I might as well start the Advent of Awesomeness with my own hubs-bin!
Fred is really into doing relief work in other countries. Sometimes he goes on a volunteer military project and sometimes he goes with a church group or a non-profit. If they need a nurse on the team - and they usually do - he's more than happy to step in. He's just a travel-loving, extroverted person like that. He's volunteered for work in Australia, China, El Salvador, Germany, Guam, Haiti, Kenya, Mexico, Panama City, Rwanda and Uganda.
(He might have worked more places - check the comments, he'll probably correct me. Those are the ones that I remember right now.)
Fred really loves Africa. In fact, one of my first memories of Fred is when we were dating in the summer of 2004: as we walked past a booth at street fair that was selling grilled corn-on-the-cob, Fred responded wistfully,
"Oh, it smells like Africa!"
After we wed, he convinced me that we needed to sponsor a child in Rwanda through World Vision. We picked a boy named Xavier. Sadly, he moved to a different village within a couple of years and we were assigned to another boy about the same age. The Rwandan World Vision leaders (they have an office in Kigali) gave us Jean. Our church has had a relationship with two villages in Rwanda for many, many years. We send a team of workers to the villages twice a year to help build houses, treat small health issues, play with the kids and generally just hang out. The cool thing - and this doesn't normally happen with World Vision, but we're an exception - is that our teams get to meet up with our sponsored kids.
Here's Fred and Jean:
CUTE.
Heartbreakingly, the local government decided that only the sponsored kids would be able to attend this meet-and-greet party. The children who were still unsponsored stood outside a fenced area, looking in. It was just so sad. Mike Whalen, one of the team leaders from Fred's trip, felt an urge to do more. He started an NGO called "Over The Fence".
At first, it didn't go as well as he had planned*:
Over the Fence, as a non-profit, began after a Rwandan Mayor refused to accept free school lunches for their children. Mike had found school kids in need of food and successfully organized provisions from the UN World Food Program. However, the Mayor would not accept this form of help. From this interaction led to the formation of OTF. Mike says, “I went to the Mayor, and was so happy to tell him I had gotten food for the school children [school lunch program]. It took a lot to make this happen. And he told me, ‘Thanks Mike, I know your heart. I can’t accept this free food because it won’t help my people. What happens to them if and when you leave?’ Then, proceeded that he was sick of NGO’s coming and telling everyone all they do in Nyamagabe, yet he could see none of their accomplishments. The Mayor was turned off by NGO’s — and saw them for the most part to be self-serving.”
But - oh, Mike is a really persistent guy:
Mike proceeded to ask the Mayor, “Do NGO’s ever come to ask you what your needs are? Do they ever want to assist you in your initiatives, for your success?” He responded, “[No, they never seem to care what I need help in. They have their western ideas to implement.]” To which Mike asked, “If I started a new NGO… and if you were to advise me as to what it would look like, what would you say?”
With this question, Mike says Over the Fence was born. “He wanted me to help with enabling his people to take care of their own needs and not be dependent on others. He requested agricultural training to enable his people to be self-sustainable. He requested a school lunch program to be run and operated by the local people. He requested training and management help until they were able to manage on their own.”
That's how OTF got started. They do the school lunch program, a farming program and a coffee business -- but they do it as a cooperative with the villagers. Many are widowed women, like Jean and Xavier's moms.
...So that's Fred's Awesome Cause!
Do you like it?
If you feel inclined to chime in, here's what you can do --
Easy Like Sunday Morning:
1. Like them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
Get By With A Little Help From My Friends:
2. Make a donation (air miles needed, too!)
The Greatest Love of All:
3. Sponsor a child from Rwanda through World Vision
Urakoze!
("Thanks!" in kinyarwanda)
* From the "About" page of the Over The Fence website
