Success in Africa! 

 

Clement and Frieda Chiang led the effort to raise much of the funds for this program. Once in Liberia they led the program implementation. Clement came up with a self-sustaining formula that to our knowledge is the most innovative and exciting that we have seen. Specifically, he formed community-based businesses in 4 villages and we expect to be in at least 6 more within a year. 
 
 

 

1. A group of people in a small village receives 6 goats (4 female and 2 male) and 45 chickens. The first 3 goats and 15 chickens produced continue to be owned and shared by the village.
2. The next 9 goats and 60 chickens produced by the original livestock gift are raised to maturity to help people in another village. By helping people in another village, the people participating in the program benefit from the dignity that comes from helping others.
3. The intermediaries earn a respectable annual income as they keep 3 of the 9 goats and 15 of the 60 chickens returned. In return for this payment, they manage the entire process including repayment and provide all forms of assistance necessary for the program to thrive. For example, an intermediary managing 3 villages would have 9 goats and 45 chickens each year to sell as income.
4. The intermediary continues the process by expanding the program to a new village.
5. The cycle of poverty is broken in a meaningful way by this community based hand-up.
 
More often than not, people in the villages cannot read. The picture below was used by Clement and team to present this program (click on the picture to see a larger version).

 

 
 

 

Micro-Businesses

 

Joey Chiang, a high school student, took the lead on starting a clean water micro-businesses.

 

 

Every two minutes, a child dies from drinking bad water. The water purification system is shown below. This system produces chlorine and purifies large quantities of water for several years.
 

 

 

 

Joey led the training and everyone was amazed by the effectiveness of the system. The process works by using an electrical current provided by a rechargeable 12 volt battery to convert water mixed with salt into chlorine. We learned from our first-hand experience that a small plastic bag of chlorine sells for 10 Liberian Dollars or about 6 cents. Benedict Himmie is now hard at work making chlorine to help thousands of people obtain clean drinking water. 

Micro-business can make a big difference in the day-to-day lives of people. For example, Christlam Duor received a $1,500 investment in May 2007 from a Teach Peace member to start a food grinding business. He purchased a machine to grind and roast peanuts and now he earns $3,600 a year which is a lot in Liberia as the annual average income is only about $450. Christlam gave Mary Wind and David Dionisi a tour of one of the markets where dozens of merchants sold the peanut butter made from his machine.

 

Scholarship Program 

 
  Shown above are some of the students that received a scholarship with David Dionisi in the center of the picture. Rev. Tim Malone, the president of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Fund, asked the Teach Peace Foundation to identify and select African children to receive scholarships. This is the second year Teach Peace has been able to help in this capacity and we are always willing to assist as it means so much for the scholarship recipients. Mary Wind led this project and in total we delivered twenty-eight $50 scholarships. While $50 may not sound like a lot, it can fund a year of elementary school and is large enough to bring grateful parents to tears.

 

Food Aid & Wells 

Teach Peace's President Mary Wind brought a truck with food to a group of disabled people at the Our Lady of Fatima Rehabilitation Center. We also funded the work to fix and dig wells. Access to clean drinking water is an increasingly challenging problem. For reasons we do not fully understand, many wells in Liberia are drying up and need to be dug deeper.

 

Photo Story Project 

 

Renee Chiang used her video camera to film the stories of the war orphans and poor children. She also shared many hours talking with the children and playing games. If you are ever interested in visiting and are wondering what skills you have that could be put to good use, know that simply spending time with the children is one of the best things you can do.

 

Joey and Renee attend Mercer Island High School and their school fund raising efforts made the Christmas gift program possible. Money raised from their high school together with some of the donations from adults also helped fund a Photo Story project. Some of the pictures are very stunning and help capture life in Liberia from the perspective of the children. We are now creating a new section of the Teach Peace website so that people can see Liberia from the eyes of the children.

 

 
  Frieda Chiang helped on every project including our team's performance of an African dance which Mary Wind believes could be used on YouTube to dramatically drive up our website traffic! 

 

The Teach Peace board of directors wishes to thank everyone who helped make our Africa Peacemaker program a huge success! For more information about our work in Africa or how a donation you made helped break the cycle of poverty, please call us at 530-554-7061.