December 24, 2007

Hello Everyone;

And yes, this is your Christmas/New Years update from AOSCI-TIOS!! (photos to follow) Again, I apologize for the delay, and for the confusion. There were so many last minute surprises as I was leaving Mozambique and everything is a bit at a crossroads just now. Looking back on the year, it's impossible not to look back all the way to June 2005 when I started AOSCI and even all the way back to 2003 when I was in corporate America and then got "called" to go help children in Mozambique.

It is a nostalgic time and as I sit in church listening to Christmas carols, the children's faces come to me and the memories of all that has transpired this past year; but even back to arriving to Mozambique. I feel my eyes well up with tears as I know I've been given such a miracle to live this experience each day; of having a life few can imagine. Even the smallest thing - like the uncomfortableness that comes when driving on the right - it feels odd, as most of the year I drive on the left - or thinking how much something is in Metric - that feeling of unfamiliarity is such a gift because it shows I live somewhere else - a different life; and I think few Americans experience that - being so embraced and full in another culture at the same time as knowing "the American way".

Wow - in such a short time, we've had such amazing successes.... even for me to count the number of people I've met in these past 4 years is overwhelming; - words in at least 5 new languages, "especially English as a British/African language" (very different - trust me; driving on the left and with the steering wheel where the passenger would normally go; metric' let's not forget all the new computer software (Excel, PowerPoint, all the Linux software, Adobe); cooking over charcoal and wood (never was a girl-scout; how to sew dolls, how to build a bakery, not to mention how to set up and run a small NGO. So many things, and it doesn't ever seem to slow down that much. I am continuing to work on my Portuguese, and other dialect languages. I am certainly continuing to learn how to work with foreign officials - and even how to eat British style - as opposed to how we use our silverware here in America. A big challenge for me has been grant and proposal writing - even budget writing the way you would want to see it for a non-profit organization. There have just been a lot of "learning curve" moments.

I can't help but to remember the children's faces - all the children I've met and all the places I've been across Africa...in some ways it really is such an adventure. We've been so very blessed with our interactions with the U.S. Embassy and other U.S. agencies in Mozambique and especially the last few weeks of November before I left. We've been blessed with our dealings with the Mozambican government as we have graced our way through applications and documents; not really knowing what we are doing or how we are doing it- but we always seem to come out. We've had a few "threatening" moments -where we have perhaps wandered into something we didn't realize how naive we were; but again, we have always come out unscathed - so we've been very fortunate and blessed.

As you know, one of our challenges in Mozambique has been to secure rent and salary funds... what one would call administrative expense, and for us they are actually program expenses as all our programs are "teaching" so our main cost, has been salaries. This past year we were blessed to receive some grants of funds specifically for salaries (thanks God and thanks to those donors) and we had been looking forward to becoming sustainable at our most current orphan center - the Creativity Center for the Support of Orphans in Chimoio, where we have our offices.

On of those grants paid for "my replacement" and we searched and searched for a Mozambican to cover that position, but could not find one with the right qualifications who would work for that amount of money - crazy, hmmm? But the ones with the qualifications have all worked for other NGO's and are receiving high salaries by Mozambican standards - and similar to what you would pay a similar position in the U.S. in perhaps the 80's. ...early 80's. So, we hired... Jenny .... a white Zimbabwean, who's husband does construction. She's the same age as me and was British born and like me ... had no background in non-profit work whatsoever. However, she was math teacher before coming to us and she has turned out to be absolutely brilliant!! She's only available to be at the school half days and she has cleaned things up, and whipped people into shape and taken over the doll inventories and quality control as well as the upcoming programs. In short - she has freed me up to do that "which was mine to do" which was the promotion and creation of programs that support what we are doing in Mozambique.

So, now you might be asking, "What ARE you doing in Mozambique?" We work directly with children - usually orphans, but not always - some are vulnerable children from 4- 19 years old. We teach. We teach them all survival skills. Our theme is to teach the children how to stay alive, how to keep their brothers and sisters alive and then how to make enough money from income generating projects that improve their lives or the lives of others around them so that they can at least pay school fees until they get to adulthood. After that - it's up to them. Our income generating programs (which receive program funding) are always for older girls - who are caregivers in the family. The reason for that is it is less likely for a girl to go to secondary school. Also, an uneducated or undereducated boy can hold all kinds of jobs like a road worker, guard, selling things in the market, working for the electric co. etc.

However, for an undereducated girl, there is only cutting hair, domestic work for 6 - 10 hour days a week at $20 per month, selling vegetables from her garden or crocheting or knitting, or small "personal" (sexual) favors - never enough to actually get by so we target all our income generating projects to the girls. The center and activities are for all, but income generating we focus for the girls. Also, we all know if a girl is pregnant - the boy or man need only disappear - the girl will still have to care for the child so we focus income generating for older girls. Every one of our sewing girls has said before our program they either sold vegetables or did personal favors in order to get by. The change we have seen in their self-esteem and in their lifestyle is amazing - every one of them is cleaned up and back in school. Most have gotten rid of the "loser" guys who were in their life before, or moved out from toxic home situations with other family members. They are making better choices all the way around in their lives and it is really exciting to see.

This past year our courses have included... road, fire, landmine, & water safety; safety with animals (particularly dogs and horses), insect safety (particularly mosquitoes, and spiders, oh and poisonous centipedes, scorpions, etc.); safety with snakes; water safety in respect of how to keep water from getting contaminated; self-defense - particularly for women - how to fend off an attacker; choices - how to make better choices when presented with a difficult situation - like how to respond when a teacher in the school system when they tell you must have sex with them in order to pass a class; and of course HIV and STD courses. We have taught courses in basic art work in order to make safety posters, particularly painting fabric, baking bread and how to cook for a group of 25 or more (with sanitation and proper hygiene) (thanks Bob); and how to make African dolls with all the body parts in order to do better HIV training (thanks U.S. Embassy-PEPFAR).

On schedule for 2008 includes making small cement water filters that remove the parasites, bacteria and virus' from water by just pouring it through a basic sand filter system; making anti-bacterial soaps; insect repellent candles with lemon grass; and creation of a complete safety manual with accompanying video in local dialect, etc. to be distributed to other NGO's to use for teaching. Also, we are doing a computer graphic arts program with our girls - that they can learn how to make manuals, posters, etc on the computers to make missing educational materials and to then learn how to do computerized embroidery and silk screening so it will be a very full year but it should pretty well complete our portfolio of safety products to then work with other organizations to spread the vocational and training abilities.

We don't always teach the children directly. Because we have been small, we have often taught adults who are caring for children as well so that they can pass on the training to other children. It's necessary, both because the government in Mozambique wants us to work in the rural areas, which we've not had the capacity to do, and also because we want to reach those in rural areas and without that capacity, the only way we could do it was to teach "extension type" officers to go out and teach. Now here's where it all gets interesting...

I made two presentations on behalf of the U.S. Embassy to present our program of HIV training - the Five Components of HIV Transmission. This is the program we put together to teach, and where we use our dolls for the training and it's having tremendous success as a new way of doing HIV training in Mozambique. The first presentation was only 5 minutes and a table display - it was at a meeting of all the NGO's operating in Mozambique including World Vision, Care, Hope, etc. it was only an introduction to the dolls and the way of teaching. The second presentation was for about 120 people and it was mainly for employees of the U.S. Embassy and U.S. Aid and their partners. They were both in the capital city of Maputo.

From the two meetings, we had follow up meetings with Clinton Foundation, Columbia University - ICAP, FDC (the organization founded by Nelson Mandela's wife), Peace Corp, PSI Communication, and others who are all very, very interested in using our dolls and our program. We had held off from doing this in the past - partly because I couldn't be two places at once, and also because we didn't have enough dolls made up yet to be sold. From these meetings I took orders for $20,000 worth of dolls - subtracting out the cost of production and the amazing 17 percent sales tax in Mozambique, we still are going to have about $10,000 to run the center and pay for food, courses, etc. In short, our center is now sustainable!!! Yeah and thanks God! And to each and every one of you who have supported us through your prayers, and donations and well wishes, etc.

I just said, "wow this is wild - we can sell $20,000 in dolls in one weekend but we don't even have a photo copier" and that kind of sums up where we are at as an organization - like a JENGA game, we are missing some really key components and yet we are having some phenomenal success in some areas so hopefully 2008 will be a year of leveling things out for us and getting some proper staff and assistance on board as we continue in our successful areas. We are clearly "on the edge" of really breaking through into some bright and exciting areas.

Now, having said that-this brings us to an interesting place..... I had made plans to be in America to do more fundraising and to start more of a cooperative project here between youth groups and orphan-type programs like ours in other developing countries. For example, we had been looking a long time for a pattern and instructions of how to make a bamboo flute - as it fits our profile of educational products made with local resources that children could do to raise money. I spent a lot of time looking and then finally put it on my wish list and we got a perfect pattern with instructions of how to make flutes. This is the kind of project I'd like to see us partner with say, Girl Scouts or cub scouts, etc. for them to come up with the pattern, try it at one of their meetings and then send the instructions, photos etc to a group (for example) in Mozambique and then they try it in Mozambique and then send back photos/video and results back to the kids in the U.S. In this way, American kids could see with just a bit of effort they could directly make an impact in the world - I think this would make them better leaders.

In fact, you might remember my plan was to come to the States until the end of March or April and then go back for 6 weeks and then be here for summer and fall and then go back for six more weeks just before the holidays. Anyway, now it's a bit on the back burner as I need to return to Mozambique and manage this more National part of TIOS - in getting other organizations trained on our program. In fact, you might remember my plan was to come to the States until the end of March or April and then go back for 6 weeks and then be here for summer and fall and then go back for six more weeks just before the holidays. To exactly inverse my current schedule of living there while traveling here to living here while traveling there so I could get the U.S. side more stabilized.

Now, however, we have all kinds of agencies coming to us in the capital city of Maputo in Mozambique; wanting to partner with us and wanting us to teach them and their people in Maputo how to do our program for HIV training, particularly using the dolls. Also, we have had organizations asking us to be in other countries with this program etc. So, this may be moving us into more of a consulting, advising role to other organizations to help them create better programs on the ground floor with the programs and partnerships they've already made. So, much more to learn in this upcoming year.

A couple of key things that came up - one is potentially partnering with Church World Services, who are already in two other rural districts beyond us and have a location in Maputo, Mozambique. They are very interested in partnering with us as they work in the area of protection of girls - which is exactly what we are doing - only we do safety for all children, with income generating focus for girls. Since they already have rural sewing programs, it's a really exciting opportunity and I really like their integrity. They are Christians who work in the world because they are Christian's with no vision of spreading Christianity, etc. very similar to my own churches theories on that and they are organized, and have proper staff with good training and yet, don't throw money at crazy things- really a nice clear vision of where they are going and I'm very excited to be working with them.

Also we were introduced to an organization - they saw one of my presentations- called AED. They are an organization that helps small non-profit organizations have capacity through teaching, training and assisting in the areas of how to put together better proposals, financial records and transparency and auditing; and again, I think it's a tremendous opportunity for us to improve in some areas where we have been very weak in the past.

So, as I'm here in the States, we are working out what's necessary for patents and copyrights and all that legal type thing, doing the taxes and the Quick Books and looking at how we are set up with the IRS etc. As you know, we set up here in the U.S. so that if people wanted to donate or volunteer, we were actually a legal entity, sanctioned by the U.S. Government and that we would be legal and official as a tax deduction for your donations. From their we collected donations in the U.S. and used all of them in Mozambique, as there was no U.S. entity, per se other than the bit of travel on my part when I'm fundraising in the U.S. This will continue to be the case in many ways.

However, our first two orphan centers have been turned over to their local communities to run them, with very little supervision on our part, though they are welcome to attend training with us at any time for any course. Now our third center is sustained with the doll sales though we still have some key opportunities to get in the right people into management (as Jenni hasn't decided if she will stay with us full-time or forever, or not...) and this has been a key struggle for us as we are operating on a small budget and have not been able to pay big salaries .... and I want to keep it somewhat level between management and teachers. Teachers in Moz don't receive a very large salary - -- starting at Minimum wage - which is about 70.00 USD per month, while a receptionist at most NGOs (not ours) is often starting at 600 USD per month - see the problem?? Then we need an actual manager who is qualified who would normally make more than 1000 -usually $2-3,000USD per month - which is way higher than my salary and I'm running operations in two countries. So, there are some interesting challenges we face yet.

All in all I think it will all work out this year though, as I go back the end of January, hopefully with everything in line here from this visit and then go back to work with AED and some others to help us learn how to make better proposals so we don't have to rely on donor funds. We are planning to do more work with more small grassroots Mozambican community run orphan projects to help them do better with creating enough funding to operate better.

It's an exciting time though I will still say I need to take a bit of time out. I'm tired guys - it's a good tired, but a month off would do me (and AOSCI TIOS) very well. Maybe after I get back to Moz and sort out the partnerships and programs I can take that time before we start the water project with "A Single Drop"

We are having a house concert on the evening of the 19th of January - so if you know anyone in the area of Colorado Springs, CO who would like to see our dolls, our art, and a slide show of what we have been doing, please share the word. A flyer with photos will be coming out.

Also, I am looking for an inexpensive office/apartment or cabin for me when I'm in the U.S. Of course, free would be ideal, but cheap rent would be fine also. I have things scattered from Mozambique to Minnesota with things in Colorado Springs, Denver and Phoenix- it's the nature of bringing the art work and donations back and forth with me. It's true I won't be in the States that much but I need a place to land, and unpack and go through what is necessary for the speaking trips as well as what's going back to Mozambique. So, please keep your eyes and ears open for me. Though i could live anywhere, it probably makes the most sense that it be in the Colorado Springs (Woodland Park, Beulah, Pueblo,) area.

Oh, for those of you who didn't see CNN Heroes, I didn't make the final show, but I don't mind at all giving up the title of "Champion for Children" to a man who fed 11,000 children. (Darn! I knew we should have been counting how many we were feeding... hahaha) No, the people who made the actual final program were truly doing some spectacular things and though we didn't make it, I made the final 100 in the 6 categories - meaning the top 25 in the area of Champion for Children (from 7000 nominations) so I feel quite honored. You never know where it could go yet- we could be contacted during the year or perhaps one day it will turn up on Yahoo - "top 30 people working around the world in the area of children" etc. - you never know about these things. So, thank you again Maria for nominating me.

I just want to leave you with a closing note before New Years - On New Years of 2003 nobody could have told me I was going to Africa. In fact, in June of 2003 nobody could have told me I was going to Africa. I think you all know I have been spiritually stretched to the limit. There are many times when I think "Moses, must have thought, "Are you joking Lord?"" as I have been caught saying a number of times these past four years also. But in the end, I'm blessed with a life few can imagine and it literally started with $150, an idea, a lot of prayer and a lot of good fortune and blessings along the way. I think all the help came because the message to help the children was Divine and it was probably "the right thing to do". Mostly, I think this opportunity came to me because I was willing to free myself up and be available.

I hear a lot of people say, "It seems like I'm supposed to be doing something" or "I wish I could do more". I've seen a great billboard here in Phoenix that says,"Don't Almost Give" and I agree and I think that's brilliant. This year, free yourself up.... Go through those closets and sell all that junk you haven't looked at for the past three years. Seriously, there are a lot of "Natural disasters" going on in the U.S. these days where people are being forced to evacuate their houses - as I did for the Hayman fires (long story).... Make a resolution - this one is so easy to keep.... evacuate your house. One day soon, Evacuate your House. ...

Go outside and lock the door - or go to Starbucks' for coffee or something. Come back home, imagining you've just heard there's a flood, tornado, fire (whatever your area could experience) and unlock your door. Give yourself (your whole family) 20 minutes to go through and take what they would keep. Do - this - it will be a great life experience and/or family experience for all of you. Run through your house and take everything you would in twenty minutes. Take it all outside to the car or to the driveway, etc. Load it all up and see what's left after 20 minutes. I promise (Having been a catastrophic loss adjuster) this experience can change your life.... Then, if you want, take it the next step and go through and pull out everything you are now going to put on a garage sale. It happens to every person who goes through a house fire or flood - afterwards they see how much junk they have laying around that means nothing and serves nothing for them - and they have a garage sale. .... every time.

That moment of evacuating my house was very unforgettable for me and it was the first step to letting go of my stuff and being "available" to go. Taking a Divine Calling is no different than accepting a date or a job offer or an invite to a New Years Party. You are either available or you're not.... which one are you?

Very Merry Christmas and Happiest New Year ever from the small heart of Chimoio and wherever I or my kids happen to be,

Amy and the kids
www.aosci.org