Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Heading Back and Ramping Up!


George Veth and I are preparing to return to Uganda immediately after Thanksgiving to continue our work with business people in East Africa. Since my last visit in June, there have been a couple of significant milestones.

First, George has successfully launched the Mango Fund. “MANGO” is an acronym standing for: value Migration Assistance aNd Growth Opportunity; “Fund” is the business – investment. Thanks to a founding investment from a mutual friend, George is looking to replicate and accelerate what we have been doing in Arua and to take the principles of investment to other parts of East Africa, most notably the rest of Uganda and Kenya. As the name implies we are looking to make investments in businesses where an infusion of knowledge, technology and capital can transform business sectors. We have already made three investments through the fund in the agri-processing, medical services and mobile money fields. I’m delighted to be working with George as a member of his investment committee. Hey George I’m still waiting for my business cards!!

Second in combination with Mango we now have two full-time people in Uganda to help us move forward. Blasio Leeti was with us part-time in Arua, but now has been freed generously by Isaac Anguyo and the Here is Life ministry to work full time with us. In Kampala, we have been joined by Ted Pantone as the East Africa Regional Manager. Ted is a graduate of The King’s College (small world) and he visited Arua with me two years ago. He was captivated by Africa and has spent the last two years in Kenya overseeing a large-scale community-based water purification project. George and I welcome both Blasio and Ted, and believe that the addition of full-time colleagues on the ground will allow for an acceleration of activity and the likelihood of seeing more opportunities than we would otherwise have done.

In keeping with adding people, we have taken a small amount of office space in Arua and are excited about hanging our shingle up there.

As George and I prepare to return, we have a long list of meetings and projects that we want to pursue. In addition to his work in Arua, George will be looking at a broader geographic area for contacts and possible opportunities. I will remain primarily focused on Arua and the West Nile region, but my focus is broadening from simply working with businesses to working more with the church, the local and federal government and leaders of the Aruan community in both the West Nile and Kampala. Increasingly we see the need for broader “community development” if we are to be successful in improving the business climate and lifting the region from poverty.

Please pray for us all as we prepare for this important trip. If you would like more information, or just want to talk about what we are doing and what you could do to help, please e mail me at amills@tkc.edu.

Thanks and Blessings

A
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1 comment:

  1. Dave ThomNovember 30, 2011 at 7:22 AM

    Hi Andy, We've just LinkedIn, so reading your blog I see that the tall white-haired man is going back to the dark continent of Africa. And may be there any day now. Blessings on you! I admire your "pluck" for fighting for the Good in a hard place. I guess we both like challenges. Yale's Rivendell boys just had me and a prof down to meet profs to pitch the Roundtable for Yale. Their lunches meant for outreach only draw Christians. They extolled us as if we hang the stars! We pleaded with them that we see vast improvements to be made, like have 10 Andy Millses actively following up faculty to help Dave. They got the picture, though they already have 5 Rivendell staff vs. 1 Dave Thom. We hope to have John Lennox in February. Please think about coming in order to keep your faculty faculties simmering!

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The Genesis of the 5810 Project

Vision

When Jesus was asked what was the most important command he answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your heart and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments”

As a follower of Jesus, it is challenging to obey these commands, particularly with regard to my neighbors.
How can I love my neighbors? How can I love my neighbors in a global context? How can I love my neighbors who are struggling to thrive in developing countries?

The classic response of western Christians has been to “send”. Whether we send those that have been called to vocational ministry, or send money and resources to “give to the poor”, or occasionally send ourselves on short-term missions trips. Each of these has value, but is this enough? Is it effective? Is it all that God calls us to?

The questions become more complex when you consider that no matter how much money we have spent on the “war on poverty” over decades, the problem remains as acute as ever. We are not winning the war, even here in the US. Are there other approaches?

As I struggled with these ideas, I was led to consider Isaiah Chapter 58. Here God tells us what true fasting is – to loose the chains of injustice; to set the oppressed free; to share food with the hungry; and to provide the poor with shelter. Then verse 10 says “…if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noonday.”

“If you spend yourselves in behalf of others …….”

While we should send, we need to spend too.

What does it look like to spend ourselves?
For me I have been led to spend myself as follows:
• To go to a developing country, and to go repeatedly.
• To develop personal relationships with innovative leaders
• To use my own specific gifting and experience in business
• To find ways to move people out of the poverty cycle on a sustainable basis
• To invest money in parallel with my activities
• To share the love of Christ with my neighbor and to spend myself on their behalf.

5810 Project

The 5810 Project is predicated on the belief that while “teaching a man to fish” will provide him with a fish diet for a lifetime, it will not lead him out of poverty. To escape poverty people need to develop sustainable business activities. The 5810 Project’s vision is to provide an opportunity for business people from developed countries to share the love of Christ with their neighbor by “spending” themselves on behalf of others who are trying to build businesses and break the poverty cycle.

The 5810 Project is currently focused on two principal activities in Uganda.

Arua
Arua is a significant market town in the NW of Uganda, with Sudan to the north and Congo to the West. It is an agricultural market town that has grown because of government and NGO activity primarily in S. Sudan, but now increasingly in E. Congo. While the town has prospered and grown, the native Aruans have not enjoyed this economic boon.

Our efforts in Arua are centered on helping the church and Christian business people develop sustainable businesses.
We work with businesspeople to analyze the market situation in Arua, to offer training sessions, to encourage and mentor entrpreneurs and to invest in their businesses.

Kampala
Jesus Commissioned Ministries (“JCM”) is a church founded in 2000 serving three poor communities on the outskirts of Kampala. The leadership of JCM has a heart to reach the many underprivileged children in the communities it serves. Without education, there is little hope for these children to thrive. While education is available, the costs are prohibitive for most families. JCM has established Mercy Junior School (elementary) for these children. In addition to education, the children receive uniforms, food and school materials. The school currently has over 50 pupils in two Pre-K classes and Primary 1 (P1)and Primary 2 (p2) and is building classrooms for P3,4 & 5 for completion in the spring of 2011.

The 5810 Project has helped Mercy Junior School develop its rudimentary facilities and to buy a neighboring plot of land for expansion. We also advise the administrators of the school on business and education practices and have steered them through a process of becoming a fee-baseda significant drive to parent involvement and elevated educational standards and outcomes.

Opportunity
We believe that the 5810 Project offers a significant opportunity for the body of Christ:
• Grass roots opportunity to create sustainable businesses and deliver families and communities out of the oppression of poverty.
• Many business opportunities are apparent with relatively small investment levels necessary.
• Opportunities for talented business people to connect personally with emerging entrepreneurs and spend themselves on them.
• Opportunity for the body of Christ in the developed world to share the love of Christ with our neighbors in developing countries.
• Transformational impact on the “spender” and recipient alike!

If you would like to discuss this further, please contact me Andy Mills at amills@tkc.edu