The $1000 donation was shared between Sunrise Children’s Village and Handup Congo.

Leng Bonna from Sunrise Children’s Village in Cambodia said:

“Many thanks for your kind support to our children.  We are in the process of up grade care and other facilities including our kitchen. With your kind donation of USD500 we can provide new stainless steel plates, soup bowls, spoons, forks and cups for 120 children.  Again, many thanks for your generosity.

Leng Bonna, Cambodia Administration Manager

From the Congo, this message:

Très chère Maman Sue LIU, Le Comité de Gestion de la FLO à travers ma personne est content de faire votre connaissance.Nous vous remercions pour votre soutien aux jeunes de Lotumbe avec 500 AUD pour les micro crédit en vue de les aider de se prendre en charge ainsi que leur famille.Salutations dans le Seigneur.

Antoinette Mapele,Vice Présidente de la FLO CDCC/RDC

A STORY FROM CONGO – the women you support through FLO.

My buddy Lucy Hobgood-Brown  returned from a month in Congo just before Christmas, where she saw that a ‘hand up, not a handout’ can make a lasting impact. Our donation has gone towards a community loan fund in the remote village of Lotumbe, where Lucy’s father was born and where she lived as a child.

Now a resident of Sydney, Lucy is deeply involved in community development projects in Lotumbe. In collaboration with a Congolese women’s organisation, “FLO”, Lucy and others like you and me are helping give FLO members the key to economic progress. We are helping to unleash women’s potential! Throughout much of the world, the greatest unexploited economic resource is the female half of the population.

Lucy tells me that countries such as China (where she also works) have prospered precisely because they emancipated women and brought them into the formal economy. Unleashing that process globally is not only the right thing to do; it’s also the best strategy for fighting poverty.

Meet Mama Patience, a fine example of a FLO member who is making a tremendous difference in her community.

Thanks to the micro loan made possible by FLO (with our capital), Patience now has goats, chickens, and several canoes which she rents out — and is able to pay her daughter’s school fees. For details about HandUp Congo, visit www.handupcongo.org.

Those of you who purchased Candles from Zulu’s Candles for Community at the end of 2008 will be pleased to know that over $250 was raised – with $1.50 from each candle pack sold donated to Lucy Hobgood Brown and Handup Congo.

Others also donated directly to Lucy – and we THANK YOU for your support and generosity with helping us raise awareness for HandUp Congo and contributed to community projects in this very troubled country.

SUPPORTING MATERNITY SERVICES IN THE CONGO – LUCY’S REPORT

As you know Sue, I was born in the Congo and my father was also born and raised in Lotumbe.

I return at least every 18 months to work on a range of capacity building projects with a Congolese women’s NGO. This community based organisation focuses on women and children, and provides such basic necessities as insecticide treated mosquito nets, new baby outfits and free pre-natal checks for women who give birth at the hospital (or in canoes!). The NGO makes a huge difference to infant survival rates, reports Lucy, adding, “Mum and babies are doing well.”

Birth on the river - woman gives birth to twins in a canoe in the Congo

You will be pleased to know that the funds raised through Zulu’s Community will go towards Lotumbe’s maternity ward.

Located in a remote village more than 200 km from the provincial capital of Mbandaka, Equatorial Province (Democratic Republic of Congo), this maternity ward is only accessible on foot over jungle paths or by dugout canoe.

Birth on the River

Under the scorching African sun, I saw a woman give birth to twins…in a canoe. I heard the excited chatter of village children who happened to be swimming nearby when the canoe was paddled to shore.

The children told the woman’s husband where the hospital was located, and as he ran for help the woman lay stoically in the bottom of a dugout canoe, shielding her eyes from the sun’s glare. Her husband returned with a midwife, who helped deliver the babies.

What a miracle that the mum and babies survived the canoe trip and the filthy birthing conditions!

ABOUT LUCY HOBGOOD BROWN and HandUp Congo

Lucy lives in Sydney and is a co-founder of HandUp Congo (www.handupcongo.org). She and her colleagues Anne Zolnor, Betsy Brill and Roma Mehta work pro bono on a variety of DRC projects.

Read more about Lucy’s activites in the Congo – in Zulu’s Community