Hello everyone!
I know that some of you are awaiting the ridiculously
overdue second half of my “Tales of Zambia”, and there are also some of you who
were wanting to know more about the NGO that I am working with, (Channel
Initiative). And since Channel is currently in the midst of campaigning for
support and interest in its projects, I’ve decided to triage my blog updates by
posting about Channel’s work before I finish my saga on the delights of my trip
to Zambia (and all the rest of the stuff that has happened since I returned to
the land of the silver birch and home of the beavers…)
So, without further ado, let me introduce Channel Initiative.
Channel Initiative is a small and relatively young NGO which
has, as its core vision, the goal of working steadily toward a world free from
extreme human suffering. To that end, Channel focuses on working in the most
at-risk communities to empower individual community members and leaders to
ameliorate their respective situations in a sustainable way.
Dominique Vidale-Plaza, the founder of Channel, currently
serves under-served and vulnerable people in the villages of North Kivu, DRC
(near Bukavu; near the Rwandan border of the Congo) to assess their various
needs and also to work at mobilising resources to address the most pressing of
those needs in the most reasonable and sustainable way possible.
(This is the lovely City of Bukavu)
With all that being said, you may still be left wondering
what exactly Channel DOES. Good question. At the moment, one of the main focuses
of Channel is the “Build Hope” project in a place called Kilungutwe in North
Kivu. Dominique is there at the moment, engaging in community education on
maternal health (see my pending post on fistulas in Zambia for more discussion
of maternal health issues!), and other pressing health concerns, working on
establishing new small-scale medical facilities in under-served regions, providing
community education to create local health advocates in rural communities, etc.
A lot of what Channel is about is teaching folks to fish over in the Congo so
that extreme despair, destitution and dehumanization can be eliminated in these
communities. A lot of that relates to addressing the devastating effects of
rampant sexual violence as well as spreading necessary information about how to
avoid or handle the onset of completely treatable/avoidable grave illnesses.
These types of initiatives aren’t necessarily complicated or
highly specialised, they just aren’t being done. At least, not in the rural
areas of the Congo where it is most needed, it seems. Unfortunately the highest
concentration of NGO work/support is done, understandably, in the more accessible
and secure areas of the countries where they work. But this does next to
nothing for the destitute people living in very rural and hard-to-get-to areas.
They have the same (if not worse) problems, yet can’t access the aid. They don’t
benefit from the educational initiatives so many NGOs are involved in and so
they often do not make the same encouraging strides toward sustained
improvement that other areas do. That’s where Channel hopes to start to fill
the gap.
I do legal support/advisory/administrative work for Channel remotely
at the moment. I have been working with them since July of last year and have
been really encouraged to follow the stories of what Dominique has been up to.
You can learn more about it here: http://www.channelinitiative.org/
or you can “like” Channel’s facebook page if that’s more up your alley. Just
look for Channel Initiative.
I’ve been trying to spread the word about Channel to my
contacts here in Canada since I know so many people have either personal
connections or a general interest in what is going on in the DRC right now. Its shocking
how the things that go on there go almost totally unmentioned by the media…but
its nice to know that in general people do still care about the lives that are being
ravaged over there and want to find ways to help.
Right now I’m attempting to help Channel complete the
necessary paperwork in order to become “501c” approved by the US Government so
that they can issue US tax receipts for the donations they receive. As the organisation
continues to expand its reach into rural DRC, its really key that donors be able to
support the work easily and with a tax deduction on par with other charitable
organisations that they might otherwise donate to. Completing the 501c form correctly is proving to be a tough job since
its all uphill for me when it comes to the US Government and its
crazy-complicated forms, but in the end I trust God will help me to finish this
application properly and that He will take care of the details.
There are some other interesting things that I’m hoping to
do with Channel this year as well, but I will discuss those in another post.
For now, suffice it to say that my goal is to support the work of Channel both
financially and administratively however I can, and I wanted to introduce them
to you so that you can keep them in mind and in your prayers too.
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