Our Mission

African Community Health Inititiave (ACHI)

Provide basic health care services to those lacking access to such care in both rural Nigeria and urban Namibia.

These services include:

*Overall Physicals (including Fasting Glucose levels, Vitals, HIV/AIDS testing etc..)

*Medication Management and Maintenance programs *Disease Management

*Health Education that addresses disease prevention, hygiene and nutrition

*Consultations and referrals

Mount Sinai

A program started by Katutura State Hospital Nurse Christa Biart-Vega, who works in the ARV (antiretroviral) pediatric clinic, Mount Sinai provides HIV counseling, health education, well baby checks, formula, water and sippy cups for 105 babies and their HIV+ mothers. If the child is tested HIV- after 6 weeks of being breastfed, the hospital or clinic refers them to Christa. At this point it is important to discontinue breastfeeding: replacing breast milk with formula means that the baby will remain HIV-. Unfortunately, due to the lack of funds Christa has to limit the number of mothers and babies in her program because it is a commitment to feed each child for six months. Christa did receive land in Katutura for the clinic, but lacks the funds to begin building. Not only will this building be used to continue the program that Christa has started, she also envisions it as a safe place for moms and their children, as well as a hospice for children with AIDS to peacefully die in instead of out on the streets. Your donations will go towards formula, sippy cups, water and overall costs. More money means more women can enroll in the program and with your help Nurse Christa will finally be able to have a building to go along with her amazing, life saving program!

Family Hope Sanctuary

FHS is a community based program run by Abigail Maposa located in the extremely poor settlements of Hakahana. FHS’s program helps in two ways: first, to empower women, most of whom are HIV+, TB, single mothers who are raising orphans; and second, through its school readiness program. This program reaches children who are not in the school system and provides them with an education and a safe place to stay. More importantly, the heart of FHS is its kitchen: it feeds hundreds of children each day, which for most is the only meal they will get that day. Lacking the most basic necessities of life, all of these kids are grateful for such a meal, and are in dire need of a formal education before it is too late. Your donations will go towards education, food, clothes, shoes, water and other necessities. Amazingly, $20 sends a child to school for a whole year (books and uniforms included)!

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Tangi Unene (Many Thanks to all!!!!!!!!!)

On the Rocks in Fish Hoek, South African
Receiving drawings from the children..... Thank you/goodbye notes for the children.

-The group of women (careteam) from Hakahana Community that works at FHS.we also supplied a lot of them with food hampers and watercards.
-The women lined up to begin the festivities!
-Recieving food hamper (many danced and gave thanks)










-Field Trip day group................ Handicapped Bathroom at hospital... Playground happenings.




-Annie and the kids!
-Recieving our certification of appreciation from abigail.
-Ouma dancing...

- The girls (Annie & Gift, Abigail, Foibe, Mary)









-GROUND BREAKING!!!!!!!

This is our final letter home. We are now in Cape Town relaxing before we make our way home. A wonderful couple donated a week stay on the Indian Ocean for our last week. We are truly blessed! Time to walk on the beach, pray and reflect about our last 5 weeks in Namibia. I am feeling guilty about staying in such a wonderful place but extremely appreciative to have this time to put things in perspective before returning to my life in America.
So I want to update all on our last week in Namibia. Mary and I were constantly being torn between Mt. Sinai and FHS. We both said that next year we should focus on Mt. Sinai- that was Friday night and then Saturday AM we went out to Hakahana (FHS) to distribute food hampers and water cards to the families that we sponsored. When we arrived they had planned a big party for use!! It was so absolutely heart-warming. The children sang and danced for us. They wrote letters of thank you and drew pictures. And as if that wasn’t enough, then the mothers dressed in their traditional Ovambo dress, danced and sang the ‘thank you’ & ‘goodbye’ songs in Oshivambo! They had made beaded gifts for us. Mary and I were both brought to tears- we had not expected this and it was a bit overwhelming. We both joined in with them and danced and it was decided right there and then that we could never just focus on Mt. Sinai because we have out little community at Hakahana as well! I also want to have a 3rd annual Easter egg hunt for the kids. So we left the center after well stocking them with food for all our little starving ones! We even bought porridge so that they can start feeding them breakfast. We have a videotape of the special day and I am exited to share it with you all!
Next is Mt. Sinai. Christa’s dream is still going strong and we will continue to fundraise and it is my hope that with some hard work at both ends we can build next year. We were able to do a ground breaking ceremony and begin to clear the land. As you know the land that was donated by the municipality was a dumping site so clearly the land turned out to be a bigger project than was expected. On the day we broke ground we had invited the press from “The Namibian” newspaper. Hopefully, Mt. Sinai’s story will be in the paper as well as a picture of all of us sitting in the arm of the bulldozer! We also worked very hard in trying to get a container to place on the land. A container holds all the building supplies so that no one can take them while they are in the building process. These containers turned out to be extremely expensive so we did a little networking to see if CAA (catholic Aids Actions) could assist us with the use of one of their containers. Once we are able to build Mt. Sinai, it will be a place that international volunteers can come, work and stay there as well. So lets build it and then you are all invited!! Mary and I talked about how awesome it would be if we could get Habitat for Humanity to come to Namibia and build Mt. Sinai! I wish we could have cone more for Christa, but we did discuss a plan of where we go from here. We got Christa connected to the internet (or she will be- there is a waiting list of about 3 weeks in Namibia) so we can better communicate. We are going to work on resubmitting Mt. Sinai’s proposals to every available organization, NGO and yes Oprah (again). Christa read about a person who spent more than 25 million dollars to go into space and can’t imagine why someone would do that when they could help so many babies and children with that money!! We Americans can be so foolish in our spending!
We were also able to stock Christa with food hampers for the kids on ARV treatment and we built another wall of formula to stock in her kitchen, hallway and dining room! We also helped her some of the financing of her truck. Her truck is so needed to transport the mom’s and kids back to the settlements. Some walk more than 10 miles to her house. The truck is also useful to pick up the food and formula. I really can’t imagine how she was able to transport all of that with out her truck. So the actual building of Mt, Sinai is still a dream but we have faith and hope that it will become a reality within the next year.
My little friend Saki (the boy with the growth on his face in previous pictures) was admitted to Central Hospital and he was seen by the pediatric surgeon. They were keeping him in the hospital until they find out when the German plastic Surgeon will arrive to see if he needed to be put on the list for an operation. I worried about Saki being lonesome and sad in the hospital but after visiting him and talking with the nurses, I realize that he is in a good place- 3 meals a day and a bed to sleep in, other children like him to play with and even a television set! This beautiful child must think he has died and done to heaven! We left one for Saki’s family to use for taxi to the hospital (the walk is over 10 miles).
The most difficult of our trip was saying goodbye. It nearly broke my heart to leave Foibe and Gift. Mary and I both felt sick to our stomachs the last few days because goodbyes here are so painful. Where did all the time go? It was so short how could we leave them? How could we leave Namibia? It is like leaving behind a part of my heart and soul. We will miss it greatly!
As this is one of our last letters from Africa, we want to thank all of you for your support with donations, prayers and love. It was because of all of you that we were able to:
*Feed hundreds upon hundreds of children
*Give families water cards
*Provide formula and food hampers for HIV+ mothers and their negative babies as well as children on ARV meds.
*Host an amazing Easter party for over 200 orphaned and vulnerable children
*Assist families with medical, school, and food expenses
*Provide clothes and shoes for children
*Give children educational experiences
*Amazing memories and so much more!


THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR GENEROSITY AND SUPPORT THROUGHOUT THIS WHOLE PROCESS!

Just because we are coming home does not mean the work stops. It is a continual process in which we strive for on a daily basis. Only a small number of children could be helped throughout our trip (which we are very grateful for) but there continues to remain millions upon millions of children, more so orphans, that need your support. It is through such programs like Mt. Sinai and Family Hope Sanctuary that we are trying to make a difference, but as many of you may know, there exists many programs out there that need your help as well. So please, continue to become aware of the existing problems that face our world and hopefully one day we can all say that we tried our very best to leave a world where future generations will be cared for no matter their circumstances.
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