Physical and spiritual health

Ted arrived today from Kampala and we immediately immersed him in the world of healthcare. We have been helping Arua Medical and Radiology Center for the past 4 years, and have been delighted with its growth from primarily a radiology center to a much fuller service health center, now offering lab work, general consultation, orthopedics, dentistry and minor outpatient surgery! AMRC has outgrown its city center premise, and is now looking at a major expansion to a second location a kilometer south of the city on the Kampala road. We went to look at the building work being done and both Ted and I were very impressed by the vision of Ronald Debo the CEO of AMRC. The great thing about AMRC is that not only does it continue to grow by plowing back the profits into the business, but it continues to offer services and treatment that were not previously available in Arua and for which patients either did nothing – and suffered the consequences – or went on a three day trip to Kampala. As you can imagine, most did nothing, and serious conditions that could have been simply solved through medication ran their course often to the demise of the patient. So AMRC represents the best of social entrepreneurship – a profitable and growing business providing an ever expanding range of health services to the community!

The new facility is planned to go one step further – inpatient services, offering general surgery. There is a hospital in Arua, but the surgery resources are so limited that only emergency surgeries are done. If you have an “elective” condition, there is no likelihood of being operated on. Hence the great opportunity and need for a private clinic that can perform such surgeries. We are working on how we can help make this plan come to a reality for the people of Arua.

Later in the afternoon I was the speaker at a business prayer meeting held by our friend Reverend John Bill Akutuko. John Bill was my first contact with the Church of Uganda in Arua and initiated the first business breakfast at which I spoke, and which has been the catalyst for all my work here. He is unusual in that he preaches the high calling of business for those of us in the marketplace. He asked me to speak about “Creating and Building our Businesses with Christ as our Model”. A great topic with which I hope I was able to do justice. Following we had a series of people share their reaction, and then on to prayer. It was a very special time of interaction and prayer – seated under the trees in the garden at Slumberland (my hotel). It was both inspiring and relaxing. We felt the presence of God and there was great warmth among the people who attended. Blasio, Ted and I were also able to meet some business people that were new to us.

Well, I’m in the dark with a battery that is fast expiring, waiting for a dinner that was ordered over an hour ago, and knowing that the water will be cold again tomorrow. Not perfect circumstances, I admit, but it looks like rain again tonight (as the last two nights) and this brings cool and food! I find myself very contented and with a strong sense that this is exactly where God wants me right now. He is my strength and shield! My prayer is that all of you reading this blog would also know the peace that comes from believing in Jesus Christ as savior.

Mud and the Billion target!

Praise God, it rained all night. While it was heavy at times, it was mostly a steady soaking rain – just the kind that Arua needed. At last the drought has broken, and people were busy planting in their fields today. But, with rain comes mud! Not just any mud, but a slippery clay-based substance that acts as a cross between snow and ice for pedestrians and drivers alike. This was, of course, the day we planned to head north to Yumbe. Timing is everything! As we headed out of Arua at first light, I realized how difficult this was going to be and wondered whether we should abandon our trip. 5 miles down the road, we found a convoy of lorries literally stuck in the mud and unable to move. The lead lorry was beautifully positioned at a narrow section of the road and blocked the road to all but pedestrians and bicycles. Our driver Eric skillfully backed up, but I was afraid that we were in danger of falling into the substantial ditch on the side of the road. For the second time I wondered about abandonment. Eric had a short cut in mind to circumvent the blockage. This entailed travelling on a very narrow dirt (thick mud) road for some 4 – 5 Kms. We were doing well till we came to the river – normally a stream with a natural fording point, which was now 30 feet wide across the road and with no sense of how deep. I assumed we had come to the end of our journey, but Eric was unphased and drove straight into the water. Quickly the water was lapping over the hood. A remarkable sight! But low and behold we drove right though and out the other side. But now the fun really began as we had a 100 meter hill ahead of us. 25 minutes later we crested the hill, after several failed attempts and the assistance of about 40 – 50 young men most of whom wanted to instruct rather than push. We paid them for their help, and I was ready to abandon again! But Eric seemed unaffected and pushed on. We arrived at our destination – some 60Kms after 2 ½ hours. I would have abandoned – thanks Eric!

And I am so glad we made it because we had a wonderful time with our old friend Mophart who owns Blessed Bee for Life, the honey processor in Yumbe. Mophart has long worked in the honey business and began to expand his activities with the help of Dick Turanski of Glory Bee Foods in Washington State. In the last year Mophart and his board have decided to expand aggressively and we are helping by providing a loan for him to purchase increased quantities of honey from the farms. In yesterdays blog I described how there are so few activities in West Nile that create value and bring money into the region. BBL is one of those organizations – gathering honey from the farms and selling most of it into Kampala. This year they are on track for sales of 100million Ugandan Shillings (UGX) – approximately $40,000. We agreed the target for BBL should be 1 Billion UGX or $400,000. It is hard to express how important it would be to have that level of money coming in to the region. It would be transformational. Now to found other opportunities like this! BBL is also in the business of manufacturing hives and with new power equipment they are in a position to supply large government and NGO contracts. But recognizing that these sources of funds are under pressure, and that farmers can’t afford to buy the all-wood hives, BBL is also beginning to pioneer hives that have bamboo exterior boxes. We’ll see how that goes, but I love the approach. Mophart is a dedicated Christian who has a passion to help his community and to share Christ with his largely Moslem neighbors. He is a joy to be with and a real inspiration. This visit was worth the whole trip.

You think you've got it bad?

If you think the economy back home is bad, try coming here! People tell me that it’s as bad as folks can remember for many years. Why? Try this as a list: drought, Government cutbacks, NGO cutbacks and withdrawals. 20-30% inflation and a dramatic increase in smuggling! When the average wage is less than $1 a day, these impacts are dramatic. Many families here are reduced to being able to eat only one meal a day. When you don’t build businesses and create a vibrant economy, but instead rely on money being provided in grants and gifts from others, this is what happens when those donors catch colds. This why I believe God has me coming here time and time again – to help create sustainable businesses to add to the local economy.

And yet in spite of all this the people are very resilient. I hear the word “persevere” all the time. Interestingly many people have decided to push through the difficulties and carry on with their businesses rather than folding. The overdue and delinquent loan clients are all finding ways to fulfill their obligations. People are looking to expand and to try new things. Indeed many have told me they need to dream bigger at times like this. I wish I could say I’d be as tough as they are in the circumstances.

At the same time however there is a growing group of people who do not want to work. They have grown up in an environment of Western financial support and see no reason to work. Youths sit along the roadside and talk rather than work. Men will cultivate only as much as is needed to feed their families rather than work harder to create a cash crop. Women and children bear the brunt of physical labor starting early in the morning as they fetch the water from wells and boreholes. Drugs are becoming more prominent, with a local plant called Kaht being the favorite.

Clearly one of the problems is that there are not many jobs available, but there is plenty to be done. This is still an agricultural community and if every farm family would cultivate their full land holding, Arua could feed itself and export food to Congo and S Sudan. There was a time not long ago when there were large shipments of tomatoes from Arua to Kampala. Now the tomatoes are shipped from Kampala to Arua!

The culture of work must change. The churches must preach a different message about the high calling of work, the problem of laziness and the full meaning of being stewards of God’s earth. Community leaders must add their voice to the mix and the school system must introduce the concept of the importance of work to students at an early age. Finally, there needs to be a movement among families to change their attitudes and circumstances.

Is this easy – no! But without a change, Arua will be condemned to another generation of poverty as Arua will continue to be exploited as an example of post colonial colonization.

Hopefully our work among the leaders of the community can help them blaze a new trail for their children and their children’s children.

Who will lead?

Two very full days in Arua. Most of my time here will be spent in both business and community development. One of the things I realized working here is that just solving business problems is not enough. There are underlying issues of culture, politics and infrastructure that also need to be dealt with to allow businesses to thrive. In Arua, we have our fair share of all of these challenges. In particular, access to power, water, capital and a productive workforce plague progress here. It’s a little bit of an “other than that, how did you enjoy the play Mrs Lincoln?” situation. But we press ahead. Pressing ahead has been a theme of my first sets of meetings here. The economy has been struggling for a while, but everyone looks at the last few months as particularly bad. Entrepreneurs are pulling back and protecting their base businesses rather than being in an expansive “What next?” mode. Probably a wise response, given the environment, but frustrating for me as I want to see progress and results. Give me the 20 year outcome next week!

Recognizing that progress is dependent on more than just the business folks themselves, we called a meeting today of the leading citizens of the town. The Bishop, the Mayor, the magistrate, a leading doctor, and other prominent citizens gathered as “elders” of the community to talk about these issues. First to agree on the issues that needed resolving and then to look at practical steps to progress and finally to discuss whether they would be comfortable being the group of people to lead a community-wide initiative. This initiative would: 1) encourage business growth, 2) press for infrastructure upgrades from the federal Government and 3) begin to address and change the prevalent culture that is so counterproductive to the development of the local economy. The folks in the meeting are pictured above. I think that they accepted the mantle of leadership for Arua that I had hoped for and we will gather again for prayer on Saturday. This is such an important development because unless the people of Arua accept responsibility for making change happen themselves, nothing will ever really happen. Hopefully this is the first step. One thing is clear, pulling this meeting together was only possible because I have come to Arua so often and have met many of these folks several times. There is great value in focusing on one environment rather than moving around and cherry-picking.

One other important note for those of you who have followed my blog and journeys over the years: Yesterday I saw the fully finished mango juicing factory!! Two years ago this was a patch of dirt. A photo is above. The machines are due to arrive in August and there is hope of first production in September. I was both delighted and surprised to see the progress since my last visit. Well done Emmanuel!

I have a full schedule for the rest of the week visiting old friends and new opportunities. I hope that I have the strength to complete a very ambitious program.

A Whirlwind Start

A whirlwind of activity to start my time in Uganda! Exiting the airport on time on Monday George Veth and I were delighted to see Ted Pantone’s smiling face waiting to pick us up. As it was about 8am, we decided to eat breakfast at a nearby hotel in Entebbe before taking on the congested 38Km drive to Kampala. Ted is the Regional manager for the Mango Fund that George Veth has established to build on the work we have been doing in Arua. The “under construction” website can be found at www.mangofund.org which will give some rudimentary information about the fund and also the link to a couple of job opportunities in Kampala – anyone – anyone? Simply stated Mango is looking to invest in businesses whereby the use of knowledge or technology have the potential to dramatically move the business forward while also providing broader benefit to the east African economies. So for example, providing a loan for a miller to buy a maize milling machine and working capital to buy the maize is such an investment. The farmers gain from having a regular cash market for their crops, the miller gains by earning profits on his milling activities and the consumer gains by receiving a fresh product. A true win, win, win!


Mango Fund is still exploratory in nature as we are trying to see whether this kind of investing in African “missing middle” companies can be profitable. Missing middle refers to companies that are too large for microfinance lending, but not yet large enough to be able to support a bank loan. The difficulty is that the profile of the investing is more like an equity investment, as the companies are not established and we take both operating and business model risk. However there are no really viable methods of making early round equity financing in Uganda. Therefore we have to provide loans, in which the interest rate does not really match the risk. It puts a lot of pressure on good due diligence and investment judgment as well as strong technical assistance after the loan has been made. It’s very grass roots and very hands on!

We met a typical investment candidate - farmers from a commercial farm in the West of Uganda who are looking to fund an irrigation project that will allow them to grow passion fruit, dual-cropped with other high value food products, such as potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes etc. There is an issue over the land title, so the banks won’t play and the investment is far too large for micro-finance. Hence Mango Fund!

George and Ted are staying in Kampala for the week looking at other investment opportunities and I will head up to Arua to work with my friends up there.

Great to be back in Uganda!

Why am I doing this?

So many people ask me "why" I have been captivated by Africa and continue to return to Arua. I though it would help to copy my original blog on the "Genesis of the 5810 Project". As I reread my words, I was delighted to find how clear my mission has been and how committed I remain to it. Enjoy!

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.

BACK AT LAST!!

I’m so looking forward to returning to Uganda. This longer than normal break was due to a heavy workload at The King’s College in NYC, and a recent bout of pneumonia. Now I am ready to focus again on our work in Uganda.


To recap for new readers, I am involved in three broad areas of activity: 1) Economic Development in Arua in the West Nile Region of Uganda, 2) Investments in upcoming businesses in East Africa through the Mango Fund and 3) the development of a primary school in the slums of Kampala – Mercy Junior School.

I will describe each of these projects in more detail as I write my daily report of this current trip (June 24-July 4).

But first, a few background comments.

First, I am greatly enjoying the book “African Friends and Money Matters” by David Marantz. It is clear to us that there is a very different view of money that exists between the Africans we deal with and those of us from the “West”. It’s been hard really getting a full understanding of the difference, but this book is very helpful. I’m looking forward to exercising some of the new insights!

Second, I am more excited than normal to be returning at this time. I think there are a number of reasons. 1) Having just had my 60th birthday and having been declared fully fit by my doctor, I am grateful that I can physically undertake these kinds of journeys. I leave with an added physical confidence. 2) We have a number of initiatives that have failed. Funnily enough it is better to know of failure than to skate along hoping for the best but somehow knowing that things are not going well. Now that there are clear problems it will be easier to talk freely about those problems and their solutions. 3) There are many things going right and I’m looking forward to building on these experiences 4) I look forward to being once again with men and women that I have grown to love.

Third I want to thank all of those that make my trips possible. My family for allowing me to be away as much as I am, my church and close community of Christ’s disciples who encourage and pray for me and George, Ross, Ted and Blasio who share my passion for this region and this work.

I look forward to sharing my daily journal with you all.

Blessings

Andy Mills