Thursday, November 29, 2012

A Honey of a Trip!


Today we headed north to Yumbe. When I say we, I’m referring to Blasio Leeti, a native of Arua who is our man on the ground here, and Ted Pantone who manages the East Asia operations for Mango Fund (www.mangofund.org). He is also a proud graduate of The King’s College in New York City (a shameless plug for TKC!) A picture of our crack investment team is below!!

Yumbe is the home to Blessed Bee for Life, our honey processing and distribution investment in West Nile. BBL is headed by our good friend Mophart Maphu, a man who has had a vision to make honey a significant cash crop for the very severely underdeveloped Yumbe district. He has patiently taught bee keeping to farmers in the region, built hives and become the cash market for them all. Our joy is to provide encouragement, business advice and loans to allow him to more quickly increase the volume of honey he is able to buy and process. This year his product has passed the certification testing for quality, and soon he should be fully certified by the Uganda Bureau of Standards, allowing him to sell his product in all outlet types and also to export his honey. Last year’s sales were approximately 30m UGX,  this year it looks like he will exceed 100m UGX! Each time we meet with Mophart he sees more clearly the opportunity before him. We discussed next year’s crop purchase plans and he is planning a further significant increase in volume. The money that this puts in subsistence farmers’ pockets is very significant.

The trip to Yumbe is only 78 Kms, but it takes over 2 hours each way. It is rough and bumpy and frankly a tiring journey and one fraught with tense moments,  as the local pick-up trucks filled with goods and passengers come careening at us at top speed. To travel from Arua to Yumbe in the cab of a truck costs 10,000 shillings ($4), but if you want to sit on top of the cargo in the back the rate is only 5,000 shillings. Most pick the top, and as the trucks go past, I’m always surprised that we don’t hit the legs and feet that hang over the side. Ted assures me that this happens all the time and that feet are mangled regularly. Our driver Eric is very skillful and it always amazes me how he handles our SUV with such calm and precision. When you’re on these roads you literally put your life in your driver’s hands – thanks Eric!!

Safely back in Arua, we met with the Church of Uganda (Anglican) Bishop, Bishop Joel. Joel is a native from West Nile and has a great heart for seeing his people thrive rather than just survive (his words). He is always thinking about how the church could make investments that would help the community, but also help the church financially. Today we talked about an opportunity that both he and I had been thinking about separately. It was fun to see how much my meetings and teaching on business influence him. This is exactly why I keep returning and meeting and teaching and encouraging. I can never know the impact I might have, but as long as God keeps leading me back I’ll come and leave the outcomes to Him, but I know that God wants his people in West Nile to be released from this debilitating poverty.
Blessings

2 comments:

  1. Great to follow your travels, Andy!
    Say hi to Ted for me!

    -Pennie Morgan (was Gelwicks- TKC '10!)

    ReplyDelete

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