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Zaire Institutional Development
In Zaire, the renewed funding will enable the Department of Health and Development of the Zaire Mennonite Brethren Church (DESADEC) to work toward "a greater degree of sustainability," according to MBM/S Director of Programs, Dave Dyck, who authored the grant proposal request.
In order for institutions and programs to be sustainable in the long run, the key leaders and experts need to be from the receiving nation. The Zaire project aims, said Dyck, "to develop the visioning, planning, implementation and administration capacity" of involved Zairians, as well as provide leadership training to expand the pool of potential health/development leaders.
DESADEC currently manages the Kajiji Health Zone in Bandundu Province with a central hospital in the village of Kajiji, 17 health centers serving 120,000 people, one referral health center in Kikwit serving 30,000 and six smaller clinics around the Kikwit area which reach another 5,000 (Kikwit was the scene of the Ebola crisis in summer of 1995). Another center for 30,000 is being established in Kinshasa, the capital.
DESADEC also operates a carpentry school in Kinshasa, a community store for manufactured goods in Kajiji, an egg production center in Kikwit and has recently produced a literacy training manual.
Of special interest to CIDA is a proposed Women's Literacy/Social Center project to teach women who have not had educational opportunity: 1) to read and write; 2) to become more aware of their economic potential; 3) to learn marketable skills such as sewing and soap-making. Up to 40 women will be trained as instructors for three centers in Kikwit, Kinshasa and Kajiji.
CIDA Investment in Panama
About 43% of the total grant will fund educational efforts of the Mennonite
Brethren Church in Panama among the 10,000 Wounaan and Embera peoples:
* secondary and post-secondary girls' and boys' scholarships;
* women's vocational training;
* leadership training and specialized instruction in micro-enterprise
development for potential entrepreneurs.
About 80 to 100 persons are expected to receive direct educational benefits from the project, which will operate in two centers:
* Yaviza, in the Darien Province, the least developed area of Panama, and * Juan Diaz, a suburb of Panama City, providing housing for high school and college students who have to come to the city because there are no high schools in their area.
Dyck also observes that to a greated degree than in the past "women have had a major influence on this proposal and will be major beneficiaries."
Why MBM/S Promotes Development
MBM/S views its role in development, states Director Dyck, as "encouraging people to more fully realize God's intention for them as individuals, families, for their communities and for all creation. It includes physical, spiritual and emotional wholeness."
The "Services" component of "Mennonite Brethren Missions/Services" specifically mandates the mission's involvement in holistic ministries. Such ministries incarnate compassion, respond to needs of partner communities and empower marginalized peoples to gain more access to opportunities and resources not normally available to them.
Although MBM/S primarily engages in church planting and development of church leaders for partner conferences, social ministries will continue as a key purpose of the mission.
Gary Hardaway, MBM/S
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