"What One Can Do" - The Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation blog: FAME

Thursday, August 21, 2008

"FAME and MDG adventure in Tanzania" -- by Meredith Bowen

I am about two weeks from embarking on a new MDG adventure and I would like to share it with the readers of this blog.

I have volunteered in Tanzania four times over the past four years, and in two weeks I will be heading back that way. I graduated from law school here in Ohio in May and took a job with The Foundation for African Medicine and Education (FAME) - located in Karatu, Tanzania.

Dr. Frank Artress and his wife, Susan, began their endeavors in Tanzania four years ago. Just this past spring, construction was finally completed on their out-patient clinic. Once funds are raised, an entire in-patient surgical wing will be built as well. This past May the cover of the San Francisco Chronicle carried an enormous story about Dr. Frank and his work.

Interest in FAME has exploded and potential volunteers are lining up! So, I will be heading up the Volunteer Program onsite.

I am incredibly excited about this new position and the work that awaits me. I will be blogging about my work there from my website - located on the "News" page.

Tanzania is one of the 10 poorest countries in the world and is among those with the highest rate of AIDS in the world. The leading medical concerns include AIDS, TB, malaria, pneumonia and dysentery. And with only one medical doctor for every 25,000 people, Tanzania faces one of the lowest doctor/patient ratios in the world.

I encourage you to take the time to read the San Fran Chronicle article - or check out FAME's website.

Stay tuned for stories from Tanzania!

Meredith Bowen is a recent graduate of the law school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. In 2007, she spent the fall semester in Arusha, Tanzania doing an internship at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Has volunteered in Tanzania with the Rift Valley Childrens Village (an orphanage) as well as with the Anglican Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro and the Diocese of Tanga. Started the African Orphan Education Fund to award scholarships for secondary school and university.

EGR's Bloggers

Voices from around the Anglican Communion sharing reflections on God's mission of Global Reconciliation.

1 - The Rev. Dr. Sabina Alkire -- priest, development economist, founder of the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative and author of What Can One Person Do, EGR board member.

2 - Abbie Coburn - a 23-year old from San Francisco, has lived in Zimbabwe, attended the international school Friends World Program and has worked in Palestine with Birthright Unplugged. Currently traveling around the U.S. with Wheels of Justice -- which organizes education and nonviolent action for justice and human rights, especially in Iraq and Palestine.

3 - The Rev. Jay Lawlor – priest, economist, has worked with Jeffery Sachs and the Earth Institute on the MDGs, currently living in North Carolina and founding an interfaith nonprofit aimed at getting faith communities involved in the Millennium Villages Project.

4 - Reynolds Whalen - young adult, senior at Washington University in St. Louis, has traveled extensively in Kenya, Uganda, and Sudan. He spent fall semester 2006 in Kenya working with AIDS orphans -- read his blog on it here and is working on a documentary film on that experience.

5 - The Rev. Becca Stevens - priest, author, rector of St. Augustine's Church in Nashville, TN and founder of Magdalene House. Worked with her parish to found a school in Ecuador. Read her bio here.

6 - The Rev. Devon Anderson – priest, chair of Diocese of Minnesota MDG task force, recipient of an Episcopal Church Foundation grant to develop models for equipping congregations for engaging global mission and the MDGs.

7 - Craig Cole -- Executive director of Five Talents International, an Anglican microfinance nonprofit. Member of Diocese of Virginia's Mission Commission. EGR board member.

8 - Stephanie Rhodes -- divides her time between Alabama and Jerusalem, where she directs Palestinian aid projects.

9 - Lallie Lloyd -- author of "Eradicating Global Poverty: A Christian Study Guide on the MDGs" for the National Council of Churches, co-chair of Standing Commission on Domestic Mission and Evangelism.

10 - Sarah Bush – young adult, a PhD candidate in International Relations in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. Has worked in the past with Americans for Informed Democracy, an organization on 1,000 colleges that works to raise global awareness among students, as its Co-Executive Director during the 2005-2006 academic year. Her previous experience also includes work for the U.S. State Department, the St. Louis City Mayor's Office and Teach for America.

11 - Dr. John HammockAssociate Professor of Public Policy at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy & The Fletcher School, Tufts University. Currently on leave until September, 2008 and working Sabina Alkire as a senior research associate at the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, Was Executive Director at Oxfam America from 1984-1995 and Executive Director at ACCION International from 1973-1980. EGR board member

12 - Laura Amendola – young adult, small business owner in Duluth, MN, delegate to the 2006 Anglican Observer Leadership Conference and official TEC representative to the Toward Effective Anglican Mission conference -- a worldwide Anglican Communion conference on the Millennium Development Goals in Boksburg, South Africa in March 2007. EGR board member

13 - Jenn Morazes – graduate of Episcopal Divinity School in the area of Theology and Contemporary Society. Currently studying in the School of Social Welfare in the MSW/PhD program at the University of California, Berkeley. Jenn has studied and performed community work in both Mexico and Southern Africa and also participated in the Young Adult Stewards Programme with the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland. She has also served as an anti-racism trainer for the national Episcopal Church. Her current clinical work and research focuses on the impact of trauma on particular communities locally and internationally, as well as homelessness,wealth distribution and the role of faith communities in social development.

14 - Meredith Bowen - young adult, at law school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, spending the fall semester in Arusha, Tanzania doing an internship at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Has volunteered in Tanzania with the Rift Valley Childrens Village (an orphanage) as well as with the Anglican Diocese of Mount Kilimanjaro and the Diocese of Tanga. Started the African Orphan Education Fund to award scholarships for secondary school and university.

15 - Dr. Christiana Russ -- pediatrician doing her residency at Boston Children's Hospital, currently working at an Anglican mission hospital in Kenya through a joint arrangement with Children's and the Diocese of Massachusetts. Chair of the Executive Council Standing Commission on HIV/AIDS.

16 - Josephine Mujawiyera - runs "Hannah Ministries," a Christian organization in Byumba, Rwanda working with at-risk children (orphans, children infected and affected by HIV/AIDS, children living in a child led household, and street children). It is a local initiave born to respond to the needs of children living in child-led households.works with people living with HIV/AIDS. Jospehine also does general post-genocide reconciliation work (among MANY other things) in Byumba, where she lives with her husband, who is bishop of that diocese.

17 - Carl Hooker - economist employed in an academic healthcare system. EGR diocese coordinator in the Diocese of Missouri, currently studying in the diocesan school for ministry.

18 - Andrew Langan - young adult, economist.

19 - Mama Daria Kwaje - Mother's Union Provincial Worker, Episcopal Church of Sudan.

20 - Rev. Dahn Dean Gandell - rector of St. John's Episcopal Church in Honeoye Falls, NY, MDG coordinator for Diocese of Rochester.

21 - Tracey Herzer -- president of National Association of Episcopal Christian Education Directors, executive director of LeaderResources, a senior trainer for Journey To Adulthood, and EGR's coordinator for Children, Youth and the MDGs.

22 - Elaine Thomas - member of St. James in Lancaster, PA where she is a member of the Peace and Justice and Stewardship Committees. She is also the EGR and ERD Coordinator for the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania. Elaine works for Episcopal Community Services in Philadelphia, a social service agency whose mission is to help individuals and families with multiple needs overcome the impact of poverty.

23 - Emily Bloemker -- middler at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, Emily has traveled in Haiti and Sudan with the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Church.

24 - Kevin Jones -- serial entrepreneur and clergy spouse. Kevin was the editor of the Every Voice daily newspaper at the 2003 General Convention of the Episcopal Church and has worked on global poverty issues for several years, through on the ground projects in sub-Saharan Africa (such as the Anglican Malaria Project), technology infrastructure to make it simpler for people to care about the people effected by the Millennium Development Goals, and events. He is also active in investing for good.

25 - Erin Bernstein -- a junior at the University of Tennessee, designing a major in the comparison of post-conflict education in Northern Uganda and education in inner-city Knoxville. Her passion for serving people has brought her to Hungary, Romania, and South Africa through the Rotary Club of Knoxville and to Botswana, Uganda, and back to South Africa through the Knoxville Jazz for Justice Project, which seeks to music as healing in war-torn Northern Uganda. She is currently in the middle of a two-month stay in Uganda for an internship at the Ugandan Parliament and to work on an art therapy project with young women in the north. Read more from Erin at her ongoing blog of her trip: Uganda 2008.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

"FAME and MDG adventure in Tanzania" -- by Meredith Bowen

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