Return to Niger

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Dear friends and family,

A few hours ago, I was notified that the Niger Embassy approved my visa. I can now return to continue working with the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programmes with our partner church, the Eglise Evangelique de la Republique du Niger (EERN).

During the year away, I have been grateful to have time with family, and also have some medical issues resolved that needed attention and time. There will be much to do upon returning as food insecurity has increased as a result of severe flooding in the interior regions of Zinder, Tahoua, and Maradi as well as due to sanctions placed on Niger after the July 2023 coup d’état.

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My work in water and sanitation has always been the long-term work of team building, training local producers of WASH products and providers of services, and identifying drivers that might change behaviors related to WASH. During the spring and summer, I was given two short-term consulting-type opportunities.

Nkhoma Synod in Malawi has been in partnership with the Presbytery of Western North Carolina (PWNC) for 25 years and had recently requested PWNC to assist in improving WASH at the Nkhoma Hospital Health Centres and Nkhoma Mission Station. The Synod invited me to accompany the PWNC team when they visited Nkhoma last April. In Malawi, we reconnected with the WASH organization Freshwater International, with whom we had previously partnered while working in northern Malawi. Freshwater has focused their efforts on improving WASH in Health Care Facilities and has just completed bringing access to WASH of each Health Facility in Zomba District to be above the Malawian national standards. Nkhoma Synod contracted Freshwater, with financial assistance from PWNC, to improve WASH at the Malingundi Health Centre near Lilongwe, and is now in discussion to continue this work such that all of the Nkhoma Synod health facilities will also be above the national standards. After the work visit with PWNC, I was able to spend a week in the North, where I was able to reconnect with our former partner church and our Malawian ‘family.’

In June and July, I was given an extraordinary opportunity to consult with the Church of Jesus Christ in Madagascar (FJKM). I was hosted by Dan and Elizabeth Turk, both with whom I had known while growing up in the D. R. Congo. Dan and Elizabeth were both my guides and translators as we visited several programmes within the vast work of the FJKM. Dan’s expertise in botany and the environment and Elizabeth’s work with HIV/AIDS and public health, along with their tireless work for justice are well integrated into the FJKM’s mission of improving livelihoods and preserving the unique ecosystems found only in Madagascar.

The main reason I was invited to Madagascar by the FJKM was to look at the issues with water in an area in the southern part of the island that gets less than 15 inches of rain per year –

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 all coming during one three-month period. Much of the groundwater in this area is salty, and like seawater, cannot be used domestically. People walk very long distances and spend tremendous amounts of time to bring home water, that is potable but still salty. It has been said that water provides the foundation upon which people can begin to work their way out of poverty, so it comes as no surprise that this area is one of the poorest areas on earth. And people in this area will remain very poor until more water is made available for agriculture and livestock as well as for domestic use. Making water available in this area will need a long-term and consistent effort by the FJKM with strong cooperation with other organizations who are also addressing water issues in the area.

I was asked to give recommendations for expanding and improving upon the FJKM’s work in WASH. While there is much WASH expertise within the FJKM, there is a need for coordination to be able to fully exploit that expertise so as to be able to support household WASH in addition to improving WASH within FJKM schools, dispensaries, and theological schools. A tremendous resource for the FJKM is that it has churches throughout the country.

We met with many organizations who are doing WASH work within the country and discussed how FJKM might be able to partner together with these organization to strengthen the FJKM’s ministry in providing safe WASH. At a debriefing meeting at the end of the visit, an FJKM WASH committee was established. That committee has already begun to coordinate the FJKM and cooperating WASH organizations with the WASH needs as identified by the FJKM.

I do ask for your prayers for Malawi, Madagascar, South Sudan and Niger. As I return to Niger, please keep in prayer the people who have been affected by floods and food insecurity, for direction for the new government, for the EERN and its leadership, and for my return which also means another separation from family. Your prayers are sustaining, and much appreciated.

Jim<