Do you remember the Empowered Seamstresses of Lalmba, the widows sponsored by Lalmba to develop their tailoring businesses to support their children?   Last year they sewed table runners to grace your tables as our Christmas item.  They, and all of our staff in Kenya and Ethiopia, have been concerned about how their friends in America are coping with the various challenges of 2020.   We have received messages of love and concern from them over the past several months.

Recently we received a package from them in Kenya.  They have been working hard to create new masterpieces for their Lalmba friends for Christmas.  This year, they created colorful hot plates made from discarded bottle caps wrapped in fabric.    This is a popular way that Kenyans repurpose bottle caps that come off their soda and beer bottles.   You can use it as a trivet to protect your table when your hot items come out of the oven.

Africans find ways to reuse discarded items in ways that are nothing short of genius.  One of Jeff’s favorite Kenyan souvenirs is a wicked kerosene lamp made from a discarded hot cocoa tin.  In small shops in the countryside we often see old plastic water bottles holding single-serve gasoline servings to power customer’s motorbikes, plastic sacks tied together to form makeshift soccer balls, and all manner of containers, candles and children’s toys made from tin cans.  We hope you enjoy your own gift of repurposed bottle caps with an African flair.   May it grace your dinner table and protect your surfaces in a uniquely African way.

Jeff’s treasured Cocoa lamp

We celebrate the creative spirit of our friends in Africa.  They are perfect models of the ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ mantra!  Please know that in the midst of our country’s current struggles, there is a little corner of Africa sending you a message of love and peace.  Blessings on us all as we navigate the world’s challenges together.  May we model our own lives on the simplicity and innovation of the lives of the poor.

Order Your Gift Today!

Lately we’ve had some of our supporters ask “Who is writing these newsletters?”  We realize some of you may not know who is now behind the scenes running Lalmba.  Many of you remember Hugh and Marty Downey, the organization’s founders who ran Lalmba for 50 years.  They retired and passed the reins on to Jeff and Hillary James at Lalmba’s 50^th anniversary in 2013.

Jeff and Hillary James, originally from Virginia, served as newlywed volunteer project directors from 2004-2006 at Lalmba’s project in Chiri, Ethiopia.  Jeff had previous experience in Kenya running an American boarding school for several years.  Upon our return to the US, Jeff took a job as photography manager at Rosetta Stone language learning company, and Hillary worked part-time as a speech therapist.    We always dreamed of continuing our work in development.

Then one afternoon in 2012, Marty and Hugh called with an offer.  They were ready to retire, and would we take on their roles? The decision made, we moved to Colorado and have been running operations since 2013, doing our best to honor the legacy of Hugh and Marty and the character of the organization they created.

We have 4 wonderful children and are blessed to call Lalmba our life’s work.

SIGN UP TODAY FOR TNM21!

GET TO KNOW JEFF AND LALMBA BETTER BY WALKING WITH US IN KENYA NEXT SUMMER

KEEP CARLY AND BRIGHTON IN YOUR PRAYERS

This past month, Physician’s Assistant Carly Hunt from Illinois returned to Kenya to continue her volunteer service.  She left Kenya amidst the coronavirus scare in March, but things have now calmed enough worldwide to enable her return.

Carly’s impact shines beautifully even in the short time since her arrival.  She recently saw little Brighton in Lalmba’s clinic.  He suffered from a compound left femur fracture when he was 4, and the leg never healed.  When Carly met him 2 years later, he walked on a broken femur.  His left leg was much shorter than his right leg, and he suffered so much pain at the fracture site that he couldn’t walk more than 100 yards without having to stop to rest.  Brighton never attended school because he couldn’t manage to walk the distance.  Carly connected with an orthopedic surgeon in Nairobi who performed surgery to stabilize Brighton’s fracture so that he can walk without pain.   Carly also made him a shoe raise so that the legs are even, which should help the muscles to grow more correctly and to improve his gait.    With the generous help of Carly’s friends and loved ones back home, she raised enough money to pay for Brighton’s much-needed surgery.  She is in Nairobi with Brighton and his mother this week.  We look forward to following his story, and are grateful to Carly for her hard work to make this happen.  Stories like Brighton’s are dramatic examples of how Lalmba’s presence has life-changing impacts for people who otherwise have no options.  Godspeed, Brighton!  May you soon be joining your friends on the football field and in the classroom!

GIVE HOPE TODAY

Brighton’s leg before surgery

Brighton at home before his trip to Nairobi

Xray pre-surgery with fractured femur

Brighton with his mom post-op

Brighton begins his recovery in his colorful hospital gown

Xray post-surgery with the stabilizing plate

 

DON'T FORGET TO ORDER YOUR CHRISTMAS GIFT TODAY!

Do you remember the story of Ashenafi and Samson, the 2 orphan brothers living alone in the forest around Agaro Bushi?  Ashenafi (far right in the photo above) stands in front of his hut, with his brother Samson directly behind him, along with curious neighbors, when Lalmba first arrived to assess their needs.

Little Ashenafi had fallen severely ill, and Samson, fearing for his brother’s life, carried him the 3 hours’ walk to our clinic. A year later, much has changed for these 2. For starters, Ashenafi has been cured of the tuberculosis that made him so sick. Secondly, he is now officially part of the Lalmba family, living with 14 brothers and sisters in the Chiri Children’s Home, and enrolled to start school this summer.

Please see Jared’s updates, and please keep them in your prayers. As we all know, transitions can be difficult, but success is within reach, and Lalmba specializes in hope for children like Ashenafi.

Forest Dreams

By Jared Lollar, Lalmba Ethiopia Project Director

Ashenafi is young and adaptable and has integrated quickly into life at the children’s home. He will learn how to speak Amharic and read. He will make friends in school, when Covid finally passes. He feels more comfortable now in the ‘big city,’ Chiri. Ashenafi has the support of Aselefech (Lalmba Children’s Director) and his new brothers and sisters in the children’s home. Here he is on a recent morning after breakfast.

For Ashenafi’s 18 year-old brother, Samson, life is more difficult. He now has 2 small children of his own, both of whom have recently been patients at our clinic. His infant daughter is still struggling with malnutrition, only slowly making progress. A chronic problem for their little family has been their living conditions. Samson has recently begun building a new home with some money he made cutting and hauling timber for our clinic construction project. This is a good step, but it will be a long road for him. Unlike Ashenafi, Samson never had a chance to go to school to learn how to read. He never had mentors to guide him. He is part of an ethnic minority that faces discrimination in Kaffa. He doesn’t speak the national language, Amharic, which severely limits his upward mobility.

I remember at 18, I was not very good at long-term decision making, but I had strong mentors and parents to guide me. Samson and his wife have had no such benefit, and are now trying to figure out how to raise kids of their own.  What we can do for Samson is limited only by the initiative he is willing to take in his own life. Samson’s situation is common in the rural areas around Agaro Bushi.

We will continue to assist Samson with work opportunities as we have them available.  We will also ensure that Ashenafi doesn’t lose his connection to his brother, the only family he’s ever known. Ashenafi now transitions from subsistent forest life to a life where the idea of “opportunity” has real meaning. The sky is the limit!  It will take him some time to truly understand that, but his support is solid, and his feet are well adapted to travel the steep and slippery hill of success.

DONATE TODAY

 The newest little brother in the children’s home is 7 months old now. His name is Yegerem, which means, according to my own rough translation, “the amazing.” We first encountered Yegerem the day he was born, not long after he came into this world. Atinafu (the clinic manager), Aselefech (children’s director), and I were riding in the car together when a man ran out onto the road with newborn Yegerem wrapped in a banana leaf. The man told us he had found Yegerem close to one of the forest paths, just off the road, with his umbilical cord still attached. Yegerem barely moved, wrapped in his leaf. We rushed Yegerem to the hospital, where Atinafu and Aselefech had to do some diplomatic shouting to ensure that Yegerem was seen by physicians. Child custody and liability laws in Ethiopia are different from what they are in the US; there are no governmental organizations in rural areas to step in.

The work Aselefech does for the children in our program is never simple: tracking down guardians, coordinating and motivating the local government to implement the policies they have, trying to get all the parties involved to problem solve cases together. Yegerem’s early days were complicated, but now that he is with us, we are happy to have him as part of the family.

He’s growing into a very active little baby and keeps his 14 brothers and sisters in the children’s home busy.

 

He’s become a sort of escape artist, a wind-up energizer baby — you set him down and he bolts, crawling for the door. It amazes me that the infant we first saw wrapped in a banana leaf and barely alive 7 months ago has grown so healthy and energetic.

Thank you to all of you who, by supporting Lalmba, have made Yegerem’s survival possible.

GIVE HOPE TODAY

Friends,
Thanks to you, flood relief efforts are well under way in Matoso. More updates to come in the next newsletter.

Sincerely and gratefully yours, Hillary and Jeff

by Jeff James

When I stepped onto the dirt road, an emotional plummet, a cocktail of anxiety and remorse, overtook me.  It was a deep sadness that I couldn’t understand, like coming down off of an exhilarating manic episode. But I plodded along, trying to figure out why I felt so dejected, looking down at my feet as I walked, counting steps and getting lost in the repetitive scuffling sound they made over the dry, flat ground. Its flatness felt strange, and the walking almost too easy. When I lifted my head and looked east towards the Rift Valley – the beautiful, isolated swath of land we had just traversed – I felt an urge to turn back. So I stepped off the road, onto the shoulder where the ground was still uneven and thorn trees and scrub brushes made obstacles through which I could weave my body, rolling my feet over the lumpy and rocky ground. Almost immediately my mood lifted; I followed this indirect course parallel to the road, keeping an eye up ahead on my team of humanitarians who walked forward with unbreakable strides, just as they had during the previous 5 days, from the eastern plains to the western lip of the Great Rift Valley. The miles we covered were about 100 thus far, and the land as perfect as nature made it, absent of trails and roads, teeming with wildlife and risk. It was beautiful, and instinctively I knew I would miss it.

Those days in the Rift were blissful and formative. Before morning light, to the sounds of camels snarling, the fused smells of animal dung and last night’s rekindled fire mingling with the aroma of primordial earth, we pulled our bodies out of slumber and methodically got dressed, packing away tents and sleeping bags and other items unneeded until nightfall. Then, while the guides loaded our packs onto the backs of belligerent camels, we stood about our makeshift kitchen, often settled beneath a skeletal acacia tree, watching our benevolent leader, Amanda, putter about preparing breakfast.

Routinely, we started the day by filling and treating our water containers, plastering our blistered feet, and gossiping about the night sounds. It was not unusual to hear lions roar or elephants trumpet. After all, we camped in their province! Most nights we’d hear the nearby whoop of hyenas, which caused us each a moment of private panic and recognition of the false security of our nylon tents. But we were there for that reason, to understand the precarious nature of life as introduced through risk and a conscious embrace of our innermost fears.  Most foreigners don’t usually walk through the Masai Mara; they drive through it in long-based Land Cruisers, heads and telephoto lenses peering out of rooftops and windows, collecting snapshots of implied risk. But what we were doing was the real deal.

Before setting out each day, we’d huddle, the ten of us in a circle, and share a biographical reading of one person whose life had been affected by the services of Lalmba. We had ten cards to read, one per day, and we called them our inspiration cards. They told stories of orphans saved from lives of labor, now nourished and learning and dreaming of prosperous futures. And there were elders, men and women, who were alone in their final years, barely able to care for themselves after being robbed of their families by AIDS. And there were mothers as well, unskilled and widowed, struggling to provide for their children, but now running small businesses with the help of a microloan, and leading lives of self-reliance. These inspiration cards, the biographies they told, reminded us why we were there. They were a psychological tincture distilling though our minds as we walked, encouraging us to carry ourselves with dignity and strength. For no matter how great the pain or fatigue we felt throughout the day, our hardship was trivial in comparison, but our mission a noble one.

The mornings were quiet and cool as each daybreak we left a campsite behind, returning it to the wildlife we displaced for one quaint evening.  We walked west towards Lake Victoria, the rising sun warming our backs and stretching our shadows ahead like ghosts of the early explorers, scouting our path to the source of the Nile. You couldn’t help but think about those brave adventurers, and imagine seeing these landscapes through their eyes.  Burton and Speke, Stanley and Livingston were legendary figures who faced incredible dangers from wildlife, disease, and distrusting natives.

They must have been awestruck, like us, by the primeval beauty and the abundant and exotic wildlife that roamed so freely on these boundless savannahs. Indelible marks of the cycle of life littered the plains, the skeletal vestiges of the predator’s banquet, as many next courses lazily grazed nearby, seemingly unaware of our presence.

What more can be said about wildlife that isn’t already known? They’re beautiful in all their stripes and spots, curvy horns and elongated necks, their gallops and slow-motion runs reminiscent of their prehistoric relatives.  Watching these animals roam freely was enchanting, walking through their habitats a precious reminder of the need for conservation, as well as a grim lesson in the horrors of our appetite to destroy perfect beauty. Of all the animals we saw, the rhino’s absence was most sadly poignant.

With those thoughts and experiences deeply set in our psyches, we passed our halfway point and left the nature conservancy, stepping onto a man-made road, leading us towards civilization.

---

As stated earlier, my immediate response was a fleeting, but deep despair. And the balm for that gloom was returning to the wildness which we had just left. At first those feelings baffled me, but now I understand them as a hermit might after leaving his precious solitude for the first time in many moons, or Mowgli leaving the jungle to live among “men.” Solitude in nature allows us to experience, if only subtly, what our primitive ancestors must have known, returning our minds and spirits to a time when survival required that we coexist rather than conquer land and beasts. Those days in the “bush,” as it’s called, forced us to tap into long dormant parts of our brains to navigate and problem solve complexities that are mostly irrelevant in the developed world – doing so made us feel more alive than we’ve felt in years.  But all things pass, and our mission here was really to be among people. They – the destitute who struggle to find health care and work, the children who are hungry and uneducated – are whom we came to see, to walk with, and to serve. The nature we traversed fulfilled its purpose: It broke us down to the core of our humanity, so that when we entered through the figurative gates of each community our hearts were vulnerable, more open and able to feel the struggles of the people who ran to greet us.

Over the next 5 days, people of all ages met us along the roads and paths we walked, marveling at our caravan of foreigners and camels. Our cohort consisted of 10 North American fundraisers, 10 Kenyan guides, and 22 Somali camels to carry our food, water, and nighttime gear. Camels are rarely seen this far south of the equator. Our unique makeup of northern creatures and our sudden arrival in these rural villages stirred local emotions to the spilling point, sloshing delight beyond the rims of self-control.  As their eyes and awareness set upon us, I saw smiles like none I’ve ever seen, supernovas of uncontained joy spreading across faces and radiating outward toward us. It was penetrating, and impossible not to smile back and feel that pure joy, an energy I haven’t felt or known since childhood. Thinking of it now as I write these words fills me with chills, and leaves me wondering what happened to the joy of my youth? How did its purity get diluted along the way? And how can it surface so easily in the people we encountered, people who have little apart from their poverty?

It’s true that money can’t buy happiness, but I’m convinced now, happiness is a wellspring that resides in the hearts of the destitute.

Unknown friends appeared by our sides as we walked, easily matching our pace and stride, sometimes staying with us for miles. Children wanted to hold our hands, and elders wanted to greet us and know our purpose. There were times when we were like a parade, with the masses leaving their work unfinished in the fields, and school children darting out of their classrooms just to meet us on the road and walk with us on our westward march. Late afternoons, when we broke for camp, crowds of people gathered to watch us settle into our nighttime routine – setting up tents and then sitting on our bottoms until sleep beckoned us away to our caves of isolation. We were physically tired after walking 20 miles a day, but our spirits were awakened, energized, and deeply in love.

It is impossible not to fall in love with this part of the world and the humble people who call it home. Africa exudes beauty and grace, and simultaneously imposes horrific injustice on the kindest, most generous people I’ve known. The paradoxical relationship between happiness and poverty has baffled me for all of my 20 years of travel to Africa. I’ve often wondered, with the purity of joy that exists here, why is it that development agencies choose to illustrate their work by showing the opposite?  Shouldn’t happiness move the heart as powerfully as the horror show? I suppose the answers are self-evident; it’s difficult to talk about poverty without showing the flies and the starving child. Those images pull the heartstrings of the compassionate in concert with the perforated edge of their checkbook.

And they are not really exaggerations; I have seen too many hungry children and helpless people dying of preventable disease to throw fault for choosing to show that reality. But the equal and opposite reality I choose to focus on now, is the unbridled happiness that illogically exists within the hearts of the poor. It is what has motivated me to return again and again, investing my life and career striving to empower the poor and alleviate poverty, while also trying to capture a bit of the source of joy to bring home with me. It’s a cross-cultural symbiotic exchange of the good we each bring to the table.

---

Adventures are part of the human equation, with the active ingredients an equal mixture of physical exertion and risk. Adventures help us to reconnect with our humanity by stripping away the ego to reveal our potential for both compassion and strength. Pain is sometimes involved, but we are not defined by our pain in life – instead by our ability to persevere cheerfully in spite of it. Nor is our status boosted through solitary acts of greatness, but by how we work as a group in support of humankind.  Emotional wholeness comes from human connections, and the group of people with whom I walked – my team of humanitarians, the guides who tirelessly worked to help us, and the people we met along the roads – are legends in my mind for their generosity of spirit. They helped me not to stumble on the path to wholeness.  The bonds we formed as we walked to the shores of Lake Victoria to the small fishing village of Matoso, where Lalmba runs a large orphan care program and medical clinic, are indestructible.

Our final days in Kenya were spent in Matoso, laughing and playing with orphans, resting our tired feet by the lake shore, and witnessing works of mercy ripple through this impoverished community. Its concentric circles spread wide, lassoing us all within its ever-increasing diameter, reverberating through our collective consciousness, like the ring of a Buddhist meditation bell.  And my heart still grows.

Merry Christmas!!

“Huh? It’s June, you dope, a little early in the season, don’t you think?!”

Yes, we know, but we have so many delightful African treasures we have collected over the past 50 years!  While you’re sunning yourself this summer, browse our Marketplace page (http://www.lalmba.org/market-place/) and get a head start on your shopping. Where else will your early Christmas shopping improve the lives of the poor in a forgotten corner of Africa?  Each African item has been handcrafted by a local artisan working hard to make ends meet.

Go to our Marketplace page to see the all the items we have for sale:

http://www.lalmba.org/market-place/

---

---

Does Lalmba Really Make A Difference?

We can think of no better way to convey the good that Lalmba accomplishes than by telling you stories of real people whose lives have been changed because of Lalmba.

Meet Geremew.  He was born in a remote village outside of Chiri, Ethiopia, where he and his six siblings lost their father during an earthquake.  He was six months old at the time.  His mother, who suffers mental problems, took them to the closest sizeable town a few days’ walk away in search of support.  She found none, and the desperate family was homeless and hungry.  Begging on the street with her 6 children at her side, she had no option but to give her children away to people to work as servants in their homes.  She thought, “At least then my children will be fed.”   Geremew was lucky enough to be taken in by someone who allowed him to attend school when he wasn’t working.   He was not well cared for, however, and was found by Lalmba’s Children’s Director in a very malnourished state, barely dressed, and shunned at school.  Because his living situation was so unhealthy, Geremew was brought to Lalmba Children’s Home 9 years ago.  He is now attending the 10^th grade in the local school, where he is performing well, and hopes to become a Health Officer (like a doctor) and work for Lalmba’s Chiri Health Center someday.

These stories are not uncommon.  Lalmba means hope for so many impoverished children with a bleak future of servitude ahead of them.

What we find so encouraging is how much good can be accomplished with relatively little in this part of the world.  A child’s life can be transformed forever by what we pay for a monthly car payment!

• $100 pays for all of Geremew’s needs—food, clothing, housing, school supplies, and care for 4 months.
• $300 pays for Geremew’s inclusion in our children’s home for the entire year.
• $700 pays for the nutrition program, which trains families of malnourished infants on how to prepare nutritious meals to prevent future malnutrition in their children.
• $1000 pays for 5 destitute children who live with extended relatives to attend school this year instead of work as servants or in the fields.

We inhabit is a topsy-turvy world full of great imbalances.   Each one of us could have been born on the floor of a mud hut in a tiny village in Africa. But instead we live in a place of plenty.  The lives of our African brothers and sisters are no less beautiful than ours, full of happiness and pain just like our own, but their human struggles are magnified by lack of access to basic needs.  Lalmba strives to meet those physical needs as much as possible, so that they face less needless tragedy in their lives.

It is enriching for all of us who do not ignore life’s imbalances.  By acting with compassion for our fellow humans who have so little, we answer the call to make this world a slightly happier, healthier and more hopeful planet.

---

Tembea Na Mimi:  A Walk Across Kenya!

It’s really going to happen, folks. On August 3, 11 Lalmba supporters will embark on the adventure of a lifetime!  We are going to push ourselves to exhaustion, and face extreme physical and mental challenges as we plod 150 miles over 10 days across the ancient, wild lands of Kenya, East Africa.  We are not aware that this exact route has ever been attempted before.  We will end our adventure at the lakeside village of Matoso, the home of Lalmba’s largest program, which serves about 1200 destitute children.

Why are we doing this?

Like the explorers before us, we will endure hardship for a cause greater than ourselves.  We will walk the land of the people we serve. We will bear witness to their great needs, to the great beauty of their country and culture, and we will strive to understand what it means to spend a lifetime walking in poverty.

When we come home, we will bring back stories of the great challenges, the breathtaking beauty,

and the real people we met who are struggling to survive.  Please consider sponsoring one of us. Your sponsorship goes directly to Lalmba. All the walkers are paying their own expenses.

---

---

---

To learn more and sponsor a walker, visit our website:

See Walker Profiles Here

2014 Annual Report

Mission

Empowering rural communities in Africa to provide their own people with high quality basic health care, effective public health initiatives, microfinance and support for vulnerable children. We have a special love for children, whom we see not as a burden, but as part of a brilliant future for Africa.

Vision

We envision a healthy, prosperous community where all at-risk children are educated, preventable disease is eradicated, and opportunities exist for people to provide for themselves and their families.

---

---

---

Letter From The President and Vice President

In 2014 we evaluated our mission statement and our programs to ensure they are well-aligned.  We espouse a guiding philosophy that is solution-oriented.  We do not want to put Band-Aids on real human problems – problems that we know are solvable if the root causes are correctly identified, and the tools to fix them are provided.  So, what is the problem?  The problem is systemic poverty, and Lalmba is constructing the path to move beyond it to a more promising future.

For any plan to succeed and for solutions to be sustainable, they must be community-led.  Our mission statement discusses “empowering rural communities to provide their own people” with their needs.  What are those things a community needs to be healthy, prosperous, and independent?   4 basic indicators of a healthy community are access to education, health care, economic opportunity, and nutrition.   A community without any one of these is a struggling community.  Here’s how Lalmba addresses those needs and how we assess when our job is done in a community.  Because if problems truly are solvable, then one day we will be able to declare mission accomplished.

• Education – First and foremost, children must have access to education. The children in these communities who go to school come from families who have a means of income.  The children who don’t attend school are destitute; their families can’t afford the costs, which leave the children as uneducated laborers or servants, guaranteeing another generation of poverty for that family. We call those children “at-risk.”

In 2014, Lalmba enabled 1166 at-risk children to get an education. We believe that the greatest way to change the future is to invest in the children of today, empowering them to be the future leaders of their communities.

• Health Care – There is ample evidence showing a direct correlation between physical health and economic prosperity, both individually and at the community level. People who are sick can’t work; communities without health care don’t thrive.

In 2014 at our clinics in Ethiopia and Kenya, we treated nearly 50,000 people, saving thousands of lives, and allowing sick adults to get back to work sooner.  Children are healed so that sickness does not impede their learning.  Babies are treated for malnutrition, and families trained on how to provide nutritious meals, to make them all healthier with more potential.

Our public health teams, travelling to the most remote communities, teach people about the importance of sanitation for overall health, and how to prevent disease before it starts.

• Access to Economic Opportunity – Financially healthy communities have diverse business opportunities, and access to start-up funds for entrepreneurs. In rural communities, access to affordable loans is extremely limited.  We provide small loans to the poor who know how to pull themselves out of poverty, but lack the means to get started.  In 2014 we gave small business loans to 52 people, placing them firmly on a path to independence.

The success of this program has spurred us on to revamp our RCAR program, giving small business loans to the parents or guardians of the children we support. We hope to see our microloan program grow exponentially in the coming years so that more families can reach independence.

• Access to Nutrition – Under normal situations, we believe that if the above 3 needs are met and in balance, a community can provide for its own nutritional needs. In extreme situations, such as extended drought or politically imposed famine, charities must step in to help with nutrition. But the danger of creating food dependency is real.

We provide supplemental nutrition only when necessary and only as long as necessary. For example, we have orphans in our RCAR program living with a guardian (most likely an ailing grandmother) who is incapable of working to provide food. Without our nutrition intervention these children would truly go hungry. Likewise, in our Elder Care program we provide food sustenance for elders who have no one else to care for them.

How do we know when an area of our mission is complete?  Lalmba first began in these rural communities because there was no provision of any of these services locally.  Over time, with our community development efforts, we have been looking for the emergence of similar services locally.  If services are being duplicated, then we see that as a sign that this community is reaching the ability to meet its own needs.

Here’s a powerful example. 16 years ago Lalmba opened the first modern medical facility in Chiri, Ethiopia. At that time, Chiri was a small farming village with no electricity, no running water, no telephone service, and a horse path wide enough to be called a road.  Today, it has become a trading point for farmers in the southwest. Chiri now has 2 private clinics, a government health center, and a private pharmacy. There is still an abundance of poverty, lack of access to education and business opportunity, but the trend is favorable that this community will soon be able to meet its own health care needs. We are close to saying ‘mission accomplished’ in the area of health care there!

So the exciting news is that we can begin a gradual and sustainable handover of health care responsibilities to our partners in Ethiopia, the Catholic Church and the Ethiopian government. And we can begin a prayerful and thoughtful search for that next end-of-the-road community, the community with no health care, a high prevalence of at-risk children, and a lack of economic opportunity. Then we can begin empowering a new community with the tools to shape a future that is filled with hope.

Jeff and Hillary James

President and Vice President, Lalmba Association

---

 

WHAT’S LALMBA DOING?

Lalmba is empowering rural communities in East Africa to provide for their own needs.  We’re striving to end generations of poverty by addressing the 4 basic needs for people and communities to thrive:  Access to Education, Health Care, Economic Opportunity, and Nutrition.

Lalmba tackles these objectives by giving priority attention to the most vulnerable of citizens — the poor, the children, and the marginalized. We prioritize at-risk children and ensure they are receiving an education, health care, and have a place to call home.  We see a future where today’s children are tomorrow’s leaders.

At our health care facilities in Ethiopia and in Kenya, we save lives on a daily basis, and we educate these communities about disease prevention, achieving healthier, more self-reliant communities.

Our Microloan programs provide small business loans to entrepreneurs and to RCAR guardians, sparking economic growth and introducing business opportunities for the poor, who traditionally have no options.

---

---

Primary Health Care

Lalmba runs static health facilities in Kenya and Ethiopia, where we diagnose and treat illnesses for the poorest of the poor. We strive to heal the sick so that they can have the strength, not only to survive, but to grow and be part of transforming a poor community into a prosperous one.   At each facility, we charge a service fee to those who can afford to pay, but we turn away no one – those without the means to pay are given free treatment.

In Kenya we operate the Matoso Clinic and the Ochuna Dispensary, serving a catchment population of about 100,000 people.  In 2014, we treated nearly 30,000 patients suffering from an array of illnesses. The most common diseases treated are malaria, anemia, bilharzia, malnutrition, pneumonia, UTI, diabetes, STI, dog bites, and diarrhea.

HIV has done great damage to the family structure, leaving behind orphaned children and elderly parents with no one to care for them in their declining years.  We change this dynamic through intensive HIV counseling, education, and treatment for those who test positive.  In 2014, 1558 people were enrolled in our counseling program, and 1036 people received antiretroviral therapy.

In Ethiopia, we operate the Chiri Health Center, serving a catchment population of 150,000 people. In 2014, we treated nearly 20,000 people for a range of illnesses. The most common diseases treated were pneumonia, malnutrition, parasitic infections, skin infections, musculoskeletal disease, dyspepsia, acute respiratory infection, UTI, diarrhea, Otitis and other ear infections.

We have a 15-bed hospital ward where we provided 24 hour intensive treatment to 655 critically ill patients, saving and discharging 631 of them.  These inpatients included 205 severely malnourished children, who required 3-4 weeks of intensive care. They would have died without it.

In Eritrea, Lalmba provided a grant to assist the Catholic Church in purchasing medicines and supplies to run the Halhal Health Center (catchment population of 12,676) and the Boggu health station (catchment population of 3783).  In 2014, 11,454 people were given outpatient care at these two facilities. The most common illnesses treated were pneumonia, diarrhea, skin infections, ear infections, and eye infections.

---

Public Health Care

In Kenya and Ethiopia, our public health programs aim to prevent disease before it starts. This is where the long-term battle for health is won.  A diagnosis of malaria can mean weeks in bed for a child or parent, for example.   A person who stays healthy won’t need those weeks away from work or school, improving their financial and educational potential.

Intensive health education tailored to the cultural needs, the most prevalent health issues, and the learning abilities of the people we serve is a goal of this program.  Early intervention in the form of prenatal care, well-baby checks, and immunizations makes up the other part of our public health program.

• In Kenya, nearly 5000 people were touched by our PH team in 2014. Mobile clinics traveled to remote communities 2-3 times each week to provide education, immunizations, and mother/child health intervention. Education topics included HIV/AIDS prevention, transmission and treatment, hygiene, malaria prevention, clean water, and nutrition.
• In Ethiopia, our public health team provided education to about 16,000 people. This team has been very successful in finding creative ways to teach a largely uneducated population. They built a portable stage and created a series of dramas utilizing props and costumes to teach relevant health topics, such as Mother/child health, EPI, nutrition, communicable diseases, environmental and water sanitation, TB, HIV/AIDS, and public safety. The Ethiopia team is also an invaluable partner to government health workers, providing strategic support to treat people who are furthest from established health sites.

We also:

• Make and sell low-cost latrine slabs
• Provide mosquito nets to prevent malaria
• Help community members sell a bleach product that makes drinking water safe
• Provide cooking classes to train people to use the local foods to prepare well-balanced, nutritious meals.

---

Children at Risk

In 2014, Lalmba provided for the basic needs of 1186 at-risk children.

This number includes 20 at-risk children for whom Lalmba provides a grant to the Catholic Church in Eritrea to provide clothing, food, school materials, school fees and uniforms.  Although Lalmba cannot have an on-the-ground presence in Eritrea at this time due to governmental restrictions, we continue to support vulnerable children in the place of Lalmba’s founding 52 years ago.

Without Lalmba’s intervention, their futures would involve no formal education, no health care, and little chance for prosperity.

In 2014, we also introduced a new microloan program which lends business startup money to guardians of our RCAR orphans, women who know how to reach independence, but lack the means to get started.

Lalmba Children’s Homes

Lalmba children’s homes provide for 56 children who have no one to care for them. We strive to provide them all the advantages that they would have if they had 2 healthy and working parents. They do not live in luxury or at a higher standard than their peers. They wear local clothes, live in modest houses, and have chores and responsibilities. We want them to be prepared for adulthood, which comes fast in this part of the world.  We also want them to reach their fullest potential, and encourage them to excel scholastically.

 

---

RCAR (Reaching Children at Risk)

RCAR is where we see the most potential in providing for the greatest number of children. In 2014, Lalmba ensured that 1130 destitute children were nourished, clothed, educated, and had access to health care. Some of the children are orphans; all of them are completely destitute.  The difference between an RCAR child and a Children’s Home child is that RCAR children have someone who can help care for them, a guardian. Often that person is a single mother, an aging and ailing grandmother, a distant relative or a neighbor.  All are financially strapped and struggling to survive.  We assist them by providing for the basic needs of the child and ensuring that they are in school.  We endeavor to be a resource for the entire family, guiding them towards a path of self-reliance.

---

Elder Care

In this part of Africa there is no such thing as social security or retirement, no assisted living communities for the elderly.  For generations, the family structure has provided the safety net for the elderly when they become too old to care for themselves.  But that safety net has been eroded by HIV/AIDS.  Not only do scores of orphaned children have no one to care for them, but many elderly widows and widowers who lost their children to AIDS are left alone with orphaned grandchildren. For many elders, this burden is too much and they suffer from hunger and neglect.

For the past 3 years, Lalmba has been providing some modest assistance to the elderly who lack family with resources to assist them: a bar of soap, a mattress and blanket, some food supplies. Last year we supported 60 impoverished elderly in Kenya.  For some, we provide a simple chair so that they can sit upright and get off the ground. Our nurses also visit each elder monthly to ensure they are getting the proper care and nutrition to be as comfortable as possible in their final years.

 

---

Microfinance

Our loan programs provided small business loans to 52 people, 43 women and 9 men, in 2014.  These loans enable mothers and fathers to earn a living to provide for their families. Many loan recipients have become successful enough to grow their businesses and provide jobs and income for others. The goal is to provide a way out of poverty and effect economic change in the entire community.

Our program has a 100% repayment rate! It works so well because of community support, and no new loans are given until former loans are repaid. We partner with community volunteers, successful business people, who help train all new loan recipients in smart business practices, guiding them to success by helping them plan for growth and meet their repayment schedules. Some of the business professions Lalmba has supported in these remote communities include farmer, fisherman, produce vendor, tailor, welder, carpenter, butcher, restaurant owner, schoolteacher, hair stylist, spice distributor, and more.

In 2015, we will continue to expand microloans, business training and mentoring to RCAR guardians, to encourage their independence from ongoing support.

---

The People Who Make Lalmba a Success

Lalmba succeeds because of the people (volunteers and employees) who selflessly work for us and believe that through our mission and our work, a way out of poverty is possible.

Here in the U.S.

• We have one, very dedicated part-time volunteer who works to keep our supporters thanked for their generous financial support.
• We have two medical doctors (Lalmba Medical Directors), who passionately embrace our mission and are dedicated to service. They advise on how to meet all of our health care goals and visit projects annually to ensure we provide the highest care possible with our limited resources.
• Because of these volunteers and their dedication, Hillary and Jeff (Lalmba’s only paid employees) can put more energy directing Lalmba’s vision and mission, strategic planning and capacity building, recruiting volunteers, and keeping the organization financially healthy through robust fundraising efforts that plainly tell the stories of the people we serve.

In Africa

Lalmba’s programs are run by nearly 100 African staff and 3-6 expatriate volunteers who are specialists in medicine, public health, financial management, and program development.  In 2014, 10 expats from 4 different countries (Holland, United States, Chile, and Kenya) served as expert volunteers, mentoring our African staff and ensuring that our program goals are met.  Our paid African staff serve in many professional and support roles, from our Project Director in Kenya, Marico Osiyo, to our Public Health manager in Ethiopia, Social Kassa, to Zirhun Ademe, the chief of guards in Ethiopia. We have cleaners, drivers, guards, nurses, groundskeepers, health officers, housemothers who care for the orphans, and administrators.  All of these people are vital to our operations. We also have many African volunteers who spend several hours each month on oversight committees, teaching in their villages, monitoring and mentoring microloan recipients, or visiting HIV patients or the elderly in their homes between clinic appointments.

---

---

Looking Forward

We look down the road often, wondering about that end-of-the-road community that still lacks its basic needs. We look forward to the day when resources are abundant enough to allow us to expand to help more communities in desperate poverty.

Lalmba believes in long-term investment.  We don’t believe there are quick fixes to generational poverty.

Development is made sustainable with time, commitment, and a focused effort on the root causes: lack of access to education, health care, nutrition, and jobs.

The communities we serve in Ethiopia and Kenya remain dramatically impoverished, but we do not believe they will need our help forever. Change and empowerment are on the rise and these communities will one day be free of foreign aid.   To ensure independence is truly our goal, we constantly evaluate our programs for any sign that we are fostering dependence instead of empowerment.  If we see signs that our efforts are impeding local enterprise or ingenuity, we know it’s time to shift our efforts to encourage local people to take charge and provide for their community.   We strongly support emerging enterprises like the private and government run health facilities in Chiri.  We will ensure that our efforts complement and do not impede their success.

As we look forward, we plan to continue our life-saving and life-changing services that bring so much hope to those we serve.  We plan to strategically downsize any duplicated services in order to focus our efforts on the most critical needs of the area, and to empower local enterprise. Because of our long-term commitment to these communities, we will not leave until we see that all 4 areas of need are being addressed by the community itself.  Simultaneously, we pray for guidance to explore more remote communities where there is no modern health care, where at-risk children hope for an education, and where businesses are few, but aspiration is high.

We will always keep children at the forefront of our efforts. We know that today’s children provide the greatest chance of ending poverty tomorrow.  But we are just one small organization. Looking to the future, we see cooperation and collaboration as a promising way to advance our mission more effectively and more broadly, bringing us closer to achieving our vision, and ending extreme poverty in these communities once and for all.

---

2014 Financials

In 2014, Lalmba received no funding from government or large private grants. Our income came from small, private donors, small businesses, some church groups, and a few family foundations who support our work and believe in our mission.  Our clinics in Ethiopia and Kenya charge a small fee to patients who seek treatment, but that income represents only about 8% of our overall budget.

Here in the U.S., Lalmba strives to keep our administrative costs low (about 17% of the budget) in order for most of our income to be spent in the field helping those in need. One way we do this is by not renting office space.   Our two U.S. employees, Hillary and Jeff, work from their home.

Donated funds buy medicines, medical supplies, food and school fees for destitute children, fuel and repairs for our vehicles, and pay the salaries of our 100+ African employees.

Lalmba maintains a small savings to ensure the stability of our programs, but in recent years with inconsistent donations, inflation, and program costs on the rise, that savings has decreased.  As an organization, it is one of our highest priorities to alter this trend, manage expenses and find alternative ways of generating income.

2014 Income and Spending

Total income for 2014 was $561,997. Of this income, 70% ($391,720) came from individual donors, 21% ($115,343) came from family foundations, 8% ($46,117) came from clinic income in Africa, and 1% ($8,817) from investments and interest.

Total expenses for 2014 were $763,922. Of expenditures, 82% ($626,416) was for programs, 17% ($129,867) for administrative costs, and 1% ($7639) for fundraising.

Note: Our 2015 budget has been reduced to $553,419, realigning our income and expenses to achieve a balanced budget.

 

---

The Lalmba Team

In addition to the generous 838 donors who gave us the financial means to do this work, and the 100+ African staff who work tirelessly to fulfill our goals, Lalmba is accomplishing its mission through the dedicated efforts of our volunteers, both in the U.S. and in Africa. Here are the people who gave their time to this life-saving work in 2014:

Board of Directors

Kevin Collins, treasurer

Hugh Downey, chairman

Marty Downey, member

Reginald Guy, secretary

Hillary James, member

Harry Lindmark, member

Bill Masure, member

USA Volunteers & Staff

Michelle Anderson, Donor Relations

Rob Andzik, Consultant

Kim Chen, MD, Medical Director

David Leonard, MD, Medical Director

Hillary James, Vice President

Jeff James, President

Ethiopia Volunteers

Barbara Forster, Project Director

Mudit Gilotra, MD, Medical Director

Aditi Kamdar, MD, Asst. Medical Director

Mercy Simiyu, MPH, Public Health Director

Celine Barthelemy, MPH, Public Health Director

Kenya Volunteers

Ariel Castillo, MD, Medical and PH Director

Boudewijn Bakker, MD, Medical Director

Annet Bakker, Program Specialist

Denise Hunt, FNP, Medical Director

William Westbrook, Program Development Consultant

WE APPRECIATE YOU!

HMMMM…HOW DO WE THANK YOU FOR MAKING THIS WORK POSSIBLE AND ENCOURAGE YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT?

Do you dream of Africa?

As you know, we have an important fundraising campaign going on this year.  We have been inspired by your support.  We wanted a way to say ‘thank you’ and to keep the momentum of generosity going.  What better way than to offer a first-hand look at the work that Lalmba does, from the comforts of Hugh and Marty’s ‘home away from home’ in Nyagaribe, Kenya??

Sound enchanting? We would like to offer 1 lucky winner a round-trip flight to Kenya, and a bumpy 4 hour ride from the Kisumu airport for 1 week at this little lakeside paradise.

“3 grass-roof “rondavels” (1 bedroom with flush toilet and running water, 1 kitchen with gas stove and a solar-powered refrigerator, 1 guest room with outhouse). We will have a small staff to help with cooking and transportation.”

If you’re the lucky winner and would like to schedule your trip to coincide with a trip by Jeff and Hillary, we could travel together. 

Think of this as a (rugged) chance of a lifetime.  It is not an easy journey, long flights and bumpy roads and primitive accommodations, but it would appeal to the Lewis and Clark in you!  Some limitations apply; those who enter the drawing will receive further guidelines by e-mail.

The drawing will be held on June 1.

To enter, just send us an email saying you would like to be entered, or if you are making a donation via Colorado Gives write “enter my name in the Kenya drawing” in the special instructions field. 

Donations to make our crucial fundraising goal are appreciated (but not required).

We could not be doing this work without you!

May the luckiest world traveler win!!