Christmas Initiative: Saving Some Lives in the Congo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Last year, we raised some money for school benches in a place where children sat either on the ground or on rocks. This year, we are getting more serious.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/2018\/11\/christmas-initiative-saving-some-lives-in-the-congo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Christmas Initiative: Saving Some Lives in the Congo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Last year, we raised some money for school benches in a place where children sat either on the ground or on rocks. This year, we are getting more serious.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/2018\/11\/christmas-initiative-saving-some-lives-in-the-congo\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Welcome Table\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-11-15T15:39:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/313\/2018\/11\/abbe-washes-his-hands-e1542293265160-150x150.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Margaret Blair Young\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Margaret Blair Young\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/2018\/11\/christmas-initiative-saving-some-lives-in-the-congo\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/2018\/11\/christmas-initiative-saving-some-lives-in-the-congo\/\",\"name\":\"Christmas Initiative: Saving Some Lives in the Congo\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-11-15T15:39:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-11-15T15:39:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/#\/schema\/person\/d37d1777600358796768346d57ed0d47\"},\"description\":\"Last year, we raised some money for school benches in a place where children sat either on the ground or on rocks. 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{"id":2208,"date":"2018-11-15T08:39:21","date_gmt":"2018-11-15T15:39:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/?p=2208"},"modified":"2018-11-15T08:39:21","modified_gmt":"2018-11-15T15:39:21","slug":"christmas-initiative-saving-some-lives-in-the-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/welcometable\/2018\/11\/christmas-initiative-saving-some-lives-in-the-congo\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Initiative: Saving Some Lives in the Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Last year, we raised some money for school benches in a place where children sat either on the ground or on rocks.<\/p>\n

This year, we are getting more serious.<\/p>\n

Several of us spent a long time in Lodja, DR-Congo this past summer.\u00a0 The most desperate need became clear: sanitation.\u00a0 In the general hospital, fifteen people die every month of malaria or of typhoid fever and other diseases related to poor sanitation.\u00a0 Consider that those who died in the hospital likely represent at least five others who did not get to the hospital, but died at home. At the university where we taught, students missed class often because of typhoid fever. One of our students had typhoid fever five different times during our stay.\u00a0 Another lost his only son. Every one of our students had lost a family member to preventable disease.<\/p>\n

We became instantly aware of the inadequate sanitation at the university.\u00a0 Bathrooms comprised squat holes, one for men and one for women.\u00a0 There were NO facilities for washing hands anywhere near these squat holes or even on the university campus itself.\u00a0 Even at the hospital, there were only two hand-washing units, both in bad repair.\u00a0 There is one squat-hole for all hospital patients\u2013but no hand-washing facilities nearby that bathroom.\u00a0 Habits of hand washing are simply not present.<\/p>\n

We have ambitious goals for our work area and for villages beyond it.\u00a0 Ultimately, we will work on getting compost toilets into the area, to be maintained by university students.\u00a0 Similar toilets are described here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Our first step, however\u2013and the goal of this initiative\u2013is to provide hand-washing units and to assure that they are maintained daily.\u00a0 Maintenance will be done by university students who will earn money to pay their tuition.\u00a0 They will be charged with keeping the units in good condition and perpetually supplied with clean well water, soap, and towels. These students will be monitored weekly for work performance.<\/p>\n

This is a photo of the hand-washing unit.\u00a0 Note that there is no running water in Lodja, so we need water containers. This unit has a jug with a spout to hold the water, a bowl to collect water after washing, soap, and a towel.\u00a0 We have a goal of installing and maintaining a total of 25 units, to be placed in the several schools (K-12), at the two squat-toilets at the university, and four for the general hospital. Our aim is to provide a way that the youngest donors can raise sums as low as $5.00 and know that they have actually made a difference in a desperately poor area, and have perhaps saved a life.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

Here are donation possiblities, to be sent via paypal or venmo to drcongorising@gmail.org . Congo Rising is a 501c3 (tax-deductible) organization, described here\u00a0\u00a0<\/a> $\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

$1.00 purchases soap and a towel.<\/p>\n

$5.00 purchases two bowls for the handwashing units.<\/p>\n

$10.00 purchases a jug with a spout for the handwashing unit.<\/p>\n

$116. pays for one student\u2019s trimester costs, earned for maintaining a hand-washing unit<\/p>\n

$350. pays for an entire year of a student\u2019s tuition, earned for maintaining hand-washing units AND new bathroom units (described above)<\/p>\n

$1000. pays for ten full sanitary units\u2013compost toilets, hand-washing units, privacy screens, and maintenance<\/p>\n

If you choose to involve your family in this initiative, please share these photos of hospital and school conditions with them.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a> $\"\"$ $\"\"$ <\/a> $\"\"$ <\/a> $\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"