Fresno, 1 December 2007

Dear Friend,

We bring you warm Season’s Greetings from Fresno, California. As we celebrate the end of another good year, we want to take time to thank you for all your prayers, encouragement, enthusiasm, and financial support during the past twelve months.

As many of you already know, Henri Nouwen is one of my favorite authors.  In one of his many insights, he writes, One of the most radical demands for you and me is the discovery of our lives as a series of movements or passages. When we are born, we leave our mother’s womb for the larger, brighter world of the family. It changes everything, and there is no going back. As we grow older, it becomes easier to see the movements and passages of life and the evolution of the world of the family.
            
At the end of December 2007, we will be celebrating five years since the IRS recognized Mama Makeka House of Hope as an NGO under section  (501) (c) (3). During this period of time, you have become part of our family. It has changed everything and there is no going back.

We have accomplished many things in the realm of health, education, and peace-building initiatives during these past five years such as providing housing for orphans in Victoria Falls and supporting the Queen Elizabeth Children’s Home in Zimbabwe. We have sent sewing machines and supplies to two girls’ schools in Congo, medicine and supplies to the hospital in Kajiji, and witnessed the beginnings of a small women’s enterprise in Kinshasa. In addition, we have sponsored scholarships for several university students in Congo and donated financial and technical support to the Kinshasa Center for Peacebuilding.

Our network of institutional partners has also increased during these past five years. We are very thankful to Northpark Community Church in Fresno, Mennonite Brethren Missions and Services International, Mennonite Medical Mission Association, Fresno Family Community Church, and Seattle Queen Anne United Methodist Church for joining with us to build strong relationships that allow us to move forward effectively and creatively in our international work.

We also continue to build strong relationships in Fresno. In partnership with McLane High School medical academy, we used theater and role play in 2006 as a means of educating students regarding violence prevention. This year we moved into a new partnership with Fresno Parks and Recreation using three community centers as locations for continuing our program in violence prevention among our Fresno youth.  Kaiser Permanente has provided strong financial support over the past two years for our local program. We are also thankful for financial assistance received this year from California Union Bank.

Several of us, including Dalton Reimer, chair of MMH Hope, Dr. Gail Newel, Dr. Kim Smith from Kenya, Jill Janzen from Bologna, Italy, Sarah Hagey, a filmmaker from San Francisco, and Rebekah Zemansky from Lawrence, Kansas, will be traveling to Congo in January where we hope to launch several activities we have been working on during this past year. These activities are related to the commitment we made to collaborate with the Walungu Health Zone to provide physical and emotional healing and empowerment opportunities for women who have experienced sexual violence. Specifically, we will offer peer counseling training in trauma healing; management training and seed funding for micro-credit programs; sewing machines, supplies, and training for income-generation programs; supplies and training for doctors in OB/GYN surgeries at Walungu Hospital.

We will also support initiatives that promote security in the Walungu region by building relationships with grassroots peace and reconciliation groups in South Kivu.  Specifically, we will participate in collecting and exchanging weapons for bicycles or tin roofing. Weapons will then be destroyed, melted, and transformed into agricultural tools to be redistributed in the local communities. In addition, we are looking forward to developing a documentary project that will focus on women of the Walungu region who have been victims of sexual violence. By doing so, we hope to provide them an opportunity to reclaim their voice, and to help us all address the question, “What can be done?”

While reflecting on our achievements over the past five years and anticipating the challenges and opportunities which will accompany the January trip, we are also looking forward to an exciting New Year. One long anticipated project we are envisioning is the development of an International Center for Professional Resourcing in Kinshasa. Its mission will be to provide an environment for educators, peacebuilders, and health professionals to develop and improve their knowledge and skills which will enable them to achieve their professional goals, improve the productivity of their organizations, and provide leadership and service to their communities. We hope that by developing such a center in Kinshasa, Mama Makeka House of Hope will contribute to the very much needed space for research, networking, and logistics that promote high quality service delivery for our partners in Congo and other African regions, especially Francophone Africa. It is our hope that such a space will also be used by non-Africans to share their skills with their African colleagues.

During this Christmas season and throughout the year, please continue to pray for Mama Makeka House of Hope staff, Board of Directors, and partners, both in North America and Africa, as we discover new ways to work with our brothers and sisters in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Fresno and Zimbabwe sharing our gifts in mutual support as together we seek to be the message of the Christ Child incarnate. In the name of gift sharing, we would also like to invite you to consider ways you might to be involved by joining us on one of our trips to Africa or through financial contributions to our projects.

Shalom,



Dr. Dalton Reimer                    Dr. Pakisa K. Tshimika
Chair of Board of Directors                Executive Director