Meeting the CRESS Africa Team
Big Give – Primary Healthcare
This week, Caroline met with Martin Daburi who is the Camp Sub-Commander for the Office Of The Prime Minister in Imvepi. He coordinates all the partners working in the camp. Listen to his statement about CRESS Africa and all of the good work they do!
To hear more about our work in agriculture and financial responsibility, get in touch here.
Thoughts on the day from Jonathan
My first thought was about the journey. Two hours each way in a moderately comfortable 4x4 on terrible roads was hard going, dodging vehicles and many many motorcycles with various precarious loads strapped to them with a minimum of 2 on the saddle! What struck me was that the CRESS staff do that on a motorbike without complaining many times a week!
We went straight to the new field office at Imvepi camp to meet Asara Donald and Diana Dudu who I had met the day before. Donald is a trained agronomist and was living in the Camp when he was taken on earlier this year. They are very proud of the basic but adequate office that gives them a secure space to work from. They currently have 23 agriculture and savings groups that they are looking after, but they are spread over an area of many kilometres. The office also doubles up as a bedroom as there is another small room at the back containing 2 beds and quite a lot of items being stored. The Africans are so resilient we would not last a night in such a place – no aircon – no fan – very very dim light – poor food in street stall – no shower – public long-drop etc etc.
They had arranged for Martin, the camp sub commander of the Office Of The Prime Minister, to visit. He is a very important person coordinating all the partners working in the camp. He gave a very concise statement of the situation since the reduction of foreign aid. He has a great deal of respect for CRESS and Issac Sorro our Executive Director and for Donald. It’s vital as this man can really make things happen. He was even wearing a CRESS shirt to show support! We recorded what he said about CRESS, which you can see above.
This was later demonstrated when he came with us to meet Mama Agnes, the disabled lady CRESS rescued from a life sentence marooned in Juba. We were able to see her tukal – special mattress and wheel chair with its commode all provided by generous CRESS donors. Martin said he could arrange for her hospital treatment to have the metal in her spine removed. He told her son, Isaac to come to his office first thing on Monday morning where he would arrange a meeting with two of the Ugandan health providers and would follow up the case to ensure ongoing care was provided.
He also came with us to a woman farmer who has very recently had the tools and training to grow these higher value and nutritious vegetables. She had every bit of ground covered with vegetables, no weeds, all mulched and protection from animals it was most impressive. Diana and Donald over see some 23 groups in Imvepi Camp. showed us very well established vegetables with protection from the elements etc. This is a great achievement for Donald in his early days and will be used to demonstrate good practice to others. Donald is Ugandan but he has studied agriculture and was most impressive in his attitudes and leadership qualities.
Jonathan went and talked with some of the folk at the water point and found that all the camps have piped treated water for the refugees – it may be somewhat limited but it is there – he even had a try at carrying some on his head! but not without having to balance it with his hands, the ladies do not need to do that!
We then went to the Church ( Cathedral ) of Pastor Jacob a long standing partner of CRESS. We arrived three hours into the four hour service! Caroline has learnt from previous visits to enter the services late! Firstly we met 200+ Sunday school children the CEF discipleship team are working with and what a team of energetic Christian youth they are. We had bought 150 lollipops with us but that was not enough so we left funds for them to purchase some more for another Sunday! There were 1048 in the congregation with people spilling out into an overflow awning and children hanging in through the windows. It was a place of complete joy in the Lord which is extraordinary for people who just about have the essentials for life and even that is fragile. The collection of the offering giving from what little they had, was a particular high point in the service with much singing and ululation from the women. They were having a competition to see which group could give the most – they all came up in their groups singing and dancing as they gave money AWAY when they have nothing
Caroline explained to them her calling to start up CRESS and we were able to encourage them to engage with that which we can offer them, without over promising! CRESS had paid for them to put on a meal for all those present which was pretty impressive and rightly blessed them greatly.
The last time the church had been able to do a meal together was in 2019 when CRESS last visited ! There is that little support – I think for the church CRESS may be the only support they have. However Pastor Jacob is an incredibly hard working – efficient – spiritual man who has done so so much with so so little. The CEF programme which has been going just over a year in Imvepi camp has now got 46 volunteer teachers and ... children have been taught the gospel and had a lot of fun and games !
Then back to the office after a busy day and back to the hotel for a swim and supper with a beer!
Monday was spent with conversations with staff in the office – the giving out of the contents of the 4 suitcases which was greeted with great joy and laughter ! Caroline went and spent a lovely hour with Edward Mika who gave her 2 beautiful bracelets as a gift of thanks for CRESS’ support over 7 years to him and still continue to do so to his family.
