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President of South Sudan in Kajo Keji

Salva Kiir, the President of the Government of Southern Sudan, was in our humble village today. He had a rally for the upcoming election, in which he is the only viable candidate. The rally was on a soccer field in Mere, the second biggest market in Kajo Keji and where most of our clients are located. The commissioner of Kajo Keji (like a mayor), the governor of the state (Central Equatoria), the Vice President and Cowboy hat wearing Salva himself gave speeches to resounding applause. I'm guess about 2-3,000 people were there. The governor's speech got Sudan-nuts sort of crazy, to the point that I was asking myself "what in the world is going on?" Then of course I remembered I was in South Sudan, not Dallas or DC. He went off on some sort of tirade (all in English mind you, but that I could barely understand) and this is but an excerpt: "This election is like a cock [Rooster] that you need to eat its head while its still living before you check the star for knowing who to mark the box to vote for". Then he proceeded to retell the story of Lucifer's fall from Heaven and said all the oposition candidate were modern day Lucifers that will one day burn for their transgressions. The VP and Commissoner's had much more vanilla speeches. The Commish was even quite policy-oriented, asking for better roads and more physicians at the hospital (we have one part-time for about a million people and he does 10-20 major surgeries a day). Check out the video welcoming the Pres to his podium. Also as he is arriving on Air Force One South Sudan (and yes, they brought 5 planes to the Kajo Keji air strip). It was a big day for this town.

-Thomas Bell, Managing Director Seed Effect: SUDAN
To follow Thomas' journey as the MD of Seed Effect in Sudan, check out his blog at http://thomasbell.posterous.com

A Big Week for Seed Effect!

Last week was a big week for Seed Effect! In November, we issued our first loans to a group of 19 women and after celebrating 4 months of a 100% repayment rate and great feedback on our Seed Loan Program, we finally launched to the community of Kajo Keji last week by adding 37 new clients brining our total active clients to 56! What's amazing about this growth is that these families have now been empowered to provide for the 160+ children that they support! Awesome.

Making Sense of Sudan

This is a unique and incredibly important time for our brothers and sisters in Sudan. For so long, this country was ravaged by war leading to devastation, genocide, and oppression while the rest of the world turned its head. But things are different now. Advances in technology and it's recent availability in a country that was previously closed off has allowed for immediate communication of information. Things are different now because the world knows. We've learned about the atrocities committed and hopefully, prayerfully, this time we're watching. Hopefully, this time we won't turn our head...

Heather, Seed Effect's Program Development Supervisor posted this on Facebook today. Check out the Campaign Diary of Sudan on the SSRC Blog. It's a great discussion on the upcoming elections and current political scene in Sudan.

Also, for a detailed timeline of these elections and key events in Sudan, click HERE.

In the business of orphan prevention

Back in November, I was in Sudan for the launch of Seed Effect's first microfinance site. During this trip (my 5^th in 2 years), we finally handed out loans to our first 19 clients. It was an incredible blessing to be there and to see the joy on their faces as they and their families were empowered with renewed hope for their future. On this day, we prayed that they might come to know Christ and know him fully and that our Seed Loan program would be the catalyst that empowers them to overcome poverty.

I can honestly say that I will never forget this day for as long as I live.

But when I think about this trip, there is one other day that haunts me… a day that in a way threatens to overshadow the joy that I saw on the faces of these women and a day that serves as a constant reminder of just how important our work is.

Important enough to mean the difference between life or death.

On the day before Loan Day, we arrived on our compound to find our local staff in tears and the doors to our Vocational School closed. Early that morning, one of the women that had attended our school went into labor under a tree outside her tukul. There were complications, and without the money for medical care, she died that morning under that tree.

As is typical with my Type A, driven personality, I honestly didn’t really begin to process all of this until later. I mean, I was busy getting ready for Loan Day. (Horribly callous, I know, but sadly true nonetheless.) Of course, I was sad for the women that were close to her, sad for her family and those that she had surely left behind, but it wasn’t until later that the gravity of this really hit me.

At the time, we weren’t sure what happened to the baby. We heard mixed reports- some that the baby lived, others that he died. Either way, the lack of resources available to this family left this mother dead and this child either dead or orphaned.

A couple of weeks after we returned from our trip, we received an email update from one of the volunteers working at the orphanage in town. Here is his update:

“Today, I cried for the first time on this trip. Only a couple of weeks ago, we received an infant at the orphanage. Rose Yangi gave birth to her fourth child. Because of complications with the birth, Rose passed away. She named him Geri Evans and he was brought to the orphanage… This past weekend, we noticed that Geri was becoming ill. After being admitted to the hospital, we learned that he was not urinating nor defecating. As he spent some days in the hospital his condition worsened. Yesterday, Thursday, Nov. 19, Geri stopped breathing. The hospital staff attempted to administer oxygen into his body, but they were not successful. Geri Evans Anthony passed away at approximately 5:00PM. Today, I attended the burial of Geri’s body and the brief service that followed. As I stood among almost 100 other people, I began to feel the weight of the family’s mourning. Geri’s body was buried only a few feet away from his mother’s grave. Women were wailing. And I found myself praying for this father who has lost both his wife and his son within three weeks… All the people of South Sudan have come to know death very well. And because of this, I have come to appreciate life all the more.”

As I read his words, I realized that this was the same woman that had attended our Vocational School, carried her 5^th child to term, and lost her life under the tree that morning.

If we had been a few months earlier with our Seed Loan Program, would this have happened? Would Rose be alive? Would Geri still be alive and would he and his brothers and sisters still have a mother? If, after her vocational training, she had received access to a microloan, invested it in her business, built relationships with other women that were committed to supporting her, generated a higher income, learned more about health needs and how to better access medical resources, and been able to better provide for her family, would this have had a different outcome?

The day I received this email, was the day that I truly began to understand what we were doing at such a deeper level. The stakes are high. Really high. Of course, it's all in his hands. He doesn't need us but he can use us... the more available we are, the faster we work, the more we spread the truth, the more funds are raised, the more women are reached, the more families are impacted, the less children are orphaned, and the more lives are saved.

There’s just so little time and so much to do…

-Missy Williams, ED Seed Effect

"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" Matthew 25:37-40

Photo by Trey Hill

2009: a year in review

From many firsts to some untimely deaths and a few shocking scandals, 2009 was quite a year! This year, America inaugurated the first African American president in our country’s history. Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, died unexpectedly at age 50. America and the rest of the world experienced the worst economic recession since the 30’s. Slumdog Millionaire surprised everyone and won 8 Oscars. There was a boy that supposedly got lost in a balloon and Tiger Woods definitely had the worst year of his life.

And, while all that was going on, Seed Effect began working alongside the local church and some incredibly resilient and hard-working women in a budding village in a forgotten country where life went on as normal despite all of the firsts, the scandals, and the deaths. This year, Seed Effect launched a microfinance initiative that will bring hope to a community where life as normal means fighting for your life and the lives of your children and struggling to earn enough to pay for malaria treatment, put food on the table, and provide an education for your children that might change their lives and change their definition of normal.

This year, we celebrated another first as we empowered our first group of 19 women with the tools necessary to transform their lives and provide for their families…

One of those women is Sokale Benai, a humble Sudanese store-owner, wife, and mother of 8, who joined a Seed Effect Cell Group called “Mondu Busan” meaning “Waiting for Blessing” and received a micro-loan and business training from Seed Effect. Before the loan, she sold maize flour, beans, onions, and saucepans. With the loan and the education she received from our Training Seminar, she added live lambs along with a variety of breads, sodas, eggs, and rice to her inventory in an effort to diversify the marketplace and meet the needs of her customers. This additional inventory has enabled her to generate more sales, earn a larger profit, and better provide for her family.

Now, as we celebrate 2009 and ring in 2010, we hope you’ll join us in praising God for such an incredible year! What started with a life and impacted a family now has the power to transform a community in the year to come as we turn 19 women into hundreds more. Join us? Plant a Seed. Be a Part of the Seed Effect in 2010.

it started with a sewing machine...

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