once each of them had a job.

The first jobs kick-started were five vegetable growing points. The loan of US$446.50 for each vegetable growing point provided tools and seeds and seedlings. The people with HIV themselves owned the properties but without help they were too poor to get vegetable production started. By 30/June/07, CRN had raised enough to kick-start all five vegetable growing points. Total amount loaned to these five points amounted to US$2,232, and by 30/June/07, already US$1,212 had been repaid into Community Fund I through monthly repayments.

By 30/June/08, all the remaining debt of US$1,212 had been fully repaid. But then something quite amazing happened, that was not anticipated by the CRN Inner Planning Circle. We in affluent countries are familiar with the model that ownership of land provides the owner with sole management rights for the property. But in Kinshasa, the entire community of 50 people with HIV were invited to help grow the vegetables. They would work as a group upon the land and at mid-day have a group meal together. This arrangement had numerous benefits. The participants with HIV reported,

"we have welcomed the assistance in food, we are very happy, it permits us to hold the situation in waiting that our produce permits us to become independent. The launching of the project in its first phases encourage us a lot, the work helps us, the work frees us of idleness, of a too tense preoccupation on our own health situation, it permits us to forget a moment our conditions as people living with HIV, it gives us back our dignity, we feel useful to the society, we feel "free", there is the joy to be able to produce and to become morally independent".

This approach had a most unanticipated consequence besides providing food for the famine-struck community. The entire group felt that they had a stake in the productivity of the five vege growing points. And so in the financial year to 30/June/08, even after the loans had been fully paid off, each vege growing point continued to deposit monthly repayments into the community fund. And so by 30/June/08, a further US$1,423 had been saved up by the group. This increased to a savings of US$1,763 by 30/September/08. This savings component, the 50 people with HIV can choose to use however they collectively choose. This component they can choose to withdraw at any time, partly or wholly. Recent discussions by them suggests that part will be used to provide part wages to someone undertaking the challenging task of doing the legal research to draft a constitution, ready for the group to become a charitable non-government organisation representing all people living with HIV. Part they have decided they will use for their own needs, for they come from the poorest of the poor and those needs are many.

This group of 50 people with HIV, being among the poorest of the poor, have demonstrated that they are capable of collectively raising about US$2,600 a year to allocate towards their own self-chosen community projects.

The asset value of the Community Fund I as provided by donations from CRN has increased to US$4,438.90 by 30/June/08, and to US$4,610.40 by 30/September/08. Thus within two years of the launch of the Community Fund I Project, more than half of the goal of US$9,000 that is to become the eventual asset value of the Fund, has been saved.

These assets have now been used to kick-start three fresh food selling point jobs. The loans required for each of these jobs is US$1,595 per selling point. This is much more than for vege growing jobs, because it requires investment for each point of a freezer, a bar, chairs and a table. The first two fresh food selling points commenced business on 1/March/08, and a third on 1/July/08. After a month of selling activity, they are now regularly each repaying US$30 a month per fresh food selling point. It had originally been hoped that they could repay US$80 a month, but they have had to take into account an additional unplanned cost of US$30 a month site rental. Also they are starting slowly with small stock until their business becomes well known and they can increase their stock as the number of their customers increases. They hope that soon they can increase their monthly refund amounts.

Total loans taken out to kick start the fresh food selling points = 3 x US$1,595 = US$4,785. They have now refunded US$180 by 30/June/08, increased to US$420 by 30/September/08, leaving US$4,365 still to be repaid back into Community Fund I. Thus by 30/September/08, the Community Fund I has only US$304.60 available to kick-start a fourth fresh food selling point. This amount will increase with further monthly refunds and fresh donations sent from CRN.

Project 2, Community Fund II

At the second gathering held in June/07, 134 people with HIV attended. It was decided at the gathering to establish a community fund to provide loans to a second group of 50 people with HIV to kick-start jobs. This second fund would be called Community Fund II. CRN began injecting donations into Community Fund II from 1/November/07. Thus it began a year later than Community Fund I. By 30/June/08, Community Fund II had accrued assets of US$869.00, and by 30/September/08 this had increased US$1,040.50.

Much effort is required to commence training for a new group of 50 people with HIV in the significance and use of the Community Fund, and also in encouraging the idle members of the group to participate in vege site work-ins. Because of the major effort, it was decided to wait until sufficient funds had accrued to kick-start two vege growing points. In the meantime, members of the second 50 have been provided with some food from the produce from the vege growing sites of Community Fund I, and in this way the entire community of 100 are no longer at the point of famine, though hunger and poverty remain serious problems until there is full employment.

The first two vege growing points for Community Fund II commenced preparation and growing on 1/July/08. The entire community of the second group of 50 with HIV is now thoroughly involved in helping these sites become fully productive. Vegetables take at least three months to grow to the point of providing some sales. The land around Kinshasa is very fertile, and the tropical rainfall is abundant. There is joy and anticipation as the second group of 50 see their first vegetables rapidly growing.

Project 3, Kinshasa Community Healing Centre

In May/06, at the time of the first gathering for 50 we invited the people with HIV to open their hearts and share with us the deepest desire of our hearts. We from affluent countries were most touched by the devastating problem of AIDS, and so we naturally expected them to develop a goal around healing issues. It was so unexpected by us when they unanimously declared their most urgent need, to have access to loans so that they could kick-start jobs for themselves so that they could eat. Their choice has demonstrated their wisdom, for when we in CRN wholeheartedly supported them in this goal, true community started to develop in Kinshasa.

And then at the time of June/07 gathering of 134 people with HIV, we knew in advance the importance of supporting a second Community Fund for the second group of 50 people with HIV. Now at that gathering, some of the people with HIV expressed curiosity about some electrical healing devices that many years ago CRN had gifted to Albert Mananga, our Kinshasa coworker. About seven years ago, we had used these devices, a zapper, a colloidal silver maker, and various Dr Beck devices, in a quite successful trial on three people with HIV. The devices could be used quite effectively to treat people with infectious diseases and diseases resulting from various pathogens, and they virtually cost nothing to provide the treatment. And so anyone could provide this treatment for any who asked for free. After the original trial, Albert put them aside because he had so many other duties to attend to. And so the devices remained unused for many years because no-one else felt the motivation to provide goodwill healing with them. Life in Kinshasa was difficult enough as it was, just to earn enough to feed and clothe oneself and one’s family.

But when Albert showed these devices at the gathering of 134 in June/07, the keen interest was very tangible. Here at last the people with HIV realised that they did not need to be sick with AIDS, that there was a cost-free alternative to restore them to full health. From the gathering, five with HIV volunteered to provide healing using these devices to the general community. Over the next two months, Albert trained these volunteers. All five were unemployed, and yet they offered to provide healing treatment to any who came. Their dream was to build their own independent community healing centre, run by the people with HIV. They would need to rent premises starting small with a lease of US$1,000 and a monthly rental of US$50 a month. As they did not have any funds to start with, Albert and his wife offered their own home, with a flower and vegetable garden and a spacious area for the healing treatment. They offered treatment to any who came, not demanding that they have HIV. For in fact these devices heal many other diseases as well. And the positive value of the treatment spread by word of mouth, and very soon over 30 people were receiving treatment every day. They would return, because the recognised the effectiveness of the treatment, which was gladly provided by people who were themselves unemployed.

From 1/November/07, CRN started building a fund to support the community healing centre. By 1/July/08, CRN had donated US$1,008 to the healing centre fund, and by 1/October/08, a further US$171.50. There are frequent power cuts in Kinshasa, and this disrupts the healing treatment, because the devices depend upon power. And so the first purchase by the group, they spent US$500 for a device to provide power during periods of failure of the public mains power. This has been their only expenditure to date, and so as of 1/October/08, the remaining healing centre fund stands at a balance of US$679.50. The next two most urgent goals for expenditure are firstly, a government permit to ensure that their healing activity is approved by government, and then they need to save US$1,000 to pay a lease so that they can rent their very own healing centre.

As of the time of the June/07 gathering of 134, we knew the importance of finding healing herbs that could easily be grown in out vege gardens. We however did not know of any herbs that treated infectious diseases and were widely available in tropical countries. And so our group of 100 people with HIV, together with the members of CRN, prayed for enlightenment about where we could find such healing herbs. About a month later, our prayers were answered, when we heard about the wonderful work the NGO group based in Germany named Anamed was doing. Anamed provides lecturers to go to Africa and give a week-long seminar on all kinds of healing herbs, how to recognise them, how to cultivate them, how to prepare medicinal treatments, and how best to apply these treatments. In particular, two herbs artemisia (used as a tea) and moringa (the leaf is dried and used as a nutritional powder to eat with food) are very effective in treating HIV/AIDS.

Registration to the Anamed one-week long seminar costs 250 Euros. However we soon discovered that there was in Kinshasa a very active Anamed group, which had been trained five years ago, and has been expanding ever since. In December/08, this local Anamed group held an Anamed seminar in Kinshasa for a registration of just US$20 per participant. Through donations from a supportive shop project, and from myself the secretary of CRN, we raised US$400 to pay the registration for 20 people with HIV from our community to attend the seminar.

The enthusiasm to cultivate and provide treatment with these healing herbs, became very vital, and many members of our group of 100 people with HIV each month attend an Anamed meeting to discuss cultivation and education about these wonderful herbs. The Kinshasa community healing centre also assists in education and distribution of Anamed herbs.

Project 4, Anamed Education

Whereas the first three projects are focussed in Kinshasa, the Anamed Project provides opportunities for coworkers throughout Africa who are interested in serving through establishing cultivation and distribution of healing herbs in their local area. The principal focus for expenditure in this project, is to sponsor coworkers in Africa to attend

a one-week long Anamed seminar. Our sponsorship generally supports both the 250 Euros registration fee, and reasonable costs travelling to and from the seminar.

You can learn about the wonderful work that Anamed do, by looking up their website on http://www.anamed.net/ Each year, they host up to ten Anamed seminars throughout the African continent, and their forward agenda of seminars can be accessed on their website. Seminars are provided in either English, French or German according to the language spoken in the country where the seminar is to be provided. Sometimes when a local African Anamed group becomes experienced in the Anamed culture, they provide Anamed courses in local African languages, sometimes at greatly reduced registration prices because they would not require covering the cost of bringing a lecturer from Germany.

In August/08, CRN sponsored a trip by Tenazio Mwanza of Zambia to attend a one-week Anamed course on healing herbs, that was held in Malawi. CRN sponsored A$450 to help Tenazio cover travel costs to and from Malawi. Lyn Hebenstreit, representing a service group based in Ojai California, generously paid for Tenazio’s Anamed registration fees.

CRN also sponsored Francis Maduka of Nigeria to attend an Anamed course in central Nigeria from 12 to 19 October/08. CRN donated A$500 to cover the Anamed registration fee, plus a little extra to cover travel costs.

Future Anamed one-week courses will be held in Arusha Tanzania in 2009 (date yet to be fixed) and Cameroon in French language in July/Aug 2009. CRN has co-workers Godfrey Shemea and Shadrack in Tanzania, to whom we invite interest in attending, and also to Emmanuel in Cameroon. CRN presently has saved up over A$730 sitting in our bank account set aside for sponsoring future Anamed seminar attendance.

An Unexpected New Direction

In response to the call during the May/06 gathering of 50 with HIV, for a Community Fund to provide loans to help kick-start jobs for the people with HIV, donations from affluent countries was a decisive factor in initiating the new project. Donations that year were generous, perhaps because we have become aware of the acute nature of famine amidst the HIV community.

Many other people with HIV approached the original group of 50 asking how they also may share in such wonderful self-development. And so a year later, we invited 100 people with HIV to a gathering that was held in June/07. Many others uninvited came, until eventually with the number attending as great as 134, the doors had to be closed. A third gathering of say 200 a year later was out of the question; there were so many in Kinshasa with HIV and in urgent need, that we could not sponsor them all to a gathering. And yet we could not close our hearts to their call.

The next step forward seemed self evident. After publishing a CRN circular on the success of the income generating activities project, we approached mainstream media (newspapers, TV, radio) with our good news story, sure that we had a fascinating story to tell. But no mainstream media interviewer was interested in giving me an interview. We had a fine article about the Kinshasa project published in World Goodwill Newsletter, but no reader from this magazine offered any donations. Even from our regular readers of CRN circular, donations dropped. During the year 1/7/07 to 30/6/08, donations received were AUD$5,264.50, only 62% of donations received the previous financial year.

As secretary of CRN, my health started to decline, until I realised that God was telling us that expansion needed to come from a completely new direction. But how? During the gathering of 134 in June/07, we were so confident that the success of our project would attract much interest and increased donations from affluent countries. For we had taken the poorest of the poor, the most wretched of the wretched, and invited them to open their hearts, and we then joined with them in invoking the manifestation through a compassion project of their heart’s desire. We had discovered a pathway through which the common person, could discern God’s Plan and then develop projects and manifest that project.

Our inspiration came mainly from the inspirational writing from Findhorn, especially the passage from the Findhorn book, "God Spoke To Me" (p116) by Eileen Caddy on the rules for manifestation;

"I withhold nothing from him who earnestly desires to find the truth. I cannot impress this upon you strongly enough. When you truly understand and accept this, you hold the answer to all there is within you. You understand the limitless of My Love, of My supply of all things. You see the best and manifest the best. Never place a limit or restriction on anything. You find your consciousness expanding, seeing everything that is beautiful, everything that is perfect, and by so doing you draw it to you. "This is the art of manifestation. You will learn to do this more and more in the days to come and so bring about My law of limitless supply. Raise your thinking, know the source of your supply, and your whole attitude will change in the twinkling of an eye. Remember this in the days ahead and let your faith be rocklike and unshakable."

And so at the time of the Major Festival Season April to June 2008, members of CRN, together with people from the HIV community in Kinshasa, prayed to God that the work could expand. We invoked a reconnection with the sacred, in a manner that would impact the people with HIV throughout the nation of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

And our prayers are being answered. Not through mainstream media exposure in Australia, not through increased donations from affluent countries. The expansion came from a totally unexpected new direction, from the creative activity of the people with HIV in Kinshasa themselves. For if we look at the above extract from the Findhorn book, it does not say that our prayers would be answered by donations coming from affluent countries. That was the way it worked out in the first year of our community project, but it is not the only way. I think perhaps God was trying to tell us that even when donations from affluent countries are drying up and donation support is waning, then there is still the option of invoking the manifestation of our projects through the people with HIV in Kinshasa going directly to God and themselves drawing upon His abundant and infinite supply.

Perhaps it was a blessing that the community of 100 in Kinshasa were tested in this way, for they have discovered that they are not dependent upon goodwill donations from affluent countries, for they hold within themselves the seed for manifesting the desires of their own hearts.

Let us list the ways in which the work in Kinshasa expanded in ways unplanned and unexpected by us in affluent countries.

• Though the plots of land for vegetable gardens were owned by individuals, the entire community shared in the work of vegetable production,
  
• When the crops started producing, a major priority was to distribute food among the community so that all had food to live on,

• When the loans for vege growing points were fully paid off, the monthly refunds into the Community Fund bank continued. In effect, the people with HIV are raising about US$2,600 each year for their own community projects, even though they were not asked to do so. From the poorest of the poor, they have discovered a way of raising funds for their own self-chosen projects.

• At the community healing centre, not only is the healing provided free of charge on a voluntary basis, but it is offered to anyone who comes, whether or not they have HIV. They thus are providing a service not just for the HIV community in Kinshasa, but to all citizens.

• Education and cultivation of the Anamed herbs artemisia and moringa is prospering in Kinshasa in less than a year since 20 from the HIV community attended an Anamed seminar last December. Now there are popular monthly meetings to discuss these herbs.

• They recognise that the pathway for expansion is to form a charitable non-government organisation to represent all people with HIV. A first step is to develop a constitution. So much work is involved that this would require a great sacrifice of labour by one person, who would need to be provided with a part wage. How would they pay that part wage? They agreed that part of the savings from the vege crops would be used for this purpose.

We in affluent countries must not now close our hearts. For the people in Africa with HIV continue to desperately need our support, both financial and in prayer. We have demonstrated how a small donation can not only be multiplied manifold, but that it helps awaken the spiritual creativity in those we help.

Yours in love and light,
David Keane,
Secretary, Compassion Response Network